Teacher’s Suicide

Grey River Argus, 8 October 1934, Page 5

Teacher’s Suicide

AUCKLAND. October 6. That the cause of death was a rifle wound in the head self-inflicted while -uff*/ring from acute mental <lep:ession, was the verd ct returned by f he. Coroner, Mr McKeen. S.M.. at an inquest concerning the death of C ar-en<-e Farnsworth St .at ford, aged 33, whose body was found a’ 6.30 a.m. <>n September 18 on the slopes of Mount Eden. He was a teacher at the Kowhai Intermediate School.

Senior Sergeant Flannagan said deceased had addressed a- letter to the rolice. Part of the letter read to the Coroner was the concluding paragraph which stated: “I purpose having a talk with the Heavenly Father through the night, and when dawn comes may it usher in peace to at least one poor, harassed soul no longer concerned with mortal things. God bless yon al. each and every one. And so. on to the dawn . . . (signed) Clarence Farnsworth Strafford, on the close of a September evening.*’ Alfred Fitzpatrick Wells, headmaster of the Kowhai School, said that deceased two years ago had undergone an abdominal operation, and witness understood, he was to have 1o undergo another. He had also suffered from influenza. Witness linew that Stratford had financial worries. He had interested himself in many undertakings. particularly sport. He was an able teacher and very popu ar. but his activities in addition to school work must’ have affected his health. Witness considered that he was suffering from a nervous breakdown.