Sarah
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Articles
The Western Daily Press and Bristol Mirror Saturday 18 Feb 1939
Page 5 Column 7
TAUNTON INQUEST QUESTIONS
War Wounds Unlikely to Have Contributed to Death
The possibility of severe war wounds being a contributory cause of death was the subject of questions at the inquest at Taunton, yesterday, on Albert Edward FOURACRE (55), cycle dealer, Station Road, Taunton, who died at Taunton Hospital.
FOURACRE, it was stated, travelled from California to England to enlist in 1914. He served as a dispatch rider attached to the Royal Engineers.
The widow, Mrs Gwen Matilda FOURACRE, told the coroner, Mr Geoffrey P. CLARKE, that in 1917 her husband was critically wounded in the arms, legs, and abdomen. He was in hospital until 1918, and since then he had continually suffered from abdominal pains.
“Institutional treatment was recommended by a doctor last November,” she added, “but it was turned down by the Ministry of Pensions on the grounds that they did not want to be put to additional expense, which I thought was rather extraordinary.”
Dr. Godfrey CARTER, pathologist at Taunton Hospital, said the cause of death was cardiac failure, due to old perecarditis, and exhaustion of the tissues, the result of cancer in the stomach.
In reply to questions, Dr. CARTER said he was not prepared to go as far as to say that there was no possible connection between an infected abdominal wound and the formation of a gastric ulcer, but that would be contrary to his life's experience.
Returning a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, the coroner expressed sympathy with the widow, who, he said, had given 20 years of her life to looking after her husband during his illness.
<NOTES: Albert Edward FOURACRE son of James Henry FOURACRE and Julia HEMBROW, married Ellen Matilda FOURACRE
Gwen Matilda FOURACRE is Ellen Matilda FOURACRE daughter of Charles FOURACRE and Matilda VICKERY, married Albert Edward FOURACRE>