BOY’S FATAL QUEST

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 August 1929, Page 2

BOY’S FATAL QUEST

TRIED TO REACH NEST. HARROW, June 22. The suggestion that a Harrow School boy, Michael Charles Temple Williams, had been looking for a bird’s nest when he fell 36 feet to the ground, was put forward at the inquest here to-day. Mr Arthur W. Siddons, assistant master at Harrow School and housemaster at Rendalls, said the boy’s father was dead. He asked if the mother’s name need be disclosed. —The Coroner: There is no reason why it should be. I have it here. Mr Siddons said the ..boy had been excused from attending morning school. The window from which he fell was very narrow, only Ift. 6in. wide; not one a boy could fall out of easily. He knew Williams was keen on birds’ nesting. Two or three days before he had told boys he would like to see if there were any nests under the eaves. The Coroner: Is.there a bird’s nest there? Mr Siddons : Yes. It has since been pointed out to me. And on the window ledge below, which is steep, there is a new scratch, as though made by the nail of a boot. When Williams was found on the ground under the' window'one of his hands was very dirty, as though he had been feeling along the gutter. There was an egg-shell near-by. Although the room from which he fell was not his he was free to go there, and it was the only, room from which he could get at the nest. Williams had done a good deal of birds’ nesting during the term.

A verdict of accidental death was returned. /