DOCTOR'S FALL TO DEATH

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3471, 26 May 1934, Page 10

DOCTOR'S FALL TO DEATH

DIFFICULTY ABOUT ENGAGEMENT.

FIANCEE’S STORY,

“SERIOUS DISCUSSION WITH MY PEOPLE.”

A doctor’s fiancee was questioned about their engagement at the inquest at Westminster, in England, on the body of Dr Arnold Foxcroft, aged 34 years, who was found dead on a flight of stairs at a hotel in Bedford Place, where he had been staying. She was Miss Evelyn Beasley, and she said she had been engaged to the doctor for about 18 months. He had been worrying- because he was not in employment. He had recently been doing locum tenens work, but he had nothing definitely fixed, and that depresesd him.

“ He was depresesd, really, about two things,” M'ss Beasley added. “First, he wanted to marry me, and he was not quite sure that my family would l>e happy about it.”

The coroner: Had he any reason to doubt it ?—He had had a rather serious discussion with my people on the Monday before, and he was afraid the l-esult would not be favourable. Nothing definite had been said, but he felt that he would be refused. He felt that we would have to split with

my family to a certain extent, and he did not wish to be the means of dividing the family. He was quite happy when I left him. The coroner: Had he ever threat-* ened to do anything to himself ?—- Yes; he said on Monday night that if we were married and he in any way let me down, and could not keep me in the position he wanted to keep me in, he would end his life. I did not take it seriously. Miss Beasley said that at one time Dr Foxcroft drank a great deal, but he had “ -pulled up ” recently. Sidney John Easton, night porter at the hotel, said that he admitted Dr Foxcroft about 4 o’clock on Thursday morning. He was then intoxicated. Later in the morning he found the doctor lying dead half .way up the service stairs. The stairs were used only for baggage, and the doctor would have no occasion to go down

them. ~ . , , Evidence was given that the sight of one of the doctor’s eyes was defective, and Easton expressed the view that, thinking he was going along the corridor to his roonr, the doctor might have gone too far or he might have wanted to go upstairs and missed the turning. Deceased was not so intoxicated that he would have any difficulty in seeing the turning. Dr John Taylor said there was no sign of any abnormal "ambunt'"of alcohol. Death was due to dislocation of the neck by the fall.' ' The coroner, recording a verdict of accidental death, said- he imagined the doctor missed his turning while going to his room, and fell. Theie was no evidence to suggest that he took his own life.