ALONE WITH THE DEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 644, 22 April 1929, Page 9

ALONE WITH THE DEAD

OLD HERMIT’S STRANGE LIFE BABY’S BODY IN COFFIN (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) LONDON, Saturday. The Rev. Alexander Thomas Bell died a week ago in a lonely one* roomed hut perched on top of the rugged Kincardineshire cliffs. The police yesterday were turning over ail odd collection of rubbish piled on the floor, and were amazed to find concealed an ornate coffin, containing an inner sealed shell, in which there was the almost perfectly mummified body of a baby* boy, who apparently had died soon after birth. The coffin must have lain there for years. There is nothing on the napieplate to suggest the identity of tho child. It contained only the inscription: “There’s a- home for little children.” Mr. Bell was formerly in the Scottish Episcopal Church, but became a Roman Catholic at the end of the war. He had preached before the late King; Edward, and also King George, at Ai2 Saints* Church. West London. He had lived a hermit’s life in the hut for 25 years. The police despair of fathoming the mystery. The body was dressed in a hand-embroidered frock. The inference is that the gruesome relic shared Mr. Bell’s 20 years of lonely existence, and it is believed that it Lad in some way been bound up iji the life of the hermit.