One of the most tragic, shocking and terrible discoveries that can be found in Victorian newspaper accounts concerning life in the East End of London in the 19th century, is just how many people died of starvation.
Indeed, starvation was a far more prolific killer than Jack the Ripper, or other murderers were at the time.
The London Evening Standard, in its edition of Thursday the 10th of April 1862, reported on yet another victim:-
SHOCKING DEATH FROM DESTITUTION AT WHITECHAPEL
Yesterday Mr. H. Raffles Walthew, the deputy coroner for East Middlesex, opened an inquiry at the Sir George Osborn’s Head public-house, Princes Street, Whitechapel, on view of the body of Elizabeth Carey, aged 54 years, who died under very distressing circumstances at a wretched place situated at No. 10, Eagle Place, at the back of the Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel Road.
JANE HARRIS’S TESTIMONY
Jane Harris, a lodger in the house, deposed that the deceased was a widow, and had obtained a scanty living by making slop shirts.
She rented a small room and paid one shilling and sixpence per week.
The place was void of furniture, and the deceased had nothing to be upon.
She would not apply to the parish for relief, but had been visited by the parochial surgeon for illness.
IN A WEAK AND DYING STATE
On Saturday last, the witness went into deceased’s room and found her in a very weak and dying state, lying upon a heap of dirty rags in the corner, on the floor.
The place was in a wretched and filthy condition, without food or firing.
Witness questioned the deceased, but she could scarcely articulate.
She told the witness that she had not had any food for nine days, and that she was starving.
A neighbour was called in who gave her a little weak brandy and water, while a messenger ran for Mr. Champneys, the medical officer, who attended, but the deceased had expired before his arrival.
THE SURGEON’S EVIDENCE
Mr. Alexander Champneys, the parochial surgeon to the Whitechapel Union, stated that he was called to the deceased on Saturday last, and found her in a shocking condition and lifeless upon a heap of filthy rags.
The body was much emaciated, and thinly clad.
He had made a post mortem examination of the body, and had found the stomach perfectly empty.
On opening the head, he found an effusion of serum in the ventricles of the brain.
Death had, no doubt, been accelerated by want of the common necessaries of life, and long exposure to the inclemency of the weather.
He had attended the deceased some months back when she was lying ill with fever, from which she recovered.
He then tried to persuade her to go into the workhouse, but she declined, although living in such a wretched condition.
THE JURY’S VERDICT
Other witnesses were examined, and The Jury, after a brief discussion, returned a verdict – “That the deceased died from effusion of the brain, accelerated by want and exposure to the weather.”