Augusta Grinham suffered from occasional bouts of depression and when she felt melancholy, she took an afternoon nap.

Even when she declined to be woken up with the offer of a cup of tea, her husband, Harry, was not in the slightest perturbed.

"No, I rather you did not," she reassured him. "I might still be dozing by then."

The painter and decorator did what she desired and after a couple of hours, went for a stroll in the late winter sunshine, but on his return, he was puzzled to find the house in darkness.

Going upstairs, he soon to his horror discovered why.

Augusta was still in bed and pulling back the bedclothes, tucked under her chin, he saw her throat had been cut with a gaping wound about three and a half inches long on the left side of her neck.

Mercifully, she was still alive and he dashed out of their home in John Street, Ryde to find Dr Kennedy, the local physician, who quickly dressed the wound which he realised had been self-inflicted.

Gently lifting the mattress, he retrieved her son's razor normally kept on the top shelf of the kitchen dresser.

Exactly a week later on February 28, 1912, she appeared before the town's magistrates to admit the charge of attempted suicide, leaving the Bench to ask the one inevitable question - why had she done it.

"She has been depressed for the last six or seven years," her husband explained.

"She has not complained lately but she has said in the past it feels like a heavy weight on top of her head. She has never threatened to do herself any bodily harm, and when I found her, she could not think how she came to do it."

Dr Kennedy confirmed she was conscious when he examined her, describing the wound as superficial and had only needed stitching.

Daily Echo: Hotels on the Esplanade in Ryde, taken from an old undated postcard.

"It was not dangerous as the main vessels had not been cut. I asked what she did it with, and she told me it was a razor which was under the mattress. The wound has healed very satisfactorily. I had the opportunity to talk to her and she very much regretted what she had done."

The magistrates were naturally concerned what treatment was in her best interests.

"She needs to be kept under careful observation," the doctor replied.

"If a companion could be found to look after her and with the added care of her husband, I believe she will be all right."

An apologetic Grinham promised never to repeat her suicide attempt and after her husband had given the court an undertaking he would look after her, she was released into his care without any penalty being imposed.