Revealed: The most shocking crimes of murder, terrorist plots, abductions and baby deaths on Scotland's canals

This horrific crime is one of many tales from the banks of Scotland’s canals through history. For author Therese Stewart, writing under T A Stewart, it is this story and countless others where people met their grisly end due to their connections or lifestyles on the canals which sparked a fascination and a desire to know more.

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Today Mrs Stewart returned to near the Linlithgow site where tragic Miss Bourhill was found and during extensive and detailed research for her new book, Scottish Canal Crimes from 1800 to 1950, she may well have detected who the culprit was.

“Authorities were puzzled as to what happened and how she got there. Nobody came forward but theories were aired in the press,” said the 51-year-old author and journalist.

“After a time a reward was advertised in the newspapers for information leading to a prosecution. A boat driver who worked on the canal came forward with a strange story. His identity was kept secret because he was accusing canal carters of the murder, but the records fall silent after that. It seems no one was charged as a result.”

Author Therese Stewart at the scene on the Union Canal near Linlithgow where the body of Euphemia Bourhill was found.. STY ..Pic Gordon Terris Herald & Times..30/4/21.

Mindful of not giving the game away entirely, Mrs Stewart does allude to the fact she may have identified who was responsible.

“There is a possible suspect I’ve named, and a theory as to what may have happened and how she ended up on the canal, but I won’t say anymore than that at the risk of spoiling the story for the readers.”

At one point Scotland’s canals offered work for many and the network was the main route to shift cargo from one end of the country to another through the waterway connection.

And while it did provide a source of employment for some, for others they ended up living on the canal or towpaths out of necessity to survive, seek refuge, or escape.

“I was doing some historical research when I came across references to crimes that had taken place on canals. There didn’t seem to be a book on canal crime north of the border, so I started to look into it,” said Mrs Stewart. “Even in the early stages I was surprised by the sheer variety of crimes that have taken place there. I was amazed to find there had been a kidnapping, an attempted terrorist plot, and a wounded soldier with a lot of brass neck who impersonated an eminent military man. A lot of the incidents are barely known about. The stories were so intriguing that I felt driven go on researching the subject.”

Avon Aqueduct on the Union Canal which was the scene of an abduction

One of the most appalling and heart-breaking discoveries Mrs Stewart reveals in the book is the level of infanticide on the canals and that in the main it was the mothers of these helpless babies who were the culprits.

“I found more than 100 reports in newspapers of children, the vast majority infants a few days or weeks’ old,” added Mrs Stewart. “I discovered that a large number of appeals had been published in the newspaper, looking for information in relation to suspected infanticides. It was mainly abandoned newborns that were found in canals. The extent of it was truly shocking. Infanticide was a more frequent phenomenon in general throughout the 19th century and even into the early 20th century, and the association with canals was a particularly strong one in the public mind. Probably that’s because there was a good chance of the perpetrator not being caught if the child was abandoned in the water. It seems that, in response to newspaper appeals for information, the perpetrator was only identified in about a third of cases. The fact that the majority of those children were never identified makes it even more poignant, I think.

“There are cases where the perpetrator was identified, and almost all cases it was a woman. In only three cases I looked at, the perpetrator was a man. These are almost all stories of women who were destitute. Testimonies show that they were wandering the canal hungry and cold, and barely knew what they were doing. Perhaps the suspected infanticide cases have wilfully been forgotten because it’s such an unsettling subject.”

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Piecing together the book to get to the stage of securing a publishing deal with Rymour Books has been a labour of love and the information was not always easy to come by.

Mrs Stewart added: “There was a fair bit of historical detective work involved. I was keen to dig out all the sources I could and give an accurate reflection of the variety of incidents across different geographical locations in the Highlands and Lowlands. I spent time in archives and libraries, poring over old documents, especially court papers, letters, and newspapers. I also visited many of the locations, when that was possible outside of lockdown. That helped me to get a good sense in my mind of how the incidents played out.

“I also made a point of looking for crimes involving canals outwith the central belt. Crime took place in some unlikely rural spots on the Crinan, the Caledonian and the now defunct Aberdeenshire Canal.

“I was keen to research and write about ones that are unknown. Most people know about Burke and Hare being labourers on the Union Canal, but they weren’t involved the body-snatching trade. They were serial murderers. The trade in bodies was a very shadowy business and clearly nobody who was involved in it advertised what they were doing. That makes it a challenge to find out how the canals were used as a route to the medical schools. However, I did manage to get an inkling of the large scale of the trade for transporting bodies to the Glasgow and Edinburgh medical schools.”

The book captures crimes deep in Scotland’s industrial era and in the heartland of that revolution, in Glasgow, there was a sorry fate for one young homeless man.

“Homeless men often slept by the industrial buildings in Port Dundas, in a maze of warehouses, refineries, and distilleries that would have been very busy, grimy and noisy during the day,” added Mrs Stewart.

“The homeless were huddling up against the kilns to keep warm at night. They were treated as trespassers if found. It was a dangerous place right beside deep water, with lots of debris lying about.

“John Broadfoot was born and lived in Glasgow, worked as a moulder but after losing his job he became homeless. His parents had moved away so he slept outside with other boys at the kilns. Broadfoot vanished one night in August 1864, aged only 15 or 16, after being chased by two policemen.

Detailed research and detective work was involved in bringing the book together

"Other rough sleepers were afraid to report him missing as they could be arrested as vagrants. After a search, Broadfoot’s body was found in the Forth and Clyde. Murder or an accident, it wasn't clear. However, the finger of suspicion pointed to a policeman from Caithness, Robert Sinclair."

A pre-Second World War crime, the mysterious case of the Hunters from December 1938, also features in the book.

Retired engine driver William Brown was tending his allotment at Dalmuir when he heard a distressed cry.

Charles Hunter, a 57-year-old gardener, was on the bank of the Forth and Clyde Canal shivering and wet.

“Mr Hunter says his wife Edith has fallen in the water,” explained Mrs Stewart. “Mr Brown goes for help, but by the time he comes back, Mr Hunter has vanished. Mr Brown and another man fish Mrs Hunter out the water. She’s dead.

“Charles reappears and the case is investigated. Detective Inspector George Stalker carries out an experiment on the canal to see which way Mrs Hunter is likely to have floated – using a dummy in the shape of a woman. He is suspicious of Mr Hunter although he denies causing her death.

“Leading forensic scientist of the time, Professor John Glaister, is brought in to examine the body and foul play is suspected. It ends up with a sensational High Court trial.”

While they might have been unsettling crimes to research and write about, drawing on her experience as a journalist, Mrs Stewart was able to distance herself as she felt it was important these stories were told.

“I’m well aware of how traumatic it can be for someone to find themselves caught up in a crime,” added the former music critic for our sister title The Herald. “I was used to writing about crime from a few years ago when I was a news reporter, so I think that experience meant I was used to keeping a degree of psychological distance in order to ask the right questions and find out the facts of what had happened. At the same time, of course, I found it unsettling, but it was important to tell some of the lesser known stories.”

Scottish Canal Crimes by TA Stewart is available to preorder from Perth publisher Rymour at https://www.rymour.co.uk/