Mr. DICKINGSONasked the Home secretary whether his attention has been called to the case of Mrs. Lavinia Everley, deceased, who on the 28th December, 1911, wandered from her home at chiswick, and was on the same day taken up by the police in Gaol, Inn Road, sent to Hollo-way Gaol, and thence to the city Road workhouse, and ultimately placed as a lunatic in Long Grove Asylum; whether the police authorities were informed on the 28th December, 1911, that this lady was missing from her home; whether when she was discovered it was apparent that she was feeble in itntellect; whether
any and what attempt was made by the police who found her to ascertain where she had come from; how it happened that the information given to the police of the loss of this lady in Chiswick did not come to the notice of the police who found her in Gray's Inn Road; and whether he is satisfied that the system of disseminating information amongst the force is adequate to prevent the recurrence of such an event as that referred to?
§ Mr. McKENNAMy attention had not previously been called to this case, but I find, on inquiry, that Mrs. Everley left her home at Chiswick on the evening of 28tb December, 1911, and was reported by her husband to the Chiswick police the same night as missing. The adjacent police stations were at once informed by telegram, and the following morning (the 435W 29th) particulars were communicated to all police stations in the Metropolis. On the afternoon of the 29th (not the 28th) a woman, whose photograph has been identified by Mr. Everley as that of his wife, was brought to Gray's Inn Road Police Station on a charge of begging. She did not answer in any respect to the particulars of the description of Mrs. Everley given to the police, and she refused to give any account of herself beyond saying that her name was Amelia Francis, that she was a charwoman, without home or friends, and had tramped from the Midlands. The officer who dealt with the case noticed no signs of mental impairment. I am satisfied that all possible steps were taken by the police in the matter, and that the fact that Mrs. Everley was not identified with the woman arrested in Gray's Inn Road was due, not to any defect in the arrangements for disseminating information, but to the great discrepancy between the description of Mrs. Everley given to the police and the appearance of the woman arrested.