TWELVE INQUESTS HELD

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25549, 17 July 1948, Page 3

TWELVE INQUESTS HELD

CORONERS’ VERDICTS Twelve inquests were concluded before Coroners yesterday, the verdicts in most cases being that death “was due to natural causes. Sergeant EL W. F. Simpson conducted proceedings for the police. Verdicts, finding the cause of death to be in .accordance with the medical evidence, were returned as follows, by the Coroner (Mr Raymond Ferner):— Francis Taylor, aged 67, a retired cook, who was found dead in a bach on May 18—heart failure due to arterial degeneration; Robert Buchanan, aged 60, a grocer, who died suddenly on May 7 heart failure due to coronary occlusion; Arthur Colman Williams, aged 48, a. brewery worker, who died on May s—heart failure following chronic bronchitis; William Orton Langdown, aged 37, a physical culture director, who died suddenly on June 15—heart failure due to coronary occlusion. A verdict was returned that Gordon James Woodham, aged 50, a Customs agent, died on June 11. the cause of death being shock and haemorrhage following a wound in the neck, self-inflicted. Evidence was given that he had been in ill-health for some time. The following verdicts, finding the cause of death to be in accordance with the medical evidence, were returned by the Coroner (Mr F. F. Reid):— Leslie Thomas Hazeldine. aged 52, an agent for "The Press,” who died suddenly on February haemorrhage, following essential hypertension; Henry Kerr, aged 61, a retired postal clerk, who died suddenly on January 25—heart failure, following high blood pressure and coronary atheroma: Elizabeth Bell Varrie Sim. aged 41, single, who was found dead at her home on January 11—heart failure, due to toxic myocarditis: William Fraser, aged 64, retired shopkeeper, who died suddenly on February' 26—heart failure following severe atheromatus degeneration of the coronary arteries; Vera Mavis ’Johansson, aged 37, a married woman, died on May I—asphyxia,-due. to status asthmaticus, evidence being given that she suffered from chronic asthma; Olive Mary Kiesanowski, aged 27. a maxried woman, who collapsed during an operation and died on April 29—heart failure, due to gas embolism occurring in the course of a utrine operation. A verdict was returned that Dorcas Mary Opie, aged 67, a widow, whose body was found in the Avon river on February 19, died from asphyxia, due to suicidal drowning while in a state of acute mental depression.