The unsolved murder of Elizabeth Annie Camp

THE CAMP FAMILY 

 William Thomas Camp was born in 1842 at Streatham in Surrey, (South London) and baptised the 1^st of May, to William a coachman and Elizabeth, his father died in January 1851, aged 44 years.

Baptised record for William Thomas Camp.

 William Thomas a servant married Annie Maryan the daughter of William a labourer, on the 27^th day of May 1862, at St. John’s Church, Clapham in Surrey (South London.)

Marriage certificate for William Thomas Camp and Annie Maryan.

 William and Annie had three daughters the eldest was Elizabeth Annie in (1863,) then came Annie Mary in (1865) and lastly Fanny in (1869) all born at Shoreditch in Middlesex, (East London) where William worked as a tobacconist assistant. By 1881, the family had moved south of the River Thames, to Newington in Surrey (South London.)

 William Thomas died in May 1895. After the death of her husband Annie moved in with her daughter Annie Mary at Hammersmith, she later moved to Queens Road, at New Malden in Surrey, where she passed away in January 1905.

 Annie Mary Camp was born on the 11^th of November 1865. Annie a milliner (made & sold women hats) married Edward James Sheat an assistant to a clothier, the son of Edwin Benjamin a hairdresser, on the 29^th of January 1888, at All Saints Church, Walworth in Surrey (South London.) Annie and Edwin had three daughters and lived in Hammersmith in West London.

 They moved to Malling in Kent, where Edwin died on the 8^th of January 1940.

  Annie moved in with her eldest daughter Gertrude Maud at 5 Peel Terrace, St. Helier in Jersey, Gertrude had married George Philip le Couteur in 1921. Annie died on the 22^nd of October 1951, at the Sandybrook Hospital at St. Peter, in Jersey.

 Fanny Camp was born in Shoreditch, Middlesex (East London) in 1869, she was baptised on the 26^th of June 1870, at St Paul’s Church, in Clapham, in Surrey, (South London.) Fanny married Edwin Hawkes Haynes in 1889, at Camberwell in South London. By 1891, the marriage was over and Edwin and Fanny were living apart.

 Fanny a munitions worker of 3 Leonard Road, Southall, died on the 1^st of January 1918, at the University College Hospital of carcinoma (cancer) of the oesophagus (a tube from the throat to the stomach.)

Death certificate for Fanny Haynes.

 Edwin Hawkes Haynes was born in 1852 at Banbury in Oxfordshire, at 18 he was an apprentice to a grocer at Coventry in Warwickshire, in 1881, he was unemployed and living with his parents at 4 York Terrace in Camberwell, Surrey (South London.)

 Haynes a fancy dealer of Lugard Road, Peckham in South London, was up in Court on the 9^th of September 1890, for publicly selling certain obscene prints and pictures, he was found guilty of selling obscene photographs and ordered to pay a fine of £50, to enter into his own recognizances in £100 and 2 sureties in £50 each, to keep the peace for 12 calendar months, or in default of finding such sureties to be imprisoned for 3 months (without hard labour) in Wandsworth Prison.

 Edwin was found dead in the lavatory, by his landlady at his lodgings in Clyde Road, Tottenham in North London, in June 1917, death was due to heart disease and tuberculosis.

 Elizabeth Annie Camp was born on the 19^th of September 1863, at 4 Princes Street, Shoreditch in Middlesex, (East London) to William Thomas a tobacco moulder and Annie.

Birth certificate for Elizabeth Annie Camp.

 The family moved from Princes Street to 17 Clifton Street North in Shoreditch. Sometime in the 1870’s, the family moved South of the River Thames to Newington, in Surrey, (South East London) in the early 1880’s the family were living at 41 Carter Street, Newington.

 In 1885, Elizabeth was employed by Alfred Harris the landlord of the “Good Intent” public house, at East Street, in Walworth, as a barmaid. She left her employment in 1889, when she was employed at the Great Northern Hospital.

 Elizabeth spent time as a patient at the Metropolitan Convalescent Institution at Sea Road, Bexhill in Sussex in 1891.

 Elizabeth left the Great Northern Hospital, on the 13^th of April 1895, and returned to the “Good Intent,” after the death of Mrs. Harris, at the request of Mr. Harris to take the position of manageress.

 In March 1895, Elizabeth started courting Edward Berry a greengrocer/fruiterer of East Street Walworth, she had known Edward for several years and they were engaged in July 1896.

THE DAY OF THE MURDER

 Thursday the 11^th of February 1897, Elizabeth had time off work and had arranged to visit her sisters, one in Hammersmith and the other at Hounslow. She arrived at Annie Mary Sheat house at Kings Street, Hammersmith, at a quarter to two, and left two hours later and made her way to Hanworth Road, in Hounslow, to visit her sister Fanny Haynes, Elizabeth had given Fanny £1 6s., to get something out of pawn. Fanny went with Elizabeth to the station; she had a portmanteau (a large travelling bag) and a parcel with her. She took a single second-class ticket to Waterloo, and got in at the rear, next to a first-class compartment of the 7. 42 p.m. train from Hounslow to Waterloo. She sat with her back to the engine and was alone in the carriage when the train left Hounslow. Elizabeth had arranged to meet her fiancé Edward Berry a fruiterer/grocer of East Street, Walworth, on the platform at 8.25., the time of arrival at Waterloo station.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE BODY

 Upon the arrival at 8. 25 p.m. of the Feltham to Waterloo train, the cleaners moved in to give it a quick clean before its return journey to Feltham. One of the cleaners was examining the carriages when he was horrified to find the body of a woman half under the seat. He first dragged her out, and by the light of his lantern saw that the woman was dead, thought the body was quite warm.

 The police and a doctor were sent for and on the arrival of the latter the body was removed to St. Thomas’s Hospital. This was later to become questionable as to why the body was removed before the arrival of detectives from Scotland Yard.

A century of speculation