EXTRAORDINARY SELFCREMATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1478, 9 February 1887, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY SELFCREMATION.

An extraordinary and horrible caao of suicide by burning occurred on the 20th December at Kemerton, m East Gloucestershire. Tho he ad -gardener at Kemerton Court, named Alfred Adams, a widower, aged iO, whd lived with hia mother, way missed early on Monday morning. /,. serach was made, and it wua found that a root-house m the garden was on fire. The fire waa extinguished, and it was thtn found that m tho onrfchen floor of the houßO a pit sft Cm m depth had beet) dug by the deceased, m the bottom of which he had paced a quantity of wood, which he had saturated with bcmzoline, and haviiigUtiin down v\ on it hnd ignited it. A houzolino lump and oil-can were found m tho root-house, and outside was a bottle containing brandy, ''ho deceased was found to bo almost entirely burnt to ashtis, the only unconsnmed portions of the body beiug part of the masclts of tho thigh and backbone. The ashes are stated to huve only weighed 81bs, The deceased hud been an iumate of a lunatic aßylum. He hud lost his wife about twelve months ago, and had since been much depressed, and from two letters which ho loft ho iipppred to bo afflicted with religious tnsnia, "us m them he stated that he was commanded by tho Lord to bum his body. One of his delusions wns that Abraham ai;d Christ were one and the eatuo person, A verdict of •'Buicido while of unsound miud" was recorded.