AMELIA SACH AND ANNIE WALTERS: THE FINCHLEY BABY FARMERS BEHIND BRITAIN'S DARKEST CRIMES

Amelia Sach, born Frances Amelia Thorne in Hampreston, Dorset, on May 5, 1867, and Annie Walters, born in 1869, became infamous as two of Britain’s most notorious baby farmers, ultimately leading to their execution in 1903. Their heinous crimes, committed in East Finchley, London, have left a dark stain on the history of Victorian-era criminality.

Amelia Sach operated a “lying-in” home initially located on Stanley Road and later at Claymore House on Hertford Road, both situated in East Finchley. By the turn of the 20th century, around 1900, she began advertising her services as a discreet place where expectant mothers could leave their babies. Her advertisements promised that infants could be left safely, and she offered adoption services for a fee. Witness accounts suggest that her clientele primarily consisted of domestic servants from nearby households who found themselves pregnant and sought a confidential solution. Employers, often eager to avoid scandal, would encourage their employees to use Sach’s services. The financial arrangements involved charges for the lying-in period and additional fees for the adoption process, with “presents” to the adoptive parents ranging between £25 and £30.

In this grim operation, Annie Walters played a crucial role by collecting the newborns after their birth. She would then dispose of the infants, often using poison—chlorodyne, a medicine containing morphine—as a means to murder the babies. The method was insidious and effective, allowing Walters to eliminate the infants quietly. The authorities caught the pair after Walters’s landlord in Islington grew suspicious and reported her to the police. It is believed that an unknown number of babies fell victim to their murderous scheme, with estimates suggesting dozens may have been killed.

During their trial at the Old Bailey, the evidence of their crimes was overwhelming. The police discovered a large quantity of baby clothes at Claymore House, which served as a stark indicator of the scale of their operations. Despite a campaign by local residents and advocates to have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, the efforts failed. On February 3, 1903, Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison, executed by Henry Pierrepoint, who would later become famous as the father of Albert Pierrepoint. This execution marked one of the rare instances of double hanging of women in modern British history.

Little is known about Annie Walters’s background, but her criminal partner, Amelia Sach, has a well-documented history. Sach was baptized as Frances Amelia Thorne in Dorset and was the fourth of ten children in her family. She married a builder named Jeffrey Sach in 1896. Her criminal activities predated her partnership with Walters, and by 1902, she was operating from Claymore House, a semi-detached red-brick villa in East Finchley. Records from the 1901 England and Wales census reveal that Sach was a mother herself, having given birth in Clapham, although she falsely claimed to be 29 when she was actually 32.

Walters’s background remains largely obscure, but it is known that she had been married and struggled with alcohol issues. She also advertised herself as a sick nurse at times. Upon her arrest, she was deemed to be “feeble,” indicating a mental deficiency that may have contributed to her involvement in the crimes.

There is a possibility that both women might have been involved in an earlier homicide case. In 1899, Louise Masset was tried and convicted for the murder of her young son, Manfred, whose body was found at Dalston Junction railway station. Circumstantial evidence suggested that Louise wanted to rid herself of the child to marry a man named Lucas. Louise claimed she had entrusted her son to two women she met, who operated an establishment for caring for children. The police’s investigation into this claim was limited, and Louise was ultimately executed in January 1900. Some believe that her case might be connected to the broader pattern of infanticide and baby farming crimes of the era.

Following their execution, the bodies of Sach and Walters were buried in unmarked graves within Holloway Prison grounds, a common practice at the time. During a 1971 reconstruction of the prison, their remains were exhumed. With the exception of Ruth Ellis, the remains of the other women executed at Holloway—Styllou Christofi, Edith Thompson, Sach, and Walters—were reinterred in a single grave at Brookwood Cemetery, marked by a grey granite tombstone bearing their names. The exact location of Sach and Walters’ graves within the cemetery remains unspecified.

Claymore House, the residence where Sach conducted her operations, acquired a notorious reputation following the trial. The building’s name was removed from the plaque, and it was left anonymous, a silent reminder of the dark history that unfolded within its walls.

Baby farming, a term used in Victorian Britain and other countries like Australia and the United States, referred to the practice of taking in infants or children for payment. This often involved wet-nursing or fostering, with some farmers adopting children for lump-sum payments, only to neglect or murder them for profit. The practice was driven by the stigma surrounding illegitimacy and the desire of impoverished or desperate mothers to conceal their pregnancies. Wealthier families also employed such services, placing their infants in the care of villagers or private homes.

Infanticide and neglect were common among some baby farmers, who would adopt numerous children and then either abandon or kill them to maximize profits. Notorious figures like Margaret Waters and Amelia Dyer, both executed for their crimes, exemplify this dark chapter. Amelia Sach and Annie Walters joined this grim list of infamous baby farmers, with their executions marking the end of a brutal era. The British Parliament began regulating baby farming in 1872 through the Infant Life Protection Act, and subsequent legislation gradually brought foster care and adoption under state oversight, aiming to prevent such atrocities from recurring.

Today, the term “baby farming” is also used in a different context, such as describing the sale of eggs for assisted reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization, but its historical association remains a stark reminder of Victorian Britain’s dark history of child exploitation and murder.