A MOTHER'S DESPAIR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 63, 11 September 1937, Page 11

A MOTHER'S DESPAIR

The tragic turn taken by a mother's devotion to free her daughter from what she believed to be incurable insomnia . and nervous breakdown was disclosed at the inquest yesterday afternoon into the death of Mrs. Frances Isobel Coles, who was found in a gasfilled bathroom at her home on July 19. Her seventeen-year-old daughter, who was lying beside her mother, recovered in hospital. VA verdict of suicide was returned by the Coroner, Mr. E. Gilbertson. :

The Coroner was satisfied that the tragedy was precipitated by the pverr wrought mind of Mrs. Coles, and that the daughter, mentally confused; was incapable of appreciating the motives or action of her mother.

Mr. A; H. Coles described his daughter's hysterical condition, and said his wife was passionately fond of her. The only reason he could suggest for the tragedy was that her daughter's illness preyed upon Mrs. Cole's mind to such an extent that she lost her reason. He last saw his wife alive when he returned from church on the Sunday, July 18, and found mother and daughter lying between eiderdowns on the bathroom floor just after 7 o'clock on the Monday morning. His married life, he said, had been very happy, and there were the best relationships among the members of the family (he had four children whose ranged from twenty-one to three).