Bertram Knutson
The Manchester Guardian 8 October 1888 reported, 'For some days past the inhabitants of Eltham, especially the female portion, have been alarmed at a strange looking man sleeping in the woods and fields, and occasionally emerging into solitary places to beg.
Complaints were made to the police, many people thinking he was the Whitechapel assassin. The police turned out in force to find him. Inspector Harris, on Friday night, found him asleep covered in grass in a field abutting on Nottingham Lane Eltham. He was taken to the police station and charged with being found wandering abroad and sleeping in the open air without visible means of subsistence. He gave the name of Bertram Knutson, his age as 23 and said he was a Norwegian sailor. He was arrainged before Mr Fenwick at the Woolwich Police Court on Saturday, and was told that he must not go about in the present disturbed state of public feeling alarming people in the woods and fields. He directed the police to take Knutson to the workhouse'.
