SUICIDE BY ELECTROCUTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9004, 14 December 1907, Page 3

SUICIDE BY ELECTROCUTION.

The story of the most astounding suicide of recent times was related at an inquest held at Kingston (England), recently on Mr William Benjamin Brown, of Albert Road, Norbiton. Mr Brown went to the powerhouse of the Kingston electric light works, and deliberately electrocuted himself. He was a master carpenter, and had done carpentering at the Kingston electric light works for some years past. He approached the foreman of the works, and asked to be shown the most dangerous portion of the s,witch-board. Thinking that he had work to do and that he wished to avoid danger, the foreman pointed out the parts to him and warned him to be very careful. Some time afterwards the foreman heard a man call out "Brown, what are you doing there?" He looked up and saw Mr Brown standing on the .platform of the main switch-board, and holding the terminals of the main switch and one of the alternators. He hurried to disconnect the current, but before he could do so IV r Brown fell back dead, a charge of 2,000' volts having passed through his body. The terminals were properly protected and could not have been grasped by accident. , A memorandum book, found on Mr. Brown's body, contained the following entry:—"l am going to my Father who made me—a weak child. I shall be better with Him. lam not ,a coward in body, but 1 have struggled for some years against my mind. Don't judge me hardly and say I am a coward. It is either this or Brookwood in the morning." The jury returned" a verdict of "Suicide during temporary insanity."