AIRMAN’S SUICIDE

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 December 1945, Page 3

AIRMAN’S SUICIDE

SEQUEL TO DESPONDENCY. AUCKLAND, December 5. “This is probably one of those cases where men are experiencing great difficulties in the transition period between war service and rehabilitation,” commented the Coroner (Mr. A. Addison), when closing an inquest into the death of James Harold Ratcliffe, aged 41, married, a warrant officer in the Royal Nev; Zealand Air Force. Ratcliffe, who was on demobilisation leave, was found dead in his motor-car at Mechanics Bay on October 22, there being a tube leading from the exhaust pipe into the closed vehicle. Clipped to the window of the car was a letter addressed to the police, instructing them to replace the car in Ratcliffe’s garage, and to notify his sister-in-law, as his wife was away. Ratcliffe also asked them to deliver other letters to be found in his coat pocket. “In order to avoid further grief and embarrassment for my wife, I would be glad if you would accept the .statements in this letter, thus making it unnecessary for her to appear at the inquest,” Ratcliffe stated in his letter to the Coroner. “I am moved to take my life on account of the futility of my attempts to rehabilitate myself after six years’ service during the war. Though a reasonably successful man before this, my dozens of inquiries and contacts during the last three months have produced no one with sufficient interest to offer suitable employment. Might I request that the finding and publicity be as helpful as possible.” Evidence was given by Marjorie Ratcliffe, wife of the dead man, that, she and her husband had lived quite happily together since his release from the Air Force three months before. When she last saw him alive on October 20, before she left to spend a few days in the country, he seemed the same as usual, apart from his disappointment at not getting employment. She could give no reason for his action, except that he had contracted dengue fever while on service in the Pacific. The witness said she had expert advice that this disease had an after-effect of leaving a feeling of melancholia in the patient, and she was of opinion that her husband was suffering from that condition. The Coroner said it seemed that the letter, coupled with Mrs. Ratcliffe’s evidence, showed, that Ratcliffe was disappointed about not having suitable employment. A verdict was returned that the cause of death was suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning while in a despondent state.