I started looking for this pool a few years ago when my dad mentioned it to me. He said that he used to climb over the fence surrounding the pool to swim with his friends when he was around 12 years old. This would have been 1948. An image of the pool shows it with a low metal fence so I think he might have been slightly older.
He then said that there had been a tragedy at the pool; that a nurse had drowned and that shortly after the pool was fenced off and later drained.
I duly searched for information about the event but found little other than reports of a drowned nurse, the pool being drained and filled in and that it was found to be “highly contaminated.” The last piece of information is not backed up by anything official.
I came across a short story written by a local journalist writing for the patient newsletter that was a fictional account of a haunting by a nurse inspired by the original story. I emailed the author and asked if the name that she had used was the real name and she said that it was not as she did not know it.
I felt sad that all the reports did not put a name to this person that was training to help others, so I made an appointment with the Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow that houses a microfiche collection of local newspapers. I sat down with the 1949 Walthamstow Guardian fiche and started looking for reports of the drowning. I started in April as I figured nobody in their right mind would be swimming in a pond in January.
Despite the doubting of the researcher at Vestry House, who thought I had no chance of finding the information, it took me less than an hour to find the news report of the coroner’s inquest into the drowning of Kathleen Philomena Flaherty. She was just twenty-two when she drowned in the pool. I took a copy of the report, and it is transcribed below.
Now, call me suspicious, but I am not sure what a passing porter was doing administering the kiss of life when there were at least two student nurses on the scene and presumably many other doctors and nurses a short distance away.
In the November 1949 issue of the British Journal of Nursing reports on a prize giving day at Whipps Cross on October 4th. Amongst the list of awards was one Charles Joseph Nono who received the Preliminary Training School award for the period June-September 1948. I wonder why he was listed as a porter. Also receiving an award, the Hospital Final Certificate, was Eileen Corry, also mentioned in the inquest report.
The last piece of research was to find the birth record of Kathleen. Whilst it might be an unusual name in England, I wondered if Philomena would be more common in Ireland and produce multiple results, but I only found one record for Kathleen Philomena Flaherty, born in Listowel, County Kerry between October and December 1926, which would have made her 22 years old in 1949. I think this is the correct Kathleen.
Here is a link to a detailed history of Forest House and Whipps Cross geenerally. The pool would have been part of the grounds.
WhippsCrossHospital (walthamstowmemories.net)
Lastly, a couple of images showing the pool and its proximity to the Whipps Cross Lido (1937 to 1982) and the filled in pool that has been a car park for as long as I can remember.
Inquest report in the Walthamstow Guardian, 8th July 1949
Nurse Got Out Of Her Depth
The story of how Kathleen Philomena Flaherty, a 22-year-old student nurse, was drowned in the open air swimming pool at Whipps Cross Hospital was related to Mr. H. M. Pinney, deputy coroner for Metropolitan Essex, at Walthamstow last week. A verdict of accidental death was recorded.
Josephine O’Neil, student nurse said she and two other student nurses went to swim at the pool on the evening of June 26th.
“I went to the deep end because the shallow end was dirty” said (the) witness. “I knew it was deep underneath the diving boards, and as I knew Nurse Flaherty was unable to swim, I tried out the depth of the water first. I told her to remain where the water was the most shallow and not to move over to the diving boards.
IN DIFFICULTIES
“Somehow she got out of her depth. She went under the water, came up and went down again. I could see she was in difficulties, so went to help her. Nurse Corry tried to help as well, but she was unable to do very much as her foot got caught in weeds at the bottom of the pool.”
Joseph Nono, a male porter at the hospital, said he went to the assistance of the deceased. He applied artificial respiration, but without success. The bath had a gravel bottom and the weeds were about six inches high.
