By the time she was 26 Hilda Queree had reached rock-bottom. She had worked as a servant, but the arrival of an unwanted baby put paid to that. The child’s father, himself unemployed, made only a few payments towards its upkeep.

Desperate to find work, Hilda put the baby with a foster-mother, but after a few days that lady said she could only keep the baby temporarily.

It was all too much for Hilda. On SEPTEMBER 26th, 1936, she collected the four-month-old child from the foster-mother and, holding it in her arms, jumped into the River Thames from Hammersmith Bridge. Hilda was rescued, but the baby was drowned.

Her death sentence at the Old Bailey was commuted to life imprisonment, but she was released in 1938 after serving two years.