This story has been adapted from a presentation by Nicky Brownjohn 2026
Late at night, William Peacock, a railway sub-inspector, entered the Merstham Tunnel from the southern end and 400 yards in, he found something lying between the track and the tunnel wall. William had discovered the body of a young woman. He alerted the police and the local doctor.
Constable Carr worked in Merstham and Dr Crickett was the doctor. They examined the body. Initially, it was assumed that the woman had accidently fallen from the train. Then Constable Carr discovered a scarf stuffed into her mouth. It appeared to have been pushed in some distance. When he pulled, 10 or 12 inches came out in a roll.
The body was identified as being that of Mary Sophia Money, a 21-year-old woman from Lavender Hill, Battersea. But who was Mary and why did her life end in a dark Surrey tunnel?
Her body was taken to the Feather’s Hotel, in Merstham, for the inquest. Dr Wilcox from the Home Office conducted a second autopsy. He found Mary’s body was severely mangled due to the injuries sustained.
Mary was the youngest daughter of James William and Susan Money. James had died in 1886, at the age of 46 when Mary was just a baby. The family were living in Hartley Witney, Hampshire in in 1881. However, they seem to have moved to Watford after that as Mary was born there.
Mary was the youngest of 8 children. She was 5 or 6 years younger than her closest sibling, Robert. Her family were dairy farmers. At the age of 17, Mary had helped her mother to sell their dairy farm. Mary then worked for her brothers James and Robert at their dairy on Kingston Hill.
In about 1902, Mary went to work at the Bridger Dairy in Lavender Hill, Battersea. She was said to be happy there and her pay was 8s a week plus board and lodging. A week before her death she had taken on the bookkeeping and had a pay rise.
On 13th September 1905, Mary went to the Adelphi theatre, having been given 2 tickets. It is not known who, if anyone, she went with.
Mary shared accommodation at the dairy with Emma Hone. On 24th September she went out at 7pm and said she was going for a walk. The owner of the dairy, Mr. Bridger, asked Emma to stay up for Mary as she had not returned late that evening. Mary was never to return.
Miss Golding ran a sweet stall at Clapham Junction. She is the last confirmed person to have seen Mary that day when Mary bought chocolates from her.
Mary was buried in Watford on October 3rd, 1905. The elm coffin bore the simple inscription, ‘Mary Sophia Money, died September 24th 1905 aged 21’. Mary had touched the hearts of those back in Merstham, and beyond. There were wreaths from, a ‘sympathiser,’ Merstham, Mrs. C Coomber, Reigate, and the Feathers Hotel staff, Merstham.
The Herts Advertiser wrote on 7 October, ‘The great heart of England beats in sympathy with the mourning of the family’
The inquest resumed on 2nd October 1905. ‘People came from districts for miles around and lounged about the village during the proceedings in order to ascertain, if possible, the latest details of the tragedy.’ (Bradford Daily Telegraph, Oct 2nd, 1905)
The Professionals
The Other Key Characters
Initially, a missing Reigate man was suspected but never identified. Then, suspicion focused on Charles Bellchambers, a railway clerk who had walked out with Mary and known her for 5 years. He had not seen her since June 16th and his alibi was confirmed.
Arthur Bridger, the manager of the dairy, was questioned. Mary’s brother George indicated that Arthur had travelled with Mary on occasion but Arthur denied this. He said that, on the Sunday in question, he had been with his wife, and they went for a walk, which she confirmed.
The Police spoke to Frank Butler from Brentford, a childhood sweetheart. He had not seen Mary for nearly 12 months.
A Mr. Reuben Neville from Walthamstow reported his concerns anonymously about her brother Fred (AJ) Money to the police. Fred had suddenly left his lodgings in a property owned by Mr. Chatfield leaving his belongings behind. Mr Chatfield confirmed that Fred would receive money from his sister Mary and put it on the horses. Fred was cleared of suspicion as he had an alibi.
One theory was that Mary had accidentally got on the Brighton train instead of her suburban train home to Clapham. The Butler family denied this, saying said that Mary was ‘too shrewd and business like’ to make a mistake with trains. Mary had proved herself self-reliant when her mother retired from the dairy, which Mary assisted with, Mary conducted the details of the sale.
Mary’s brother Robert reported that he thought she had friends at Victoria station and when she went to return to Clapham Junction, she caught the wrong train and found herself at East Croydon. She must have got out and because she was nervous, she caught another wrong train to go to Redhill instead of Victoria. Even though it stopped at Purley and she could have changed there, she had decided to stay on until Redhill, and so passed into the tunnel and to her death. He said she was ‘a most nervous girl, and always shrank from society.’
The Police discounted the brother’s theory as ‘scarcely feasible.’ They thought Miss Money must have travelled with some acquaintance who was unknown to her family. They went to the inquest with no clear suspect.
A test was conducted in a first-class carriage to check where the marks were on the door of the carriage and how her body could have fallen from the train. It was found that there was only a space of 8 inches for the body to go through the door or window and the door would have been touching the tunnel wall. Would it have been impossible?
On 16th October 1905, the jury left the court to consider the evidence. They were out for 1 hour 10 minutes and brought in an open verdict.
‘The jury are unanimously of the opinion that the deceased met her death through injuries brought about by a train, but the evidence is insufficient to show whether she was thrown from a train or fell accidentally.’
October 24th, 1905
Dear Sir, ‘Will you allow me, on behalf of myself and the county of Surrey, to thank you and those under your command for the valuable assistance which the metropolitan police afforded my force in their investigations into the circumstances of Miss Money’s death in Merstham Tunnel. I only regret that the great exertions employed were not able to elucidate this matter. I can only conclude that there was in reality nothing which could be found out.’
“Alarming as an occurrence like this may be, we have to congratulate ourselves on our splendid immunity from outrage...if the worst should happen, and this proved to have been a case of foul play ....., it would still be an exception as rare as it is sad” (Surrey Mirror 29 September 1905)
The police were suspicious about the evidence provided to them by Mary’s elder brother Robert and re-examined his evidence.
On 16 December 1905 Surrey Chief Constable Captain M. L. Sant interviewed a lodging-house keeper, Mr. Collins. The purpose was to investigate a report made by Robert Money, who had attempted to cast suspicion on his sister's employer, Arthur Bridger.
The investigators discovered that Robert Money had secretly accessed Mary’s personal lockbox after her death. He stole and destroyed a highly critical letter detailing horse-race betting transactions between Mary and her other brother, Fred.
When first questioned about the missing letter on 7 October 1905, Robert had denied ever seeing or touching it. But on 19 December, confronted with proof, he had to admit that her employers, Mr and Mrs Henry Bridger, were telling the truth when they said they had personally witnessed him removing the letter from Mary's box, reading it, and slipping it into his pocket.
The police concluded that Robert had systematically lied about Arthur Bridger and others to actively mislead the murder investigation. The Police concluded, ‘He is not a reliable person.’
The Police continued to follow up any leads in their search for a murderer. In June 1906 they investigated a tip-off about a Mr Plyoult, alias Jeffries who had owned a greengrocer’s shop in Lavender Hill, close to Mary’s dairy. He had gone into hiding after fraudulently selling his business to a Major Cavendish and was reputedly ‘an immoral man, fond of seducing young girls.’ He was never found by the Police or formally ruled out as a suspect.
In all, about 100 witnesses were interviewed by the police without reaching a conclusion as to who had murdered Mary.
Mary’s murder was never solved but this was not the end of the story.
A young woman called Florence Paler met a man calling himself Robert Hicks Murray in 1909 at Clapham Junction and soon moved in with him, in Clapham. Her sister, Edith, met Robert when she visited them in September 1910. Unbeknown to Florence, Robert subsequently started a relationship with Edith.
In late September 1910, Robert went away for a week and it later turned out that this is when he married Edith. He continued to live with Florence for part of the week and they had two children. In the rest of the week he lived with Edith and they had a child together. As Edith was estranged from her wider family, they did not know.
In July 1912, Robert rented a house in Eastbourne, 14 Enys Road, and took Edith and their child there.
In August 1912, he arranged for Florence, now pregnant again, and her children to holiday in Eastbourne. They stayed in various properties. Then, when Florence thought that they were returning to London, Robert changed the plan and took them to 14 Enys Road. On arrival, Florence enquired about a pram she could see in the hallway. Robert said it belonged to the owner of the house. Robert then told Florence to keep away from a locked room.
During the evening, Florence noticed Robert behaving erratically. Then, in the early hours of the next morning, Robert entered the bedroom and shot Florence and the children. Florence was injured and managed to get out of the house, screaming. She was distraught. The house was now on fire. Neighbours came out to help and alerted the fire brigade.
In the house, the bodies of Florence’s children were found. Robert had also shot himself. In the locked room, the bodies of Edith and her child were discovered.
Florence was the sole survivor and she was taken to the infirmary and treated for a gunshot wound to her neck. She later had to attend the inquest and hear the injuries suffered by her sister and all the children. The local community rallied around Florence and the inquest jury even donated money for her. She was moved to an undisclosed place and the press respected her privacy.
In November 1912, Florence gave birth to a daughter. In the 1939 census, the daughter was living with her aunt in London and she went on to marry.
The funerals of Robert, Edith and the children took place on 23 August 1912 in Eastbourne. The surname used on the coffins was ‘Murray’. However, the following day, it was discovered that Robert Hicks Murray, who also went by the name Charles Robert Mackie, was none other than Robert Henry Money, brother of Mary Money, the Merstham tunnel victim.
There was one further tragedy that seems to have occurred as a direct result of the traumatic events in Eastbourne. A woman called Gertrude King was in service at a house opposite No.14 Enys Road. She was one of the first people to enter the building when Florence had come out screaming. Just weeks later, Gertrude went out at 4pm and did not return until 6am the next day. When she returned, she told her employer that she had killed her baby and a deceased infant was found.
The inquest was led by the same coroner who had led the inquest into the deaths of Edith and the three children. Yet, the coroner was unsympathetic to Gertrude and concluded ‘wilful murder’ and Gertrude was sent for a criminal trial.
We will never know who murdered Mary Money or how her brother Robert might have been involved. Robert produced an alibi for the night of the murder so the police could not prove he killed her but they did establish that he was a liar who was hiding what he knew.
The two sisters Robert killed were not treated well by the authorities. Edith was invisible in the inquest evidence - she had separated herself from her family long before her death. Florence’s children were recorded as illegitimate, leading to public concerns as to the unkindness of authorities. At least there was so much community kindness shown to Florence in Eastbourne.
Gertrude was also a victim. 
She could not get the horror of what she saw at 14 Enys Road out of her mind. At the criminal trial, she collapsed and had to be carried out. The case was dropped against her when the defence team claimed there was no evidence of a connection between Gertrude and the infant. She was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
There is so much more to tell. This is not the end of the story!
In memory of Mary Sophia Money, whose story started me on the research process.