Sarah
Hawkins Genealogy Site
Newspaper
Articles
Taunton Courier. Bristol and Exeter Journal, and Western Advertiser Wednesday 18 Nov 1931
Page 8 Column 5
TRULL MAN'S DEATH FROM WAR WOUNDS.
PENSION STOPPED FIVE YEARS AGO.
TAUNTON INQUEST STORY.
Charles John FOURACRE, a carpenter, aged 53, of Jubilee-terrace, Comeytrowe, Trull, died in Taunton Hospital from wounds he received in France thirteen years ago. The Coroner, Mr. Geoffrey P. CLARKE, conducted an inquest on Saturday afternoon with a jury of which Mr. E. SMITH was chosen foreman.
P.C. FERMOR, Bishop's Hull, was Coroner's officer.
The Coroner said death was due to war wounds and it was must essential in such cases that there should be a proper verdict to that effect. If the matter were not gone into carefully there would probably be difficulties with the Pensions Committee. In all cases where death was due to war wounds or to a disease contracted during the war it was his duty to ascertain definitely the cause of death. The deceased received a shrapnel wound in the left leg in France in 1918, and he was in receipt of a pension until 1925. Since then the wound had given considerable trouble, and when he was admitted to hospital it was still very inflamed.
PENSION STOPPED.
Mrs. Alice FOURACRE, the widow, said her husband was a journeyman-carpenter employed by the Great Western Railway Company. They were married in 1919 and had four children. Deceased was wounded in the left leg in the war, through which he served with the Somerset Light Infantry, the 9th Middlesex and the 12th London Regiments. From the time of their marriage until about five years ago he was in receipt of a pension. The wound had given great trouble from time to time. On November 5th he was attended by Dr. JOSCELYNE, who ordered his removal to hospital. There had been repeated attacks of swelling from the wound since the war.
Doctor Alice Mary KAYE, house surgeon, at the Taunton and Somerset Hospital, said deceased was admitted on November 7th. Two days later an operation was performed, after which he became very ill and developed acute septicaemia. He died on November 12th. Before the post-mortem examination she was definitely of opinion that death was due to war wounds, and she agreed with Dr. CARTER's findings.
PATHOLOGIST'S EXAMINATION.
Dr. Godfrey CARTER, pathologist to the Taunton and Somerset Hospital, who conducted the post-mortem examination, reported that the leg, from the ankle to the lower part of the thigh, was very swollen. There was a thin irregular scar of long standing about two and a-half inches above the ankle and another about the size of a two-shilling piece. In his opinion death was definitely due to the breaking down of old scars, which he was informed were caused by war wounds received in 1918.
A verdict in accordance with the medical evidence was returned.
The Coroner express sympathy with Mrs. FOURACRE in the death of her husband. Death was due to wounds he received while fighting for his country, and it was sad to think that though he nominally ceased to draw his pension he had received so much trouble from the wound.
The jury added their sympathy and handed their fees to the widow.
<NOTES: Charles John FOURACRE son of James Henry FOURACRE and Julia HEMBROW, married Alice PURSEY>