YOUTH’S SUICIDE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23830, 9 June 1939, Page 4

YOUTH’S SUICIDE

INABILITY TO SECURE WORK FOUND WITH BULLET THROUGH HEAD (From Our, Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, May 30. Heartbroken because he could not secure employment, Gordon Raymond Hunt, aged 16, went to bed at his home at Windsor, South Wales, and shot himself through the head. So that the report of his rifle would not be heard, the police think, he waited until traffic noises in the street where he lived were loud, then pulled the trigger as he lay on the bed. Hunt’s sister found him dead the next morning when she went to call him for breakfast. A rifle was on the bed. A doctor said the youth had been dead several hours. Hunt, who was fatherless, had hoped to be a bookkeeper. He tried assiduously to secure work. His visits to the city were unsuccessful. He met with rebuffs after walking from place to place in the hope of finding a job, the police say, and he became despondent. When he returned home he declined his tea. He did not seem hapoy when he retired to his room for the night. Usually he slept with his window open, but he pulled it down and latched it. A well-educated boy, Hunt left school more than a year ago, and he had worked for a short petiod in a chemical factory. Among his belongings police found his former employer’s references, which gave Hunt a good character, and wished him well. He was a quiet boy, the police were told, and was likeable and well respected.