Amelia Richardson

Contemporary sketch of Amelia Richardson.

Witness at Annie Chapman's inquest.

(Also referred to in the press as Emilia. In the 1891 census she gives her name as Ann).

Born c.1822 in Spitalfields, widow of Thomas Richardson, mother of John Richardson.

Listed in street directories as occupant of 29 Hanbury Street, renting out the first two floors of the house. She lived in the first-floor front room with her 14 year-old grandson Thomas Richardson and used the cellar and the yard for her packing-case manufacturing business. She was assisted in this by her son John and a man named John Tyler.

She was made aware of the murder at about 6.00am, 8th September 1888, by a disturbance in the passage which led to the backyard. Initially believing that the house may have been on fire, her grandson went downstairs and returned soon after, saying "Oh , grandmother, there is a woman murdered!" Mrs Richardson went to see the body in the yard and as she was not yet properly dressed, she went back to her room. At this point, the police took possession of the house.

At the inquest, she was asked to testify more than once and the East London Advertiser (15th September) noted that she was kept standing, much to her distress. "It would only have been common kindness to have offered her a chair, considering that she is now at an advanced age; but this little attention did not seem to strike the officials or the jurtmen as being at all necessary."

Mrs Richardson remained at No.29 until 1895 (possibly the year of her death).