Shocking Tragedy in London

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 69, 11 December 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

Shocking Tragedy in London

Intense excitement prevailed ia tae neighbourhood of Falham on 16th October, owing to tke report; that a woman had thrown her tour children into the Thames ofE Fulhani meadows, and had also drowned herself. The name of th« woman is Frances Leader, aged 32, wife ■of a buocher, living in Denmark«road, Camberwell, It appears that Mrs Lea« der had a slight quarrel with her husband, in consequence of which she left homo with her fife children, aged nine, seven, fire, and three respectively, and a baby in arms. It is stated that she took a steamboat to Chelsea, and proceeded to the banks of the River Thamas, near Broomhouse-lane. Fulham. When she arrived there she turned to her children and said. " We all have to die," and^.then walked into the river with her baby. The little ones left standing on the riverside were greatly Alarmed, and two, of them followed their mother, who had already disappeared under' the water. The two other children who were left alone on the shore .called to their brothers to come out, but without avail. One of them then said to the other, " Come in ; we hare all get to die. We can oaly die oace." The boy replied, " I shan't go in." His brother thereupon pushed him ia. but he sue eeeded with great difficulty in scrambling out. The brother thea waited into the river, and was drowned with\the rest. Thus the mother and the four children perished. The boy whe escaped is aged seven. He wandered about FulkaiH for come time wet and crying. The attention of some people was soon drawn to his miserable appearance. They asked him the cause of his grie and sobbing. He described to them as well as he could, the awful tragedy he had sritnessed. The people, on hearing hi* statement, which they hardly credited at first, had him coaveyed to the police station. The police set to work as soon as possible to try and find the bodies by dragging the river at that part pointed out by the boy who escaped. In a short time the body of the boy Harry, aged nine, was recovered, and subse* quently the body of the third boy, aged five years. The body of Prank, aged three, was found near Pntner Bridge. The bodies of the mother and baby could not be found. The four hats belonging to the children have been picked upThe husband of the woman, on hearing about the affair, was terriblj distressed. He never dreamt she had thoughts of tilling herself, for they had always lived happily together. All sorts of rumours &s to the real way the mother and her children met their death were afloat. By come it was suggested that she threw the children into the water first, and then, V?ith her ba'ay in her arms, jumped in after them, but there seem* to be some truth in the statement of the little boy JEtobert, who scrambled out.