The Dangers of False Teeth

[bigjarofwasps]

Police Constable Joseph Daniels Metropolitan Police.

Joined 17th May 1886, posted to C Div PC 387 (St James), 10th August 1888, posted to J Div PC 223/PC 502 (Bethnal Green) 20 days before the murder of Polly Nichols, at Bucks Row. 15th August 1890 posted to E Div PC259 (Holborn). He received a pay increase on the 23rd May 1891. Then on the 23rd May 1892, he died on duty, from choking to death on his own false teeth, whilst effecting an arrest. A local paper, The Holborn and Finsbury Guardian ran the following story??.
The Danger of False Teeth
On Wednesday evening at St Clement Danes Vestry-hall, Strand, Mr John Troutbeck, the coroner for Westminster, held an inquiry into the circumstances attending the death of Police Constable Joseph Daniels 259E aged 27 years who was killed early on Sunday morning whilst taking a prisoner to Bow Street Police Station. Superintendent Steggles of the E Division, was present, Joseph Daniels a registration agent of 9 Meeting House Lane, Peckham. Identified the deceased as his son, lately resided at Jubilee Buildings, Waterloo Road. Sometime ago he had erysipelas in the face, and the divisional surgeon ordered him to have some of his teeth extracted and replaced by false ones. These he was wearing at the time of his death, PC 379E Alfred Smith, said that on Sunday morning at about 12:20 he was in Kemble Street, Clare market, taking a prisoner to Bow Street Police Station. A crowd of several hundred persons had assembled and an attempt to rescue the man was made. Witness blew his whistle and in response the deceased came running up. He took hold of the prisoners other arm and they had only proceeded a few yards, when the witness missed the deceased, and on looking round saw him lying on the pavement. Another constable came up and witness went oh his way. PC350E William Stewart said that he was on duty in Newcastle Street when he heard the whistle blow, and on going to Kemble Street saw the two Constables with a man in custody. Witness broke through the crowd, and then he saw the deceased lying on the ground. He immediately undid his collar and sent for an ambulance, on which he conveyed the unfortunate man to the hospital. By the Coroner: the deceased was not knocked down, kicked or otherwise assaulted. Dr Eric Law Pritchard, house physician at Kings College Hospital, said that the deceased was dead when he was admitted. He made the post-mortem examination, which revealed that the deceased, was an exceedingly healthy man. Just about the larynx witness found a set of false teeth impacted, which had produced suffocation, the cause of death. The teeth were of a very inferior make, no doubt they became loosened through the deceased running, and an inspiration drew them down his throat. The jury returned a verdict of ?Accidental Death? and added that they thought the deceased was over anxious to do his duty.

Entitled to the 1887 Jubilee Medal.

[John]

Cripes , I 'll brush more often now.... Did you get his 1887?

[bigjarofwasps]

Me too!!!!
Yes I have his 1887 Medal, its one of my favourites!!!!

[bigjarofwasps]

Warrant No.- 71719; collar no.- 259 E Div; Pension to wife and 3 children - "died from the effects of an injury received in the execution of his duty" - 'swallowed false teeth when going to assist in arrest of a prisoner';

Death Register ref. - June 1892-St Giles 1b 377 age 27; died 22nd May;

[Guest Rick Research]

"teeth were of a very inferior make"

nowadays, of course, the product liability sharks would have been ALL over this.

And whatever happened to the widow and children?

See... these stories never really end.

[bigjarofwasps]

Rick,

Good point on both counts.

Re the wife and kids, no idea. Maybe one day I`ll look inot it!!!

My favour part of the tale, is the Jack the Ripper connection, hoever tenuous!!!!

[Cheryl Dyke]

Hi I am josephs great granddaughter to answer the question about his widow and the 3 children. Louisa was given a job cleaning the police station at Bow Street and the pension enabled her to educate the 2 boys Albert and William and her daughter Florence .William grew up and became a police officer in Brighton

[Guest Rick Research]

Great to hear that this story did not turn Dickensian-- and yours is a great reminder that the past is ALWAYS with us.

[219PG]

It's great when you find living relatives of constables you have researched - this has happened to me twice recently when researching on Ancestry. I wonder if Cheyrl has a photo of her great grandfather she may be willing to share with us?

Alex

[Cheryl Dyke]

Sadly no photo of Joseph. I do have one of his son William in uniform. I'm not computer savvy so i will get one of my kids to post the picture soon as possible

[Cheryl Dyke]

William was my grandfather but I don't remember him well he died in 1961

[Mervyn Mitton]

When I served at Bethnal Green, we had several markets. It was common to see members of the public going through boxes

of old teeth until they found a set that fitted - and trying them on to look in the mirror..................... Mervyn

Nice to see this family link.

[bigjarofwasps]

Having just watched a documentary on Channel 5 about a new Jack the Ripper suspect, (Charles Allen Lechmere). I was pleasantly surprised as to how much information had been uncovered about this seemingly obscure individual. This rekindled my interest in the subject and hence looking for my old post about PC Daniels.

Can anyone tell me whether it was usual back in the day for Bobbies to live on the same manor that they policed? If so I wonder would it be possible to ascertain what his address was? Has anyone got any experience of this sort of thing?

Cheryl, if your still a visitor to the forum I'd very much like to speak to you about your relative, gutted that I missed the opportunity last year. That'll teach me to visit the site more regularly!!

[Mervyn Mitton]

Yes - I missed this post from the family as well - I would have drawn your attention. Hopefully they will look back at

some point. To answer your question on living arrangements. Today, few police live in their Station area - unless it is an

outer suburb. However, back in the 1880's/90/s it was almost expected that they would have lodgings nearby - travel was

too difficult. Single men lived in Police Section Houses - usually one to a Division - this kept them together and provided

a strong number in case of emergency.

The British Police - from their earliest days - have been a Civilian Force and part of the Community. Generally, they lived in the

same way as others of a similar income and were seen as an example to the area and in case of need, they were there. The very

early days of great hostility to the new 'Peelers' quickly gave way to seeing them as an asset to everday life. Mervyn

[bigjarofwasps]

Is it likely that he'd have a marked grave? Can anyone suggest any way I could go about confirming this? I assume that he'd have been buried locally given that his wife and children remained in the area?

[bigjarofwasps]

New information appears to have come to light, with the help of another researcher whom has been a great help to my research.

We found what we believe to be Joseph and Louisa in the 1891 census in Southwark.

We looked at the electoral entries for a Joseph Daniels for the relevant period, and then tried to eliminate them using the 1891 electorals, and the 81 and 91 censuses.

We seem to be left with only one possibility, and that is 107 Lefevre Rd, Bow. We tried using Lefevre Rd on address search Find My Past for 1891 but it wouldn't come up. We clicked through the list of Joseph Daniels for 1891 but didn't see any one of them living there. We did find 107 Lefevre in 1881 but no Joseph Daniels there at that time.

We looked for baptisms to see if I could get an address from that but the only one I could get was for his daughter Florence, who was born too soon. However, the birth certificate of his first son Albert Henry Joseph Daniels, reveals born December 1888 but registered first quarter 1889, Bethnal Green.

We have also confirmed that Joseph married Louisa Beatrice Ridley second quarter 1885, at Camberwell.Their first child was a daughter-

Name: Florence Ellen Daniels Gender: Female Birth Date: 5 Dec 1886 Birth Place: Saint Peter-great Windmill St , Westminster, London, England Baptism Date: 20 Apr 1887 Baptism Place: St Peter's, Westminster, Middlesex, England Father: Joseph Daniels Mother: Louisa Beatrice FHL Film Number: 1468962

My conclusion.... Assuming I'm putting the facts together correctly and we've got the right Joseph Daniels that is, but this seems to be the case. Further and putting aside my getting Bow and Bow Street mixed up. Jubilee Buildings would appear to be were he lived with his family in 1892. Which is in or near to Southwark, Waterloo Road is certainly within walking distance to Bow Street the HQ of E Division and I know he died taking a prisoner there so I assume he was based at Bow Street station during his time with E Division. Now we know he was living at 107 Lefevre Rd, Bow in 1889 (was there 1888-1890), but wasn't in 1891 which fits, his service history. We also know that he wasn't living at 107 Lefevre Rd, Bow in 1881. We also know that he joined the Met in 1886 and started his service in C Division. So assuming 107 was the martial home and hence the reason for his posting from C to J. We also now that his son was registered in 1889 in Bethnal Green. This further adds the possibility to the fact that he more than likely was stationed at Bethnal Green nick. Hackney,Homerton & Dalston are options, but Bethnal Green is the nearest to his home address.

Number 107 would have been near to the southern end of the road. On the 1894 map this appears to be smaller terraced dwellings. The present number 107 Lefevre Walk could well be near or even on the footprint of his dwelling.

Was he on duty the night Polly Nichols was killed, on another beat perhaps, who knows? Was he involved in any follow up enquires or patrols, almost certainly.

I am more than happy with this evidence, unless anyone can find any caveats in our evidence?

Edited December 23, 2014 by bigjarofwasps

[bigjarofwasps]

Joseph married Louisa Beatrice Ridley second quarter 1885, at Camberwell.

Their daughter -

Name: Florence Ellen Daniels Gender: Female Birth Date: 5 Dec 1886 Birth Place: Saint Peter-great Windmill St , Westminster, London, England Baptism Date: 20 Apr 1887 Baptism Place: St Peter's, Westminster, Middlesex, England Father: Joseph Daniels Mother: Louisa Beatrice FHL Film Number: 1468962

It also appears that they lived at 107 Lefevre Rd, Bow between 1888 -1890, but had moved from there in 1891.

Edited December 22, 2014 by bigjarofwasps

[bigjarofwasps]

This is interesting to,

Name: Albert Henry Joseph Daniels

Gender:

Male

Residence Place:

9 Hayles Mausins, St Georges Rd Southwark

Document Year:

1914

Regimental Number:

1650

Regiment Name:

Honourable Artillery Company

Number of Images:

12

Form Title:

Territorial Force Attestation

AHJ Daniels got the Silver War Badge no.425959 discharged "sick" 4th July 1918 (enlisted 26.8.14)SWB his rank is "A/L/Cpl."

To France 29/12/14 and he was awarded the usual three: British, Victory and 1914/15 Star.

Medal Roll Card confirming his address as 50 St. Georges' Road, London. SE1.

Albert married Ada Bloxham on 28th Sep 1916 at St. Jude, Southwark. (Both their addresses were 50 St. George's Road, S.E.) He was a "Sargeant HAC" and cert confirms father Joseph deceased.

National Probate Calendar record that states he died 20th June 1941. Living 11 Beauval Road, East Dulwich. (Ada is his widow.)

Edited December 22, 2014 by bigjarofwasps

[bigjarofwasps]

Name:

Albert Henry Joseph Daniels

Record Type:

Baptism

Baptism Date:

9 Dec 1902

Father's Name:

Joseph Daniels

Mother's name:

Louisa Daniels

Parish or Poor Law Union:

St Paul, Westminster Bridge Road

Borough:

Southwark

Register Type:

Parish Registers

Lived at 102 or 109 Jubilee Buildings (handwriting to difficult to read).

Edited December 22, 2014 by bigjarofwasps

[bigjarofwasps]

A newspaper report of his death.

1891 census

1911 census

[Mervyn Mitton]

You've done some brilliant research - and certainly made your quest clearer. Bow is a continuation of the Mile End Road

and the road now goes either side of Bow Church. This is the Church that supposedly you had to be in sound of it's bells to be

a Cockney. Just before you get to the Church is Bow Police Station - part of H Div. Not sure when it was built - probably not before your 1890's. The local Police Stables are at the back.

I agree with you that he was probably at Bethnal Green PS - which was in service at the time you are looking at. From the Bow area a fairly short walk. Well done Mervyn