Edwardians called teenage domestic servant Dora Grey a fast girl, but it is doubtful whether anyone today would recognise her as such. Born illegitimate, she had a fondness for yachting men and according to gossips was seen far too often in their company.
As an ancient journal pompously put it: It appears pretty clear that she had a weakness for those clandestine dalliances with the opposite sex which would appear to have been characteristic of her irresponsible mother.
The dalliances must have been harmless enough, for when Doras murdered body was found on the shingle of Yarmouth beach on Monday, July 15th, 1912, a post-mortem revealed that she was a virgin.
She had been strangled and there was no sign of a struggle indicating that she was murdered elsewhere. She was last seen with a fair-haired man wearing a straw hat and aged between 35 and 40. Police checked all the hotels and boarding houses for anyone who might answer to that description, but without success.