SUFFERINGS END

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 601, 4 August 1933, Page 3

SUFFERINGS END

LAST WORDS TO HOU SEKEEPER IN MESSAGE THROUGH TELEPHONE. "I'M JUST GOING TO SHOOT." [ [ A sensational disclosure was made ! at the inquest at Paddington on Mr. ; Edward A. Wilson, chief civil engineer I of the Metropolitan Railway, who was 1 found seriously wounded in his office at Baker Street station, London, and | died in Middlesex Hospital in the early hours of the following day. A revolver was found lying near him. Miss Emily Bland, Mr. Wilson's nurse-housekeeper, said that lately Mr. Wilson's health had been getting worse. On Thursday, for the first, he was irritable and nervy with guests. . When he went out in the evening she asked him, "Do you know where you are going?" and he replied, "I am off." ( There w.as a dramatic moment when Miss Bland, speaking in a voice full of emotion, said: "At 9 p.m., an hour after he left, he spoke to me on the telephone. He said, T have a revolver | in my hand, and I am just going to shoot myself.' He added, 'Good-bye, I am just go'ing to do it.' Then he rang off." Miss Bland said the she impiediately got on the telephone to the caretaker at the office and cried, "Rush down to Mr. Wilson's office at once." Brooded Over Disease. Mr. Wilson, said witness, had spoken of life not being worth living. He seemed to brood over his disease. ; It was stated that Mr. Wilson, who was 57, had for years suffered from very had health, parfcicularly arthritis in th'e legs. Although he had all these sufferings, said Mr. Edgar Swansbrick, a cousin, he was a young man of most beautiful and generous inclinations, and seemed to enjoy life to the full. | Alfred Richard Lepper, steward at the Metropolitan Railway office, said that at 9 p.m. Mr. Wilson was writing at his desk. A few minutes later there was a bang, but he took little notice of it until Miss Bland rang up. He then discovered the tragedy. There were two letters on the desk. ! Dr. H. M'.' Harris, of Wembley, where Mr. Wilson lived, said that his hip had been getting worse and increasingly impeding his movements. There was no prospect of cure. The Coroner (Mr. Ingleby Oddie) : And he would know that? Dr. Harris: I think he did. "Crippled Washout. The coroner said that Mr. Wilson had been suffering from profound depression caused by physical disability arising from a chronic disease of the hip joint, for which there was no hope of a cure. Mr. Wilson had written two farewell letters— one to his housekeeper enelosing a cheque for £25, and the other! to the general paanager of the railway company, which ran. — "Dear Sir,Moriturus te saluto (about to die, I salute you). Will you and my directors except my thanks for the way a crippled washout has been allowed to carry on.— Yours, Wilson." A verdict of suieide while of unsound mind was recorfied.