Skeleton Found in the Bay 1921

Seaview 25 June 1921
On Wednesday, of the previous week, Messrs. W. Joy and F. Grant in the employ of Mr. G. Walker, who were engaged in making preparations for a tennis court at St. Hilda (late the seaside resort of Lady Bathurst) were digging some 3ft. below the surface, found what they thought were two shin bones.  They removed more of the soil and a perfect human skeleton was revealed.

Information was sent to the police and Dr Sparrow, who resides in the Bay, was summoned.  In his opinion the remains had been in the ground for 100 years or possibly more, and were those of a middle-aged male some 6ft in height.  The teeth were in a good state of preservation but the bones showed signs of decay.  Surmise was busy concerning the remains which were thought by some to be those of one of ‘brave Kempenfeldt’s’ men, who went down in the ‘Royal George’ in 1782.  If this chanced to be the case, thought was busy again as to why the body was not taken to the graveyard of the Old Church, comparatively near at hand, and buried there.

The police took charge of the remains which had then been re-interred.

Note:
H.M.S. Royal George was a 100-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was the largest warship when she was launched in February 1756, and saw immediate service in the 7 year’s war.  The ship took ten years to build at Woolwich Dockyard.  The Royal George sank on 29 August 1782 whilst anchored at Spithead off Portsmouth.   The ship was intentionally rolled so maintenance could be performed on the hull, but the roll became unstable and out of control; the ship took on water and sank. More than 800 people died. Many of the victims were washed ashore at Ryde, Isle of Wight,  where they were buried in a mass grave that stretched along the beach.

Sources: RSHG Archive, IW Observer
Image: Roy Brinton Collection
Article: Ann Barrett