On the afternoon of Saturday 16th January 1943 two boys were playing in Greenbank Park and saw a woman wade out of the boating lake. She then said 'Where is my baby, we are mental.' A member of the Women's Land Army, Betty Critchley, was passing and swam into the lake, retrieving the body of her two year old daughter Freda.
The woman in question was 31 year old Robina Rackham, whose husband was away in the merchant navy. She was taken to hospital where a note was found in her clothing which said 'mother and baby in lake, we are losing our minds - Rackham 106 Salisbury Road, Liverpool 15.' When the police questioned her, she said that both she and Freda were incurably ill and she felt that her daughter would be better off dead. A post mortem however showed that the little girl had been in good health and when charged Robina said 'I don't know whats the matter with me.'At the Manchester assizes Robina the court heard that Robina had been a very loving mother to her daughter. She was found guilty but insane and ordered to be detained at His Majesty's Pleasure. The judge thanked Miss Critchley, saying what she had done was 'plucky and creditable on a cold winter's afternoon'.
Robinha lived to the age of eighty and died at a nursing home in Ullet Road in 1992. She was buried alongside Freda at Toxteth Park Cemetery.
I've just come across this article and the lady in the article was my Great Aunt Robina. I only knew her as a quiet and kind old lady, as she had 'been away' for many years. I know now where - she was charged with being 'insane' and sent to a mental hospital for about 50 years. I didn’t know this at the time, as in those days these things were family secretes.
ReplyDeleteI find this such a sad tale, as I can only imagine she was struggling with severe post-natal depression whilst alone, as her husband was off at war. She had a very sad suicidal intention to end her life along with her daughters, which whilst obviously tragic for her daughter, I feel was just as tragic for her, as she was saved. I imagine she didn't understand why she had this moment of 'diminished responsibility' and in her statement said, 'I don't know what’s the matter with me'.
I believe that she was charged and then locked up in a high security mental institution, kept drugged for 50 years and let out an old woman who was unable to care for herself. Her older sister, my Great Aunt Florence looked after her until her death in 1992.
Whilst I'm in no way condoning what she did ... I really feel that nowadays, with our better understanding of post-natal depression and mental health, and with the support now available - she may not have been so desperate and isolated. She may never have got to this stage, and even if she did, would have received a far more 'understanding punishment'. This was not cold-blooded murder, it was a desperately sad and unfortunate act/mistake by a lady whose whole life was then taken away from her, with no help or treatment or understanding and she died an old, broken lady.
So today in 2018, now 26 years after Robinas death and 75 years after the event, am I her Great Niece finding this article and just starting to understand what happened and perhaps why!
I'd like her, and anyone else who reads this, to know that I have compassion and sympathy for her and would wish to tell her – ‘That she lived in a time of lesser understanding and that nowadays the world is a better place. Had she lived in my generation the help available, the opportunities and the justice system would have afforded her a different life. I’m so sorry for how her life turned out.’
Rest in the Peace you deserve Great Aunt Beena with your little Freda, love your relative, P x