BROKER'S TERRIBLE DEATH

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 31 July 1913, Page 7

BROKER'S TERRIBLE DEATH

MOTOR CAR PLUNGES 16 FEEET INTO RIVER. The mystery of the death of Mr Charles Englebert, & stockbroker, who was the - victim of an extraordinary motoring accident in Kent on Saturday, June 7th, was cleared up at the inquest at Leigh, near Tonbridge, the following Tuesday, whemi a verdict of "Accidental death" was returned. Mr Englebert was the senior partner of the firm of Messrs Englebert and Schloesser, brokers, and, by a strange coincidence, the remainer partner , was "hammered" on the Stock Exchange on: Tuesday. It waa shown at the inquaßt on Mr ■Englebert, who lived at Meopham Park, Hildenborough, Kent, that ho set out from home on Friday night in his motor car to drive to Tonbridge Station, where he was to have met a friend from Germany. He did not meet the friend, who found his way to Mr Englebert's home alone. A® his host did not return duritjg the night, his family, who had spent a night of dreadful suspense, asked the police to search for hiim. Early on' Saturday morning it was found that the fence at -EnefieJd Bridge, Leigh, and part of the buttress of the bridge, had" been knocked away. At this point there is a drop of 16ft into the River Medway. When the river-bed was examined the car was found overturned in the water, and, on being hauled out, Mr Englebert's dead body was discovered fixed behind the steering-wheel. . It was stated that the dead stockbroker was not an experienced driver, and that he was short-sighted, and these circumstances, coupled with the additional fact that rain wae falling when he set out for Uonbridge, probably accounted for his terrible plunge off the road into thft river. Witnesses spoke of seeing a car driven through the village of Leigh at a high speed, and when' the car was recovered the speed dial registered 35 miles an hour. The body .had been twenty hours in the water. Mr Englebert leaves a widow and three young children. The "hammering" of the firm of which the late stockbroker was a member created a painful and sympathetic feeling, following, as it did, so soon on the tragic incident. It ie believed that the failure is of some magnitude, and one statement is to the effect that the firm . hammered themselves for self-protection in view of the tragic death of the senior partner. The failure was brought about by. the great fall in prices.