REMARKABLE FORTITUDE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22142, 22 June 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

REMARKABLE FORTITUDE

MAN WITH FRACTURED SKULL How a man was stated to have refused to see. a doctor after he had fallen and fractured his skull was told at the Paddington inquest on Jesse James Walker, aped 6.'}, clerk and cashier at Middle Temple. London, who died in hospital as the result of the fall. It was stated that Walker was in the habit of leaving a shopping bag in the cook's room at the Temple. Od the day of the accident he found that the door was locked and attempted to ciimb over a partition He apparently fell and struck his head, but at a second attempt was successful. Then he appeared to have put one chair on top of another in order to climb back, but evidently became giddy, and finally opened the door with a penknife The head porter beard moaning noises, and found Walker bathing his bead in the wash basin in bis own room. He insisted that he was all right and refused to have a doctor or a taxicab. The porters watched him walk down Middle Temple Lane, and saw him get across the Embankment, but he then fell, and was picked up by .a policeman. It was later found that his skull was fractured On behalf of the Benchers of the Middle Temple, the Hon. Ewen Montagu expressed deep sympathy with the relatives of the dead man, who, he declared, was an old and trusted servant. The coroner, Mr. Ingleby Oddie, recorded a verdict of "Accidental death."