The neglected wife

The horrific death of 35-year-old Rebecca Grigg shocked all who read of it.
And it was her husband Frank who bore the brunt of the court’s ire.
She was found so emaciated that doctors thought she would have needed to be found two weeks before her death to survive.
It caused a series of sensational headlines in 1905 after she died on July 13.
In the end, it was the breaking down of her lungs from an abscess killed Rebecca but it was hastened police believed by the wilful neglect of her bottle gatherer husband Francis George Grigg who ended up charged with manslaughter.
No food was found in the house, which was filthy and she was not even lying on any bed clothes. Lice were on her neck and face and in her hair.
Neighbours worried about Rebecca in the days before her death had been told a variety of things by Francis and he gave yet another at the inquest into her death.
Neighbour Prudence Weaver had been asked by Francis to help his wife - she had done so before and knew Rebecca was a frail thing who did not have good health.
She found her covered in old rugs, jackets and coats and ice cold. Rebecca was alive, but only just.
Rebecca was barely able to talk, asking for a stout - but when it was brought to her she could not drink it.
A doctor was sent for but he never arrived and after a few hours another was sought but Rebecca died a couple of hours after he arrived.
Prudence said Rebecca could not have been in any state to cook anything even if there had been more than a piece of bread and a bit of rice in the house.
She also said she had spoken to Francis a few days before who had told her Rebecca was unwell.
At the inquest Francis - called Frank - said his wife had woken the night before her death complaining about her chest. He had given her a little brandy.
She had had always been a bit unwell and they had thought it was her heart.
The jury at the inquest thought he had hastened her death with neglect and Frank was sent to trial.
But it was from one of the police witnesses that the possible answer came.
One of the police witnesses said several times Rebecca had been arrested for public drunkeness around Auckland.
Given that she had asked for stout even as she was dying, it was likely she had a severe alcohol problem.
The Supreme Court did not believe a charge against Frank given the circumstances would hold up and threw it out before any trial.
Frank had been born in 1865 in the Channel Islands to George and Ann and the family came to New Zealand in 1874. He married Rebecca in Dunedin in 1899.
After his release he never remarried and died in July 1915.
Both Rebecca and Frank are buried at Waikumete Cemetery.​