DOCTOR’S DEATH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20640, 1 February 1937, Page 9

DOCTOR’S DEATH

ASCRIBED TO SUDDEN BRAIN STORM United Press Association—By Telegraph—Copvrteht (Received January 31, 10.20 p.m.) LONDON, January 30. “I believe he had a sudden brain storm,” said the Coroner, when returning a verdict of insanity in the case of Dr. Percival John George Payne, an Australian, aged 40, who committed suicide in a boarding house in Leicester. A friend of the doctor, Charles Wilkie, gave evidence that Payne sold a large practice in Leicester and went to Australia. He was disappointed with the prospects there and returned to England, but failed to secure practices in Gloucester and Leicester, where he arrived on December 24. He became depressed, saying that life was not worth living. A mental specialist advised Dr. Payne to enter a home and undergo nerve treatment, but Dr. Payne and his wife asked witness not to act thereon, as they feared he might be certified insane. The boarding house proprietor, in evidence, said he found Dr. Payne and his wife struggling, but they soon calmed down. Payne summoned Wilkie, who was attempting to administer a sedative, when Payne snatched a razor from a trunk and slashed his throat twice, in spite of Wilkie struggling to obtain the razor.