In January 2003 I checked Kelly's Directory for Standon, Hertfordshire for the years 1882, 1886 and 1890. In the 1886 records there is an entry under commercial interests of: 'William Dimmock M beer retailer'. Emily's father. This was not a licensed premise and presumably William sold beer under the name of the Red Lion. He is not recorded in the 1890 edition, probably having decided to move on.

By 1895 the family was living in Hitchin where Emily had a serious accident.

A horse, set free from a cart, ran amok. Emily was pushing a younger brother or sister in a pram and was struck by the horse. Her condition was serious enough to have kept her in Hitchin hospital for three weeks. She was later found wandering the streets and her father cared for her at home rather than commit her to a lunatic asylum.

By late 1897 the family had moved once again, this time to Bedford. In 1901 Emily was working as a domestic servant in St Neots and her father later found work for her as a chambermaid in the Swan Hotel, Bedford. For reasons that were not made clear to her father, Emily was taken away from the family home by her sister Maud, who had married a police constable. Maud later came to live in Putney but according to William Dimmock found Emily a position as a servant in Finchley. That was the last he saw of his daughter.

Emily visited her sisters as often as she could, and one of the boyfriends she introduced to them was Bert Shaw.

The story begins in 1907 when a young prostitute known as Phyllis Dimmock was found with her throat cut in St Pauls Road, North London on the morning of 12 September.

Phyllis was not her real name. She was born Emily Elizabeth Dimmock (which is what I will call her) on 20 October 1884.

The Camden Town Murder is now published in hardback and can be bought from most good bookshops or from on-line stores such as Amazon. co.uk.

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