SUICIDE IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.

Evening Post, Volume XVI, Issue 79, 16 March 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

SUICIDE IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.

On the 17th January, the visitors in St. Paul's Cathedral were greatly alarmed at the spectacle of a man leaping from the Whispering Gallery of the Cathedral. In his descent he struck against some of the wooden furniture, and received frightful injuries. It appears that a gentleman about thirty years of age, amongst others, paid for admission to the vaults, galleries, &c. Leaving the party, he strayed to the clock tower, and was there found kneeling, and evidently uttering a prayer. Remaining in this position longer than was usual, one of the workmen asked him to retire, when he rose and went in the direction of the Whispering Gallery. No notice was taken of him until a heavy thud was heard, accompanied by a crash, and on looking round the vergers were horrified to find that the -unfortunate man had thrown himself from the top of the railings in the gallery, breaking his fall by alighting on some chairs below, two of which were broken. He was at once removed to St. Bartholomew's, where life was pronounced to be extinct. The leg of a chair Tiad pierced him under the left arm, coming out at his back. The height of the gallery from the ground floor to the top of the railings is 101 feet. The sum of £13 in gold, and a silver watch and chain, were found on his person, as well as two letters addressed "T. W. Stevens," with which name his. linen was also marked. j