DEATH ENDS FAST

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 365, 28 May 1928, Page 11

DEATH ENDS FAST

FATAL LENTEN ORDEAL How a Lenten fast ended in death from starvation was told at an inquest at Egham on Mrs. Ivy Clark, aged 40, of Englefield Green, Surrey. Her companion, Miss Sarah Litten, said Mrs. Clark had had only two or three pieces of bread and butter since Ash Wednesday (February 22). She did not even have a drink of water. She wanted to fast for 40 days because Christ had. The Rev. E. T. Kirby, Congregational minister at Egham, said that when he saw Mrs. Clark on March 6 she would not give any assurance that she would take food. She refused again and again to see a doctor. She was suffering from some kind of religious obsession. Dr. Frederick Nicholson said that when he went to the house on Sunday (the day of Mrs. Clark’s death) he was horrified at the spectacle. He had been to the house the day before, when Mrs. Clark, in a loud voice, called out that she did not want to see him.

“She was lying half out of bed with her head about 2ft. from the ground," he said. “She looked like a skeleton. I think she had not had any food for many days, and was starving to death. She had a very strong will.

"Death was due to inanition from starvation, followed by colic.” A post-mortem examination showed that Mrs. Clark was emaciated to the last degree.

The jury returned a verdict of death from starvation. They considered there had been negligence on the part of Miss Litten.