(Abergavenny Chronicle and Monmouthshire .... 28 April 1916)
Foreman Platelayer's Strange Death
JURY RETURN AN OPEN VERDICT
Mr.J.B.Walford (Coroner) conducted an inquiry at Pandy on Monday afternoon into the circumstances surrounding the death of Thomas Rogers (55), foreman platelayer, employed by the Great Western Railway Co. in the Pandy district, who was found by his son lying unconscious near the Pandy Station early on Good Friday morning. Inspector John Morgan, of Pontypool Road, represented the G.W.R. Co.
Alice Rogers, the widow, said her husband left home on Thursday morning to go to his work about ten minutes to six in the morning. She did not see him again until her son brought him home in a wheelbarrow next morning between 5 and 6 o'clock. He could not then move or speak, but he hummed the tune of a hymn. Witness had two sons, and John was a platelayer working in the Llanvihangel district. On Thursday evening John came home from work about 6 o'clock and went out after supper. Witness had gone to bed before he came in. She asked him if he had seen his father, and he said "No". Witness went to bed about 12 o'clock. She could tell by her son's answer that he was perfectly sober. He did not say where he had been, and he had not told her since. On Friday morning she told him that his father had not come home, and he said he would back if he saw anything of him.
The Coroner: Did your husband ever stay out at night? - No, only once during the 10 years I have been here.
He always came home? - Yes, and that is why I didn't trouble about him. I thought he would come.
John Thomas Rogers, son of the deceased, said he saw his father in the signal-box at 10 minutes to 6 on Thursday evening. There was also a man in his father's gang in the box. Deceased man was perfectly sober, and witness did not think he had had any drink at all. Deceased would have finished work at 5.30 p.m. Witness did not know whether he had drawn his pay, but the station-master told him that he had been there to pay for some coal. After he went home witness spent about an hour in the garden, and then sat down in the house talking with his brother and mother. He sat up till 9 o'clock, and then went to bed.
Conflicting Statements
The Coroner: How do you account for your mother thinking you were out till midnight? - I can't tell.
You never went off the premises? - No, sir.
Can you explain how it is your mother thinks so, because she is very positive about it? - No, sir, I can't.
Was your brother here? - Yes.
Your mother could not have got confused between you and your brother? - No. She may have got confused as to what happened.
Supt. Davies: She has made the statement three times, and she made it to myself.
The Coroner read Mrs. Rogers statement, as follows: "I went to bed about midnight. John came home after that."
Witness: It is wrong, sir.
Witness, continuing, said he left home a few minutes after 5 o'clock on Friday morning to go to work.
The Coroner: Did you know your father had not come home? - Yes.
How? - Because I have to pass through his room after I get up in the morning.
Did your mother speak to you before you went out? - She just said "Good morning."
Didn't she say anything about your father? - She said he hadn't come home.
Did you say anything about looking for him? - Not then, but I said I would look out for him on the road as I was going to work.
Witness added that he went down the station approach to get on to the line, and when he got just in sight of the signal-box he could see his father laying down by the gate that led into the yard. He was unconscious. Witness picked him up and said "Father, what is the matter?" but he did not answer. Witness put him to stand up against the fence, and he seemed to stand up all right, but as soon as witness let him go he fell down. Witness picked him up again, and he fell down a second time. Witness shouted to the signalman to come and give him a hand, but the signalman replied that he was too busy just then and suggested that he had better get a wheelbarrow to take him home. Witness got a G.W.R. wheelbarrow and took his father home. Deceased was not able to speak at all.
The Coroner: Were you on good terms with your father? - Yes, we never had a mis-word, and he has been one of the best fathers in the country.
Did he ever step over the mark? - He did like a drop of drink. That was his only fault.
What was his position when you found him? - He was lying on his back.
Were his clothes intact? - Yes, his watch and 2s. 9d. were in his pockets.
The Rev. John Davies (foreman): You remember your mother asking you if you had seen your father? - Yes.
The Coroner: She was I bed then?
Witness: No, she was sat by the fire.
The Foreman: Were you not inclined to go back to look for him? - He had always been in the habit of coming home. We always left his supper on the table, and we never had the slightest trouble with him.
Inspector Morgan: You didn't think to ask your father in the signal-box if he was coming home? - No.
You are not in the habit of going home together? - No.
Was he in the habit of staying behind? - He would often have a chat with the signalman after he had finished duty.
The Coroner (to Inspector Morgan): Does it strike you that the signalman might have been able to render assistance?
Inspector Morgan: If there was a train in the section there would be a difficulty for a few minutes, but after that he should have been able to render assistance.
Walter Curtis, signalman at Pandy, said deceased came into his box about 5.30 and remained till 6 o'clock. He was quite sober. There were no trains about at the time he left. He had a bad foot and walked with a limp.
The Coroner: Knowing what you do of the facts, can you help us at all as to how he came to be where he was and injured? - No, I can't.
By the Foreman: Witness left the box about 7 o'clock and did not see anything of the deceased then.
Francis Edwin Jenkins, signalman at Pandy, who was on duty on Good Friday morning, said he heard John Rogers shouting "Can you come and give me a hand?" Witness said he could not for a few moments. Rogers said "I have got the old chap out here," and witness saw him pick his father up twice and the latter fell down. Witness told him he had better get a wheelbarrow.
Charles Jenkins (11) said he saw the deceased come away from the signalbox about 6 o'clock on Thursday evening and walk down the line towards Pontrilas. He had seen him go that way before.
Severe Bruises and Hemorrhage
Dr. Lloyd said he had attended deceased professionally, and he was an alcoholic subject but a fairly strong man. Witness saw him between 10 and 11 o'clock on Friday morning about two or 2½ hours after death. Superficially there were slight abrasions on the right side of the forehead and on the left temple. The back of the right hand and forearm were bruised, and the right hip, thigh, groin and leg were bruised severely. The left thigh had a bruise and superficially abrasion. Witness made a postmortem examination on Sunday. He measured the bruise on the right thigh which extended from the top of the haunch bone down the leg for 33 inches, and also extended round the thigh to the front of the leg. This bruise he opened, and immediately there gushed forth a very large quantity of blood, some of which was clotted, indicating that the injury happened some hours before death. Over the centre of the bruise was a different coloured mark to the rest - reddish, where the skin was very badly bruised indeed. This mark was five inches long and four inches broad. The muscles of the right thigh were badly pulped and the blood vessels were ruptured. On the left thigh there was a bruise and extraversation of blood from the top of the hip to the knee, 16 inches long. Below the knee there was another extraversation of blood, four inches long. Deceased's right hand and arm from the nails of the fingers to two inches below the elbow were also badly contused, the extraversation of blood in this case extending practically right round the arm. The back of the left hand from the tip of the fingers to two inches above the wrist were in the same condition. The five small marks on the right side of the forehead were superficial only. All the organs were healthy, except the heart, in the muscles of which there was fatty degeneration. The valves of the heart were perfectly sound. The injuries must have been caused by great violence, and could not have been inflicted by an ordinary fall.
The Coroner: The injuries would not be inconsistent with deceased having been brushed by an engine?
Witness: The difficulty about that is that the chief bruising was on the thigh, and I don't known what part of the engine could have caught him there.
In reply to the Coroner, Inspector Morgan said it was possible for a person to be brushed by one of the side rods as an engine went by.
Dr. Lloyd added that the cause of death was hemorrhage, which had taken place owing to the subsidence of the muscles and tissues, and death was accelerated by the condition of the heart.
In reply to the Coroner, witness said that under the circumstances he would not expect find a pool of blood on the ground, as the hemorrhage was not external.
The Coroner, in summing up, said he thought they had got the true history of the case. There was a substantial discrepancy between the mother and the son as to what time the latter came home, but it struck him that it was not inconsistent to the extent of being absolutely contradictory evidence. He though it probable that the poor woman was very much upset and she might have mistaken the time. There were no suspicious circumstances.
P.-C.Blunt said there was a hut down the line in the direction in which the deceased was last seen going, and deceased's frail was found there afterwards.
The Coroner said it seemed to him that the only alternatives before the jury were an open verdict or an adjournment. An open verdict would not close the case, so far as the police were concerned, if other evidence was forthcoming.
The jury returned an open verdict that deceased died on Friday from severe injuries received the day before, causing hemorrhage, and from the condition of his heart, but that there was no evidence to show how he came by his injuries.