25
« on: Monday 20 September 21 20:08 BST (UK) »
Thank you so much, all of you, for all this info. You might like to know how the story ends, with this piece from my blog:
'Our register records that Robert Brock, aged 81, died on 7 January 1895. But a note adds: "Presumably; body having been found in the Queen's Dock". Robert's death certificate and a letter tell us more of the sad story. 7 January was the date he went missing from the Charterhouse. Presumably there was a search; if there was, it was unsuccessful. On 26 January, and again on 30 January, it seems that the Master assumed he was dead and was writing to the the council's Charterhouse Applicants Committee asking them to fill Brock's vacant room. A letter survives from the Town Clerk in reply on 31 January saying that they were deferring a decision "in the hope that some news may be heard of Brock". His body was not found for more than two months; it was recovered from the dock on 15 March. There was an inquest, and the verdict was that he had drowned.'