Local History One Hundred Years Later P


January 1912 to tell you the very strange story which unfolded at the inquest about a man with no known past.


Mr. Edward Boase held an inquest at Guval on Friday on William Sadler Whittingham, aged sixty-four, whose body was found on the beach close to Chyandour railway viaduct, Penzance.


William Eddy, mineral water manufacturer, living at Penzance, stated that deceased had lodged at his home for three and a half years. He came to Penzance from Truro, where, the witness believed he was for three years clerk to Mr Walter Hicks, brewer. Deceased was understood to be a widower and while at Penzance he followed no occupation. The man paid his way but as to his means witness knew nothing.


were very regular, and he was never out of doors later than 9.00 p.m. Deceased had told witness’s wife he had no friends whatsoever. He did not appear to be in want, but kept his business very private, and had left behind no papers of any kind to throw light on his previous history.


He was one of those men (continued witness), a little bit reserved, and you could not very well ask him questions of kind, especially as to his position. It was a thing I should not care about doing. On Wednesday evening deceased left witness’s house a little poorly, but in his usual spirits, which were fairly good. He did not return to his lodgings.


Henry Williams, tin smelter worker, Chyandour, deposed that at four o’ clock on Thursday he went to the beach at Chyandour railway viaduct, and there saw the body of a man lying face downward. The corpse was fully dressed even to an overcoat, but the hat was missing.


Hosking, of Chyandour, proved the removal of the body from the shore to the mortuary at Guval. In the pockets of the clothing were a watch and chain and £1-2s-2d in cash. The watch had stopped at 9 o’ clock. Wednesday night was very rough and dark.


Inspector Warring said he had P.C. His habits


erhaps I should begin by allowing the Cornish and Devon Post of the 20th


ascertained from the Truro police that Mr. Whittingham was formerly a brewer’s clerk in that city, and lodged with Mrs Mutton in Lemon Street, Truro. There was no information to his previous whereabouts, and no relations could be discovered. When engaged as a clerk at Truro the deceased had an interview with the late Mr. Hicks, who, were he now alive, might have been able to tell them something about the man’s history (the late Mr. Hicks referred to was Walter Hicks junior, son of the St Austell Brewery founder, who was killed in a motorcycle accident at Helston in 1911).


Mr. Eddy stated that he arrived at the deceased’s age by his entry on the last census paper. Dr. Miller attributed death to drowning.


were two superficial head wounds, one to each side of the head, but these could not possibly have proved fatal. The wounds were evidently caused before death.


rockets fired at Newlyn...”


It was mentioned that about 9.00 o’clock (deceased’s watch stopped at nine) lifeboat rockets were fired at Newlyn and people hurried to the seafront to learn about what was amiss. Whether Mr. Whittingham, out of curiosity, also went to the water’s edge, and fell into the heavy sea, no one could tell.


The Coroner commented on the singular nature of the case, deceased having lived at Truro and Penzance for six years without any particulars of his history becoming known. There was no evidence of how the man got into the water, but the fact that his clothing included an overcoat rather pointed to the conclusion that he did not enter the sea intentionally. The safer course for the jury seemed to be to return a verdict of ‘Found Drowned’ - The jury returned a verdict accordingly.


My starting point in trying to find the past of this unfortunate man is the new 1911 online census which confirms that William Sadler Whittingham was a lodger with the


“ lifeboat There Solving A Mystery


Eddy family at 6 Bellvue Terrace, Penzance. It also provides the information that in April 1911 he was a widower, 63 years of age, clerk to a wine merchant, and born in Bayswater, London, thus enabling me to find an appropriate birth registration for William Sadler Whittingham in 1847 at Marylebone, London. Unfortunately this birth registration and the entry in the new 1911 census are the only occasions when I can find his full name again. Without finding the middle name ‘Saddler’ or even an ‘S’ in any earlier censuses further research becomes both difficult and uncertain since there were a number of persons called William Whittingham born about this time.


William Whittingham, pork and beef butcher, was recorded as living at 1 Harold Place, Hastings with his wife, Elizabeth Harriett Whittingham, and their four sons. They had previously lived in Brighton so this William Whittingham clearly had a preference for coastal living. By the 1911 census Elizabeth Harriett Whittingham was still alive and living with two of her sons in Murray Street, Camden Town.


described as ‘married for 31 years’ and ‘living on own means’. But there is no William Whittingham living at this address. However confirmation that I had found the correct William Whittingham comes from the London Gazette of Oct 1905 under the Receiving Order Notices:


Elizabeth Harriet Whitingham, 60 and 61 Robertson Street, Hastings, restaurant keeper (wife of William Sadler Whittingham) carrying on business as of a separate estate, and apart from her husband.


down to Cornwall in about 1905; this would have been just after Whittingham’s Restaurant in Hastings had failed, and he had separated from his wife.


It was all a long time ago but it is sad that towards the end of his life William Whittingham had lived such a solitary existence with apparently no family contact.


information about his troubled past increases the probability he entered the sea intentionally. A few months later in 1912 his estranged wife living in Camden Town also died.


27 The new William Sadler Whittingham came She is In the 1891 census one of these,


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32