SUDDEN DEATH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 June 1941, Page 6

SUDDEN DEATH

WITNESS AT APPEAL BOARD HEARING TESTIFYING ON BEHALF Or SON. SEIZURE PROVES FATAL. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. . Tragedy overshadowed the proceedings of the No. 1 Armed Services Appeal Board today when a middl*-aged man, Eric Henry Frost, collapsed and died a few minutes later. A son, Richard Frost, an electrical assembler, aged 21, after outlining his appeal, called his father as a witness to testify to the sincerity of beliefs held over a long period. The father gave evidence, in a calm, unhurried manner, that his son’s beliefs corresponded to his own sincere beliefs, based on Christian teachings and against the taking of life. Suddenly the witness slumped across the table which serves as a witness stand. The body sagged to .the floor, the nose receiving a sharp blow from the edge of a table. The son hurried forward and assisted his father into a lying position, supported by -willing helpers, the chairman, Mr Orr Walker, instructing a constable to telephone for a doctor.

The board silting was temporarily suspended while restorative m&sures were applied to Mr Frost, who obviously was suffering a severe seizure. A doctor arrived within a few minutes and pronounced life to be extinct. The body was removed to the Morgue. The wife of Mr Frost Senr., was present when the tragedy occurred. It is understood that Mr Frost was a retired Indian Civil Servant. He had been resident in New Zealand for a few years.