The label, captured, a proof supplied,
reinforced by an old Fisher’s design:
Note: ‘for luggage and hamper labelling’,
now ‘Merit Parcel Tag’, e-bay’s selling.
The card, written, upper-case printed,
fixed, tied, with parcel-string, knotted:
Scout-known? A killick hitch, or a lark’s head?
Tied to a passing, before his child, it said.
A theory, The Serpentine,
no river of blood,
but an old favourite place
to meet one’s God.
Witness to the Court, on his death,
Folliot ‘moody’, precursor at best,
given by an unknown source:
‘Suicide’, verdict, in The Serpentine’s course.
Also left, Clotilde, bequeathed a few pound’s-swell
by ’48, his wife, resident, The Imperial Hotel,
at Queen’s Gate, London, SW7;
Clotilde died, aged 78, no cause given.
Her passing was recorded,
in Paddington, London.
Her aged-death registered
a long mile from her husband.
“FREDERICK JOHN WILLIAM FOLLIOT
FOUND DROWNED IN THE SERPENTINE
9TH DECEMBER 1945
REMEMBERED BY THE SON
HE NEVER KNEW”
In The Gloucester Citizen, December 1945, a verdict of ‘found drowned’ was returned in Westminster
on Frederick John William Folliot, a Doctor of Philosophy, aged 44, of 7 Holly Place, Hampstead NW3.