GAVE HIS LIFE TO SAVE TROUBLE.

BALACLAVA VETERAN'S FINAL

ACT OF DEVOTION

Behind the death of Captain Edward Howe Fisher-Rowe, uf Thorncombe. Griiildford, found poisoned on his seventy-seventh birthday, at Lower Belgrave Street, lies a pathetic story of unselfishness.

The captain was one of the slender band of Balaclava survivors, and had been a sufferer for years. At the inquest at Westminster, Captain Fisher-Rowe's son, a major |in the Grenadier Guards, said his ; father had been a captain in the 4th f Dragoon Guards and was a -T.P. of | London and Sarrey and deputy M:-.u- ---' tenant for i.Lo latter <.ou;:tv, !?.:■ ; '

suffered for a very long time from illness:

He had a bad accident when hunting before he married, about 45 yens ago. He was seven years on his back, and then got better. Then he straiiied himself again in lifting a large table, which laid him on his back for another three -years. The injury was to the spine, , and he suffered great pain at times. '

The Coroner: I am told cyanide of potassium will have to be considered in connection with his death.

Major Fisher-Rowe: 1 think vary likely he may have had the idea of such a thing in his mind for sc:ii9 time. I tKtnk he thought he was killing my mother. I think ho dki it entirely from an unselfish point of view. He thought the attention he required was telling on your mother very much?— Yes, and ray feeling is he did it to relieve her. Lady Victoria Isabella Fisher-Rowe, the widow, who is a daughter of the first Earl of llavensworth, said that while lying awake at night she heard a noise in her husband s room, and thought he had nightmare. The noise being repeated, she went in. She spoke to him and raised his head, and then rang the bell for assistance, but nobody heard. Then she left him and fetched her maid. Looking by the bedside she saw a small gla^ss, and, taking it up, said to the maid, '"He has been taking laudanum/ "He often said he would not live long," continued Lady Victoria, "but I knew there was nothing organically wrong, and sought to combat the idea with all my power. On one occasion I took his hand and asked him to swear that he would not take anything or do anything to himself. He would not, but as he was quite bright I thought no iriore about it."

Dr. Philpot, of Chester Square, said that he saw Captain Fisher-Rowe once a week before his death,, a great trouble being insomnia. H« was called at a quarter to two in the morning. The glass found near Captain Fisher-Rowe's bedside contained pure laudanum on top of some salts. A chemist who had analysed the crystals said that they were cyanide. The Coroner: Laudanum and cyanide; that is a combination I have not heard of before, i Have you seen a case before?— No.

Dr. Freyberger, who made the post^ mortem examination, stated that the cyanide caused the death, the laudanum playing but a small part, owing to its being a much slower poison.

The jury returned a verdict of "Suicide1 during temporary insanity," due to insomnia, and expressed their sincere sympathy with the family.