It was the 22nd May 2016 when the body of a white European male was discovered washed up on the banks of the River Thames near Greenwich.
Not much is known about the location of where the Greenwich man was discovered as the UKMPU give a very limited description. The UKMPU does give a theory that the Greenwich man may have jumped of tower bridge which is located further up the river from Greenwich. They stated this may have happened on the morning of 17th of May 2016. just a week prior to the Greenwich man being discovered.
The Greenwich man was a white European and had brown eyes, ginger thinning hair, he was of medium build and stood at 5 ft 9 ins tall but sadly had no distinguishing features. So with few details we take a look at what the Greenwich man was wearing to see if that may shed some light on who he might be.
The Rigger/Wellington boots
There is no public image of the boots the Greenwich man was wearing but the UKMPU did describe these as rigger style wellington boots. Could the unidentified man be from the rigging industry or did he work in the fishing industry at all? Without the images of the boots, it is very hard to comment further as it leaves to many open questions.
Gloves, Scarf, and Hat
The Unidentified Greenwich man was wearing a black and red scarf with a black and red pair of woollen gloves and a woollen hat (No colour description of the hat available). May isn’t the coldest month of the Year in the UK, so why was the unidentified male wearing such clothing, it seems out of place for someone who had passed a week prior, maybe he was keeping warm due to having no where to go? or maybe he did work on the waters and he used this clothing to keep warm. Could that be possible?
He also wore a pair of jeans, a black belt, a t-shirt with a buttoned collar and two jackets, one being made of a fleece like material. The colour of both of these are currently unknown. The unknown male is not publicly documented with underwear, maybe he just didn’t wear any or maybe his full list of clothing is not completely documented.
Backpack/torch
When we take a look at the Greenwich mans possessions it does give us some more information on what he was doing before his death. He had a rucksack which was black and purple with the brand of the backpack remaining unknown. This could mean he was travelling and maybe not be from the Greenwich or greater London area. The torch also indicates he may have also been travelling at night.
Pair of Glasses
It is unknown where the Greenwich man’s glasses were found on his body and it is also unknown if they are reading glasses of glasses to see at a distance. Maybe they are sunglasses. Again there is little description of the glasses leaving many open questions.
Smoker
He also had two packets of tobacco, suggesting he was a smoker. No rolling papers or a lighter is described in the possessions list on the UKMPU website. Maybe he wasn’t a smoker but these smaller items may not have been listed or maybe if the UKMPU theory is correct that the Greenwich man jumped off tower bridge, maybe he lost some items in the water or on the way down from his fall.
Miscellaneous
The Greenwich man had a pair of nail clippers, maybe he was found of having manicured nails and maybe something slightly unusual that might be recognisable to someone. Maybe he had issues with his toe nails where he needed to trim them because they were sore. Who knows? but it could be one thing that stounds out if anything.
The ceramic trinket of a robin sounds like something that was sentimental to the Greenwich man. Did it belong to someone who he recently lost, or did he acquire it prior to his death from his travels? Again not much description is given by the UKMPU, including image, colour and size.
Mini notepad containing a list of street names
What street names were in the mini notepad? were they in the London Area? I guess the UKMPU do not give out this list due to not wanting to disturb the peace, because someone like me would want to send posters to those streets, and then someone else like me would want to do the same thing and so on…
This can become quite distressing for a community so I do somewhat understand if they were not released for that reason. Maybe the notepad was destroyed in the water and they don’t know the street names.
What ever reason for the street names the Greenwich man has written down releasing some of the writing could help with identifying him and would also give us more information to appeal with.
The question still remains, who was he searching for and why? why was he searching different streets rather than a singular address? There are many unanswered questions remaining with the Greenwich man and many topics to discuss.
We need more images
As mentioned numerous times, images are needed. The UKMPU is currently going through an update and cases are being reuploaded to what looks like a new web address. From the old database to the new one, a lot of information is missing and this has made it even harder to capture these cases for documentation but it won’t stop me.
If you have any information that could lead to the identification of the Greenwich man, please contact the UKMPU here or contact Crimestoppers anonymously here or call 0800 555 111
Pre-mortem Injuries: unknown
Post-mortem Injuries: unknown
Case number: Case 16-002866
Type: Body
Gender: Male
Age range:35 – 55
Ethnicity: White European
Height:177cm (5 ft 9 ins)
Build: Medium
Date found:
22 May 2016
Circumstances:A male body was found on the edge of the River Thames near Greenwich. It is possible he jumped off Tower Bridge on 17/05/2016 in the early morning.
Cause of Death: May have fallen from a height.
Possessions:
large purple and black rucksack (empty), green torch, ceramic trinket of a robin, pair of glasses, 2 packs of tobacco, pair of scissors, mini notepad containing a list of street names
Town: London
Locality: Greenwich
County: Greater London, England
Police force: Metropolitan police
Hair type: thinning
Hair colour: Ginger
Facial Hair: Full Beard
Eye colour (left): Brown
Eye colour (right): Brown
Case information: may have jumped off Tower Bridge on 17/05/2016 in the early morning.
Distinguishing features: none
Clothing:
- Belt – Belt – Unknown
- Footwear – Boots – Unknown – rigger/wellington type
- Gloves – Woollen – Unknown – black and red
- Headwear – Woolly hat – Unknown
- Jacket – Fleece – Unknown
- Jacket – Unknown – Unknown
- Scarf – Unknown – Unknown – black and red
- Shirt/blouse – T-shirt – Unknown – with buttons on top half near collar
- Trousers – Jeans – Unknown
Jewellery: none
Body Parts: n/a
Bone Details: none
DNA: unknown
Dentals:unknown
Fingerprints: unknown
Toxicology: unknown
Maps:
Useful links
Unidentifiedwiki The Greenwich John Doe
MyLondon The chilling database with the 264 unsolved deaths in London unable to be identified by police
MyLondon The 12 bodies found in the last decade across London that police haven’t been able to identify
Planet Unidentified 
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