The Baby Butcher ; to Young Mothers Unable to Look After Their Babies, Amelia Dyer Was a Caring Soul Who'd Adopt Them for 10 a Time. In Reality, She Was One of Victorian Britain's Most Evil Murderers Sending Countless Children 'Off to Jesus'

Daily Mail › October 01, 2007

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Summary

THE ADVERTISEMENT in the 'Miscellaneous' column of the Bristol Times Mirror newspaper was poignant. 'Wanted,' it read, 'respectable woman to take young child.' It was a sadly common request in Victorian Britain, where life was particularly hard for unmarried mothers.

The ad had been placed by 25-year-old Evelina Marmon, who two months earlier, in January 1896, had given birth in a boarding house in Cheltenham to a little girl she named Doris. Evelina was a God- fearing farmer's daughter who had gone astray, left the farm for city life and resorted to work as a barmaid in the saloon of the Plough Hotel, an old coaching inn. With her blonde hair, busty figure and quick wit, she was popular with its male customers though which one of them made her pregnant has gone unrecorded.

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The Baby Butcher ; to Young Mothers Unable to Look After Their Babies, Amelia Dyer Was a Caring Soul Who'd Adopt Them for 10 a Time. In Reality, She Was One of Victorian Britain's Most Evil Murderers Sending Countless Children 'Off to Jesus'

And now she was deserted, with a baby she loved but knew she could not bring up on her own. She would have to find a foster home for little Doris to have her 'adopted out', in the language of the time go back to work and hope in time to be able to reclaim her child.

Quite by chance, next to her own ad, was another: 'Married couple with no family would adopt healthy child, nice country home. Terms, 10.' It seemed the answer to her prayers, and she quickly contacted the name at the bottom, a Mrs Harding.

From Oxford Road in Reading, Mrs Harding replied in ecstatic terms. 'I should be glad to have a dear little baby girl, one I could bring up and call my own.' She des...

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