For the third time in a little over a year there was tragedy at Wardown Park lake when the body of another teenage girl was found floating in the water on November 24th, 1916.

On October 22nd, 1915, the body of Elsie Ritchie, aged 18, was pulled from the water with a photograph of a soldier pinned over her heart. And on June 6th, 1916, it was a soldier rowing on the lake who found the body of 16-year-old Ethel Watts, although no romantic link was made in her case.

The latest drowning victim was Sarah Jane Smith, aged 18, a native of Wood Ditton, near Newmarket, and the daughter of a labourer. A postcard addressed to Pte Walter C. Strowger at The Huts, Biscot Camp, was found among her clothing.

An inquest at Luton Court House on Monday, November 27th, heard that she had been in the service of Mrs Nellie Annie Gale, wife of Mr Ernest Gale, furniture dealer, as a domestic servant at 27 Avondale Road, for seven weeks, being known to her as Annie Smith.

Mrs Gale said she found her satisfactory in every way. She was clean and industrious, but sometimes she was very depressed, things seemed to worry her outside her work. She was very quiet, and would never talk much, but Mrs Gale did not think she had any trouble of any kind.

The previous Saturday week she went to Ipswich for the weekend, returning on the Monday night. Mrs Gale advised her not to go but she insisted on it, and as she did not want to lose the girl she advanced her 10 shillings for her railway fare.

Following her return from the weekend, she had Tuesday and Thursday evenings out and seemed just the same as usual. Overnight she was given some money with which to get some tomatoes for breakfast in the morning, and just about eight o'clock on the Friday morning she was seen to leave the house and cross the road in the direction of the greengrocer's shop.

She did not, however, go to the shop, and, as she did not return to the house, Mr Gale reported her disappearance to the police.

Asked what form the deceased's periodical depressions took, Mrs Gale said it was just dullness. She had never threatened to commit suicide or anything of the kind, in fact she could not be got to talk. If she was asked anything, all she said was "Yes" or "No".

Shortly after half-past ten on the Friday morning that the deceased disappeared, Alfred Lawrence, of 19 Cardigan Street, a park-keeper at the People's Park, had his attention drawn to the fact of a body of a girl being in the lake at Wardown. The spot at which the body was found was not far from the footpath and the depth of the water was about four feet. The body was face downwards, and when recovered from the water showed no signs of life.

The police were sent for, and the body was removed to the mortuary at the Town Hall, where it was examined by Dr Cox, the Acting Medical Officer of Health, about an hour after its recovery from the water.

Dr Cox said there were no signs of violence whatever on the body, which was very well-nourished, and all the symptoms were of death from drowning. There were no external signs of the deceased being in trouble.

On the clothing of the deceased being searched by Pc Shaw there were found a purse containing tenpence, a letter and a postcard. The postcard was addressed to Pte W. C. Strowger, The Huts, Biscot Camp, and the message on it was: "Dear Walter. Many thanks for Thursday night's walk. I enjoyed myself, but I was rather down-hearted. Crying finished it when I was alone. Goodbye till Sunday. From downhearted A. Smith."

Walter C. Strowger, a private in the Royal Field Artillery stationed at Biscot Camp, said he had kept company with the deceased about three months and she spent the previous weekend at his parents' home near Ipswich, and was out with him on the Thursday night prior to the discovery of her body in the lake.

At that time he was expecting orders to leave for the Front, but the deceased did not appear worried about his going, and seemed just the same as usual. He was expecting to go away during the weekend and had made arrangements to see her on Sunday. He had only known the deceased since he came to Luton, and was not engaged to be married to her.

Mrs Jane Elizabeth Smith, the mother of the deceased, said she knew her daughter, who was known at home as Jennie, was keeping company with a soldier, because she had written home about him. She seemed quite cheerful in all her letters and wanted to get married, but her mother told her to be a good girl and not think about it just yet, as she was not very old.

The jury, after a brief retirement, decided that they had heard sufficient, and found that the deceased committed suicide while temporarily insane.

[The Luton Reporter: Monday, December 4th, 1916]