CHARLES EDWARD VEARS

HANGING TRAGEDY AT NEWBURY

MAN WHO EXPRESSED ABHORRENCE OF SUICIDE

A sad story was told the Borough Coroner, Mr. S.V. Pinniger, at the inquest, held on Saturday morning, on Charles Edward Vears, aged 63, of St John’s Stores, who hanged himself from a beam in the storeroom on Thursday afternoon. It was stated that Mr. Vears, who had been suffering from a cold and had complained of pains in his head, had expressed his abhorrence of suicide, maintaining that it was a coward’s way out of trouble,. The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide whilst temporarily insane.

Evidence of identification was given by Charles William Vears, the son, who stated that his father and mother came to live with him when he came to Newbury on January 1^st. His father, who was 63 years of age, assisted him at St. John’s Stores, although he had no financial interest in the business.

The Coroner; What had been his health?

He seemed well until about a fortnight ago he contracted a cold and complained of pains in his legs, which he attributed to rheumatism. He mentioned that the pain appeared to have gone to his head, and had one or two headaches. He appeared to be rather depressed in the last few day, but really nothing out of the ordinary. We did not call in the doctor. We did not think it was necessary as he was still getting about.

Mr. Vears said he last saw his father alive about 3.30p.m. last Thursday, when he left to go to Kingsclere on his usual weekly journey. When he returned just before six o’clock he was met with the report that his father had hanged himself.

The Coroner: Did he seem strange in any way? - Not at all. He seemed quite normal when I left him. He had been married 37 years and his married life was quite happy and contented. He had always been dead against suicide, and had made remarks about it being a coward’s way out of trouble. He was the best of fathers.

A Doctor’s Evidence

Dr. David Kennedy said that he went to St. John’s Stores in response to an urgent message about five o’clco on Thursday afternoon, and in the right hand corner of the store saw the body of Mr. Vears lying on his right side. His face was purple and tongue protruded. Round his throat was a cord so tightly tied that it grooved his neck. He at once cut the cord, turned him over and applied artificial respiration, but without success. He was quite dead, though his body was warm. There were two ropes above the body fastened to a beam. One was thick and the other was a clothes line. The clothes line was broken, and the witness came to the conclusion that he had hanged himself with it, and that it had broken during his last struggles. The cause of death was strangulation.

The next witness was Victor Weston, of Welford, an errand boy employed at St. John’s Stores. He said that at 3.45 Mr. Vears went out of the shop and walked towards the house door. He then came into the shop again, went to the warehouse at the back and then walked out of the shop towards the stores. About an hour afterwards witness had to fetch something from the stores but could not find the key. He went to the stores, but found the door fastened with a piece of string on the inside, He broke it open and found Mr. Vears lying in the corner. He ran back to the shop and gave the alarm. In reply to the Coroner, witness said he had been working at St. John’s Stores for six weeks and had always found the deceased “jokey” and never strange.

P.C. Eaton said he went to St John’s Stores at 5 p.m. with Sergt. Harris, and in the store-room saw deceased lying on his right side being attended by Dr. Kennedy, who pronounced life to be extinct soon after his arrival. Mr. Vears was lying directly under a beam from which was a clothes line and was broken. Near the body witness found two short pieces of cord.

In reply to the Coroner, Mr. Vears said that his father’s symptoms were consistent with a slight attack of influenza.

The Coroner remarked that ‘flu did leave people rather depressed, and recorded a verdict of suicide whilst temporarily insane. He added that it sometimes happened that people who expressed or had expressed their abhorrence of the idea of suicide, yet by some uncontrollable impulse did such a thing. Mr. Pinniger expressed his sympathy with the wife and relatives in their sad bereavement.

Newbury Weekly News 26 March 1931

Mrs P page 52 NA17

Died 19 March 1931 aged 63

Buried 23 March 1931 from St Johns Stores