On This Day in Wembury — 16 March 1930
Tragic Death of a Wembury Girl in Portsmouth
On the night of 16 March 1930, tragedy struck far from home when Miss Audrey F. Bennett, formerly of Wembury, Devon, was fatally injured in a motorcycle collision on the streets of Portsmouth. The Western Times later reported that a commercial traveller, George White, had been charged with manslaughter in connection with her death.
Miss Bennett, who lived in Southsea and worked in the Admiral Superintendent’s Office at Portsmouth Dockyard, was taken to hospital after the crash but died following surgery for multiple injuries, including broken thighs. Witness Herbert Edward Lee, also of Southsea, told the coroner that he and Miss Bennett had been walking together when the collision occurred, describing how the motorcycle came towards them and “struck down” the young woman.
At the Portsmouth inquest, the coroner stated that it would be impossible to proceed until the related manslaughter case had been heard at the Hampshire Assizes, and the hearing was adjourned until early July.
Though her working life had taken her to Portsmouth, Miss Bennett’s ties to Wembury remained strong, and news of her death travelled quickly back to her home parish. Her story stood as a sorrowful reminder of how the new age of motor transport — still in its first decades — brought both freedom and danger to a generation growing up between two worlds: the quiet lanes of Devon and the modern, bustling cities beyond.
Source: Western Times (Exeter), Thursday 17 April 1930 — “Wembury Girl’s Death: Portsmouth Inquest Adjourned Until Beginning of July.”