SERVANT'S SAD DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 208, 3 September 1927, Page 23

SERVANT'S SAD DEATH.

"X HAVE LOVED AND LOST."

Mr. Frank Cooper held an inquest at Perry Barr on Nancy Derick (26), a domestic servant, whose body was recovered from the Birmingham Canal at Tower Hill.

! Mrs. Mary Ann Johnston, who is employed at Gravelly House, said when she last saw Miss Derick alive she looked strange, and witness asked her if she were ill, because she Buspected from the symptoms that the girl was pregnant. Witness had been told by Miss Derick that she had been courting a man, but had had to give him up because she found he was married. Witness believed the man lived at Cannock. Witness found several letters received by the dead girl from the man at Cannock. « The Coroner read the following letter addressed by Miss Derick to her late mistress: —Dearest Mrs. Lee, —Please try and forgive me. It hurts me more than I can tell you to cause you this trouble, as, indeed, you have always been like a mother to me. I am heart-broken. I think this is the only way out. I have loved and lost, but he whose letters are in my suitcase is the cause of it all. Will's father, he promised to help Will and I if I gave in for the loved one. I did. After I told him what he had done, I have never seen or heard since. Thanking you for all you have done for me. . . . My heart is broken. I am in the world alone, bar you. —Your broken-hearted maid, Nancy. Police Constable Oldacre said he had been told by the girl's mistress of a conversation. in which Derick said her Walsall relatives had behaved "wicked" to her, and told her to drown herself. The Coroner adjourned the inquiry for a • fortnight, stating that Lockwood and Lockwood's mother would be subpoenaed, if necessary, to attend.