1 OCTOBER

1890 An inquest took place today into the death of Bristol workhouse inmate Elizabeth Clevely, who had hanged herself. Fellow pauper Rose Philips, who slept in the same room as of the deceased, said that on the previous Sunday night, Clevely had been complaining of sleeplessness. When Philips woke up the next morning, she saw Clevely's bed empty. She immediately opened the door and found the woman hanging from the ceiling. Helen Jones, nurse at the workhouse, said that she heard that Clevely was hanging in the passage and hurried to the spot and cut the woman down. She was hanging by a round towel, and had some bandages round her neck. She was quite dead when cut down. Other witnesses stated that Clevely had attempted her life twice, once by hanging from a beam in the hospital kitchen, and a second time with a knife. Dr Henry Grace, workhouse medical officer, testified that he had certified Clevely as insane but the Bristol magistrates had refused to consign her to an asylum. The inquest jury found that the deceased committed suicide whilst of unsound mind, and also considered that magistrates had committed a grave error in judgment in not sending her to the asylum.