DEATH BY DROWNING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20051, 25 September 1939, Page 8

DEATH BY DROWNING

FALL INTO WATER TANK EVIDENCE AT INQUEST A verdict of death by drowning •accidentally caused, w?is returned by the coroner's jury to-day at the inquest on Francis Lionel Sampson, milk roundsman, who was found dead in a water-tank on Saturday morning. Mr. M, Doyle, J.P., presided, and the jury comprised Messrs. K. R. Waite, foreman, C. V. Harre, E. Fitzmaurice, and C. W. Batson. Dr. Harold Angell gave evidence of having made a post-mortem examination. of the deceased. He was of the opinion that the cause of death was drowning. A small bruise on the forehead was consistent with an injury caused by a fall during a seizure.

William Hanna, a milk roundsman, deposed to having found the deceased lying in the tank on Saturday morning, the head and shoulders being submerged. The witness said that he called the deceased's brother, and they removed the body and applied artificial respiration, out without effect.

Gerald Thomas Mead Sampson, milk vendor, a brother of the deceased, said that the deceased usually lifted the milk-cans out of the tank every morning. The cans were about 70lb. in weight, but they did not give the deceased any trouble. The depth of water in the tank was 16 or 17in. The deceased had been subject to epileptic fits, but he had been free of them for some time. Otherwise he enjoyed normal health.

The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, adding that the assumption was that the deceased fell into the tank while subject to a seizure.