12th December 1947

Goytrey Woman’s Suicide: A Sad Story

Afraid of having to enter a mental home Mrs Harriett Morris left her sleeping husband in the early morning, waked 300 yards from her home to the canal in her nightdress and threw herself from the bridge.

“Suicide whilst in a state of mental instability” was the verdict recorded at the inquest at Pontypool on Saturday by Mr D J treasure.

Mrs Morris 58, married woman with no children lived at Vine Tree Goytrey.

Dr J B Fitzsimons said he had been treating Mrs Morris for the past three years for nervous debility. When he saw her at home on December 1^st she was depressed and hysterical. She told him that she was very ill – her nerves were bad – and that she was not going to get any better. He discussed various possibilities with her and she seemed to become pacified; she showed no suicidal tendencies. He then suggested she should go to Abergavenny Hospital as a voluntary patient and she replied that she should take a little time to consider it.

Mr Morris told him the following morning that his wife had not made up her mind. When the Doctor saw her on the following Wednesday she said she was willing to go to the institution. On Thursday we went to Griffithstown mortuary and saw her body. Death was due to drowning.

The Coroner: were you surprised? – “There was always that possibility.”

“Couldn’t Stand Living”

Edwin John Morris said that up to two years ago his wife had been quite normal. She showed signs of developing nervous trouble after nursing her mother, who died after a year’s illness during which she was bedridden. Last summer her health seemed to improve but in the winter she again became depressed. She told him she could not carry on and that “she had to go as she couldn’t stand living any longer.” She had never tried to harm herself.

On the night before the tragedy she became very strange and would not speak. When the doctor called he told Mr Morris that she should go into a mental home as there was nothing more that he could do. His wife overheard the conversation and she refused to go. The next day said Mr Morris he intended to arrange for her to go but he did not mention the subject to her again and they went to bed.

“She Has Done It”

In the morning he found his wife was not in bed. After looking for her in vain in the house he went towards the canal. His niece went ahead to look for Mrs Morris. A few minutes later she returned to say, “She has done it; she is in the canal.” He saw her in the canal near Parc-y-brain Bridge, on the Pontypool side. She was in her nightdress. People were getting her out.

Mr Morris in reply to the Coroner attributed the tragedy to his wife’s nerves. She had to give her mother constant attention during her illness and was unable to get help.

The Coroner: it was enough to break down the strongest constitution.

Miss (should be Mrs) Esmeralda May Lewis of the Castle Goytrey said she reached the canal in time to see Cliff James trying to bring her aunt to the bank.

Lying Near Bank

Ivor Jenkin, The Knoll, Goytrey, said he was driving his van along the road leading to the Goytrey Arms when Miss Lewis said “auntie has done it; she is in the canal.” He ran to the canal and saw the body, which was lying in shallow water three feet from the bank. He helped James and Arthur Howells to get to the bank; she was already dead.

P.C. Kenneth Jenkins Little Mill told the Coroner that Mrs Morris might have reached the canal from her house by walking across fields or along the grass verge of the road. It was unlikely that she had walked along the road itself, as it had a flinty surface and no marks were found on the soles of her feet. The canal bridge was about 200 to 300 yards from her house.

Jumped From Bridge

The constable said he formed the opinion from the position of the body that Mrs Morris jumped ten feet from the hump-backed bridge into the canal.

The Coroner said he was satisfied that Mrs Morris was not in a normal state. If her husband had been able to get her to agree to go to a mental institution she might have recovered. The fear of what was going to happen to her caused her to commit suicide. She did that rather than become an inmate of a mental institution.

The funeral on Sunday at Goytrey Church was conducted by Canon L.G. Morgan, rector, Mr C. Meyrick presiding at the organ. Mrs Morris was a member of the Church for many years.

(Harriett Morris is my great aunt.)

1^st February 1879 Pontypool Free Press

Sad death

On Wednesday morning last an inquest was held at Pengroe-sopped by E D Batt Esq., coroner on the body of an illegitimate child of Elizabeth Parry of Penystar Farm.

It appears that shortly before the death of the child Elizabeth Parry had been enceinte and stated her intention of going to her father’s house in Breconshire in order to be confined there.

She left the neighbours house and proceeded to her present residence where she was immediately confined.

The girl had no-one with her and had the child on the floor.

A medical gentleman testified that the child had been born alive but had died soon after its birth.

A verdict of death from natural causes was returned.

(Ed. enceinte)

GOYTREY. – SUDDEN DEATH.

On Thursday an inquest was held before C. M. Ashwin, Esq., deputy coroner, at the house of Richard Prinnell, whose wife, under the following circumstances, expired suddenly on Monday last.

Mary Painter said that she saw the deceased on Friday, when she complained of being ill. She said she had left her husband, and had been sleeping in barns, and such places, during the last few nights, and that she was afraid to go home … Mary Lewis said she had heard the deceased complain of being unwell, when she (witness) went to the husband and asked him to take her home, to which he consented … Richard Prinnell, labourer, and husband of the deceased, said that on Friday last his wife was very unwell, and that he had offered to send for a doctor, which he did not do in consequence of her being indifferent about it …. Ann Williams, who, since the separation of Prinnell and his wife, had acted as a servant, said that on Monday, the day on which deceased died, she gave her some tea, which she drank, having something to eat, which had also been provided for her.

At about half-past twelve, when she went upstairs to deceased and found her dead …. Dr F. Steel, Abergavenny, who had seen the body, and said that deceased died from jaundice and other internal disease. – Verdict, “Natural Death.”

28^th February 1863

County Observer  January 20th 1872

Fatal Accident at Goytrey.

An inquest was held by D E Batt Esq., coroner on the 10^th inst., touching the death of a man named William Proger who met with his death in consequence in falling down stairs at the Pengroesoped public house on the evening of the day named.

Proger, after drinking 5 pints of beer at Llanvair public house arrived at Pengroesoped public house about half past nine and began at once to make his way upstairs to the club room. When he was about half way upstairs he fell backwards, receiving a severe blow on the back of his head. He was then put to sit on a settle with his arms leaning on a table.

About half past eleven the landlord Mr Rosser and two other men took him outside for the purpose of carrying him home but finding that he was too heavy they took him back into the house.

He was there left on the floor without anything under him until 8 o’clock on the Tuesday morning. He was then taken home by the landlord and others and a doctor was sent for.

It is said that Proger was in the habit of lying on the floor of public houses apparently quite unconscious after he had been drinking and this was the defence the landlord used for not treating him better.

The foreman and some of the jury who knew Proger’s habits did not blame the landlord much for his conduct but the coroner and remainder of the jury censured him strongly.

The jury found he died from a fall downstairs and coroner said was equivalent to a verdict of “Death by misadventure.”

(William Proger was 54 when he died, a carpenter employing one man, he lived at Goytrey Wharf, quite some distance from the tavern. He was buried at St Peter’s on the 11^th January 1872.)

February 3^rd 1952

Starved Himself to Death – Goytre Man Refuses to Eat or Drink.

Believing, quite wrongly as it turned out, that he was suffering from a severe stomach complaint, Jenkin Rosser, a 73 year old labourer of Prospect, Goytre, starved himself to death.

He refused medical treatment and advice and when an attempt was made at Panteg County Hospital a few hours before his death on January 31st, to feed him intravenously, he had to be forcibly restrained from tearing away the apparatus.

The last food he had was just before Christmas, when his brother forced some egg and milk down his throat.

Mrs Annie Elizabeth Rosser, the widow, told the Coroner, (Mr D J Treasurer) at the Pontypool inquest on Wednesday that her husband had not worked since 1940. He suffered from neurasthenia and since 1943 had slept in a chair in the kitchen, believing that if he lay down he would die.

He had been under the care of the doctor since 1949 and took medicine to steady his nerves, but three months ago he stopped going out and took only little bits of “slop food”.

During the last few weeks he would not eat anything at all and refused to drink said Mrs Rosser. On several occasions I had to force food and drink into his mouth, but he said many times that it was no good as it would not go through him. He was always asking me for laxatives, which I gave him now and then.

 “Refused Only Chance”

She said that when Dr JB Fitzsimons asked him to go to Panteg Hospital he agreed and was taken in an ambulance, but after a few hours he demanded to be discharged. The following morning the doctor again persuaded him to go into the hospital, as it was his only chance of recovery. He agreed to go on the condition that I brought him home in the evening, she said, I would but he died the same evening.

She went on, “he had the idea there was something wrong inside him and refused to take any food at all. Just before Christmas his brother forcibly made him take some egg and milk and although it went all over the front of him, he kept some down.”

She agreed with the Coroner that she should have insisted on his going to an institution, but the doctor told her he was not certifiable.

 Wife’s Warning

Coroner: Did you tell him there could only be one end to his conduct? – Yes, but he still refused.

Do you think he was mentally unbalanced? – I could not think any other, but I left it to the doctor.

The Coroner said a statement from Dr Fitzsimons, which described Rosser as “an introspective and difficult patient who would not co-operate with his wife, family or me.”

He would not take any treatment prescribed for him, but he never appeared to be mentally un-balanced or certifiable.

The Coroner – He has brought about his own death just as surely as if he had committed suicide.

William Edward Rosser, 1, Broad Street, Griffithstown,  a son, also said he had tried to persuade his father to take nourishment and failed. He always said it would not do him any good and that food made his stomach worse.

Dr J Kotalski, Panteg hospital house surgeon, said that Rosser, on his second admission effused to be treated, but an attempt was made with some small success to feed him intravenously with saline solution.

He was dehydrated and in an emancipated condition. He struggled and nurse had to restrain him, he was in the hospital only a few hours before his death. The cause of death was inanition, due to lack of nutrition. The organs of the body were atrophied, but he was otherwise organically sound. There was nothing wrong in the stomach to cause any pain.

The Coroner said that Rosser had brought about his own death just as surely as he had deliberately set about putting an end to his life by starving himself, that had it not been for the opinion of Dr Fitzsimons he would record a verdict to that effect.

In the circumstances he would return a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence. “I am satisfied that the family did everything they could for him and I express my sympathy with them,” he said.

Friday November 27^th 1914 – Sad Fatality at Goytrey

A Farmer Killed on the Railway.

A sad fatality occurred near Nantyderry Station on Saturday night. Mr Wm Walker, of Penwern Farm Goytre being killed on the railway line. An engine driver reported at Pontypool Road that something unusual had occurred, and a search by a brakesman and porter from Nantyderry resulted in the deceased being found near the Mill Bridge, on the Pontypool Road side of the Nantyderry Station. The late Mr Walker was a member of the parish council and a well known and highly respected in the neighbourhood.

The inquest was held on Wednesday, at Nantyderry School, by Mr J B Walford, coroner.

Afan Lyndon Hugo Hawkins, son in law of the deceased, gave evidence of identification. Deceased had been a member of the Rural Council, and was, at the time of his death, a member of the Parish Council.

He took tea with witness about 8.30 on Saturday night, having come from the station about 7 o’clock. After tea deceased attended to the horses. He then said he was going down to the station to fetch a brace of pheasants, which he had forgotten to bring with him. The deceased was an abstemious man and very active. His sight and hearing were good. Witness did not know whether or not his father-in-law made it a practice to walk to and fro along the railway line; as on the occasion he (witness) had accompanied him they travelled along the road.

Tracey Frederick Leworthy, signalman, said he last saw the deceased on the station on Saturday night between 9.30 and 10 o’clock. He was carrying the pheasants and conversed with witness. Witness did not know whether deceased possessed a walking pass, and he did not detect any trace in his demeanour that he was lacking in sobriety.

Wm Powell, breaksman, who found the body, said he was off duty at the time. He received a notification from Pontypool Road that something or somebody had been knocked down. He made a search with a lamp, and about a quarter of mile down the line he found a brace of pheasants in the four-foot way, and the body about four or five yards further on. The deceased was lying on his back, with his legs bent at the knees, and his arms mangled. Witness immediately returned to the signal box for assistance.

John Morgan, driver of the 9.15 train of empty coaches from Abergavenny, which passed Nantyderry about 10.28 pm., said he recollected having heard some noise where the accident occurred, but he could not at the time distinguish it. He asked his mate if he could think what it was, and he looked round the engine and found that the back damper had gone down and he presumed that was the noise he had heard, and did not up. Just outside Pontypool Road station he examined the engine as usual before taking it into the sheds, and found blood and matter on the back damper. He reported the discovery at once and steps were taken to find the body, which, however, was found by the previous witness before they got back to Nantyderry.

The jury, in reply to the Coroner, said they were of opinion there was every reason to believe that deceased was perfectly sober.

In summing up, the Coroner mentioned that it was illegal for any person to trespass on the railway, and therefore in this case that was the legal position. Returning a verdict of “Accidental Death” would hardly be fair to the railway company, inasmuch as the deceased had been a trespasser; although the company did not desire to blame the deceased at all.

The jury returned a verdict of “Death by misadventure” and the Foreman of the jury expressed the sympathy of the jury with the relatives.

Mr Lidster, on behalf of G.W.Railway Company, associated himself with the sentiments expressed by the jury