Selina Dryden was my second cousin twice removed. There were numerous articles in the newspapers re the terrible murder of Selina and 7 months old Agnes Mary Miles. Selina was born in Grimsby, to a Whitby family made famous by the number of rescues they made in the local area of people falling into Whitby harbour, being shipwrecked just out of the harbour and general life-saving at sea. She spent her early years in Whitby. The Drydens were very prolific in their childbearing years - Selina had 15 siblings, though only 8 made it to adulthood.
In 1921 Selina was working as a domestic servant in Hertford. Her marriage to George Frederick Miles (born 1900 Barnet) took place at Barnet Register Office.
The newspaper articles describe the events leading up to the murders and the Illustrated Police News gives a graphic pictorial vision.
Dundee Evening Telegraph 10 Sept 1925, this also appears in many other newspapers.
"MURDER IN HUTTON GROVE, 1925
In his youth, George Frederick Miles had been a Trooper in the 8th Hussars, before serving 25 years as a mounted police constable in Finchley. In 1924, he fell ill with ‘neurasthenia’ and had to retire. Plagued by headaches and abnormal tiredness, he could spend three weeks in bed. He shared a small house at No. 22 Hutton Grove, Finchley, with his wife Agnes Charlotte and their three daughters, and also his son George and daughter-in-law Selina, and their baby Mary Agnes. There had once been a quarrel between George Frederick and his son George, after Selina had complained that the ‘dirty old man’ had put his arm around her waist and tried to kiss her, and the relations between the neurasthenic householder and his long-minded daughter-in-law remained very bad.
On the morning September 7 1925, Mrs Agnes Charlotte Miles heard a muffled scream emanate from the kitchen. Going downstairs to investigate, she saw Selina come running out of the room, with blood gushing from her throat. George Frederick emerged, with a blood-stained razor in his hand, saying ‘I have killed Lina and the baby too!’ And indeed, the little baby was lying dead on the floor. Mrs Miles managed to calm down her husband, and to persuade him to give her the razor. The coroner’s inquest returned a verdict of wilful murder against George Frederick Miles, but the case never went to court. It turned out that at the time of the murder, George Frederick had been waiting to be committed to the Wellhouse Hospital for neurasthenia and cerebral degeneration. Had this hospital’s routines involved more speedy committals, much mischief would have been averted. In the end, George Frederick Miles was found insane and unfit to plead, and incarcerated in a lunatic asylum."
George Frederick Miles (1900) married again in 1929: J1929 Barnet 3 1073. 29 June 1929 Barnet RO.
GFM 29 widower general labourer 112 Station Road, New Southgate s/o George Frederick Miles, Metropolitan Police Pensioner.
Florence Elizabeth Beatrice Greenwood 31 spinster 8 South Road, New Southgate d/o Albert Edward Greenwood, baker.
He died on 23 Feb 1983.
Many of Selina's family attended the funeral on 12 September at St Pancras Cemetery, travelling down from Whitby. The Yorkshire Evening Post 12 Sept 1925 states “Her aged father and mother who had travelled from their home in Yorkshire were present at the funeral.”
From the Hendon & Finchley Times 18 Sep: The mourners were: George F. Miles, junr. (husband), Mrs. Miles, Mr. Dryden, Elizabeth Miles, Mark Dryden, May Miles, Richard Dryden, Hannah Mary Miles, Ada Dryden, Elizabeth Dryden, Fannie Dryden, Emily Dryden, Elizabeth Dryden, Nora Dryden, Hilda Dryden, Morris Dryden, Mrs. Peart, Mrs. Wren, Mrs. Hutchinson, Mrs. Phillott, Mrs. Lamb, Mrs. Tweedy, and the Misses Miles.
