V.C. HERO'S DEATH

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 74, 14 April 1937, Page 5

V.C. HERO'S DEATH

-Press Assn.-

Fatal Fall in London Streei CYCLIST NOT TO BLAME

(By Telegrapt

-Copyrijbt.)

(Beceived 14, 8.45 a.m.) LONDON, April 13. An inquest was helcL to-day conceraing the deatlf in Birdcage Walk of Gunner Arthur PerCy Sulliivan, who was awaxded ,the .Vicstoria Cross in 1919, and who was a nacember of the Australian Coronation cointingent. Mr. Ingleby Oddie conducted the inquest. Three little girls who had asked tho deceased for an autograph, pccupied the front seats in Court, next to Captain Lind, who was in full unifiorm. Mr. Paul Tyrie appeared on heh£Llf of the eyclist, William Charles Pidflington. Captain Lind gave evidence that Mr. Sullivan was in good health. Mr. Oddie: Did he ever have ,fits? Captain Lind: I have. no . reeprd of his medical history, but all the (kmtingent were most stringently medtcally examined for fitness prior to sahling. Florence Mead, aged eleven, gfive evidence that she crosssd the road and asked a soldier for an autograph. S(he got it and then ran across the roa^d ' to the barracks. The soldier was about to cross the road when he slip* ped and fell backwards and struck his iiead on the road. She saw a man with' a bicycle, but he did not knock down the soldier, who was down on the road before the cycle reached him. Medical evidence was that death was due to a fracture at the base. of the skull and laceration of the brain. William Charles Piddington, a motor driver, gave evidence that he was riding homewards on his bicycle on the near side of the road, at a speed of ten miles an hour. His lamp was alight. He collided with something, but could not say what it was, but he was fiung to the road and slightly stunned. When he sat up he saw a soldier lying on the road, his head near the gutter. "I had not seen him standing np at all," said witness. "It was the wheel of the cycle which struck something." Mr. Oddie said jthat it was at flist thought that the deceased had -beeii knocked down by a bicycle, » but inquiries ha'd shown beyond all reasonable doubt that that was not so. A verdict of accidental death was returned. •