OFFICIAL GHOULS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 672, 25 May 1929, Page 28

OFFICIAL GHOULS

FAMILY GRAVE OPENED By the eerie light of hurricane lamps, men working under police supervision exhumed the bodies of several people from a grave in a London cemetery at midnight! The exhumation followed a conference of Home Office and Scotland Yard officials, some of whom were present at the cemetery. The grave opened was a double one, in which lay the remains of Mrs. Violet Amelia Sidney, the widow of a barrister, who died, aged 69, at Birdhurst Rise, South Croydon, on March 5; her daughter, Vera, aged 40, who died on February 19; her son-in-law, Mr. Edmund Creighton Duff, aged 59, who died ou April 27, 1928, on the day following his return from a holiday, and his two daughters, Margaret Kathleen, who died in 1919, aged 7, and Suzanne, who died in 1924, aged 2 years and 8 months. Preparations for the exhumations began under conditions of strict secrecy. Shortly before midnight police officers entered the cemetery and instructed the digging party to place canvas screens around the grave to be opened. The grave lies in the shadow of the cemetery chapel, and Is screened by a high wall on the one side and a covert on the other. Screens were placed in the gaps of the covert and around the three other sides; the cemetery grounds were searched for Intruders by police, and guards were placed at the entrance. Digging by the light of hurricane lamps was then begun, and swiftly the work was carried on. All that could be seen from a distance were dark figures moving about their task working swiftly on instructions from the officers superintending. Police investigations began shortly after the death of Mrs. Sidney, suddenly, on JMarch 5 last. Divisional Detective Inspector Hedges was given charge of the early inquiries, and later Superintendent Brown, of the “Big Six” at the Yard, was called In to consult with him. At the inquest on Mrs. Sidney, who was the third member of the family to die within 12 months, only evidence of identification was called, and the inquiry was adjourned to April 4. The coroner called no evidence as to the nature of her death, nor did he explain to the jury the reason for the adjournment. The verdict, as in the cases of the deaths of her daughter Vera, and her son-in-law, Mr. E. Creigh Duff, was death from natural causes. Mr. Creighton Duff, who was High Commissioner for Nigeria for 18 years, was the first of the family to die within the tragic period of 12 months. His mother-in-law, Mrs. Sidney, gave evidence at the inquest and stated that her son-in-law vas in good health “until he returned from a fishing holiday at Fordingbridge, Hampshire.” Dr. Bronte’s evidence at the inquest was to the effect that there [ was no evidence of death from poisonI ing.