UNUSUAL SUICIDE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23376, 6 December 1945, Page 6

UNUSUAL SUICIDE

Futile Attempts At Rehabilitation Pacific Service Affects Airman (N.Z.P.A.) AUCKLAND, Dec. 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 City Coroner. Mr A. Addison, when I closing the inquest into the death of James Harold Ratcliffe, aged 41, married, a warrant officer in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. j Ratcliffe, who was on demobilisation ' leave, was found dead in his motorcar at Mechanic’s 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 instruct- ! ing them to replace the vehicle in his garage and to notify his sister-in-law as his wife was away. Ratcliffe also asked the police to deliver other letters to be found in his right inside coat . pocket. “In order to avoid further grief 1 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 said in his letter to the Coroner. "I am moved to take my life on account of the futility of iny attempts to rehabilitate : myself after six years’ service during the war. Though a reasonably sue- . cessful man before this, my dozens of inquiries and contacts during the last three months have produced no one with sufficient interest to offer me suitable employment. Might I request that the finding and publicity . be as helpful as possible.” Evidence was given by Marjorie Ratcliffe that she and her husband had lived happily together since his release from the Air Force three • months before. When she last saw him alone 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. Witness said that she had 1 exp.ert advice that this disease had : the’ effect of leaving a feeling of melancholia in the patient, and she was of the opinion that her husband was suffering from that condition. The Coroner said it seemed that the letter, coupled with Mrs R.atcliffe’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.