We breed giants in our family!!

[LindaS]

I recently found the service records for one of my uncles. I was having a look at it today when I noticed what his height was down as. LOL!!!

[Mark Abbott]

But only a 33 inch chest; Royal Corps of Bean Poles pehaps?

[LindaS]

He didnt only lie about his height - he lied about his age as well. He joined the 10th Batt South Lancs Regt & got kicked out when they found out he was only 16. He later joined the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. He ended up taking his own life in 1934 leaving a wife & 2 children.

[Doedoe]

a sad story , what was the reason he took his own life and what happened to his wife and children
Doe 7631

[LindaS]

I found this in the Newspaper from his inquest. I've no idea what happened to his wife & family yet. I'll have to do a bit of digging. Yes its a very sad story.Part of the story is what i've found out about Eryspelas & miners nystagmus. In ( )

WIFE’S TRAGIC DISCOVERY
OF HUSBAND WHO HANGED HIMSELF

“Please forgive me. My nerves have been bad for years. Goodbye and God Bless everybody”
This was the tragic message contained in a note in her husband’s handwriting found by Margaret Webster, of Gladstone Street, when she returned home from shopping last Saturday night. When she discovered her husband, Samuel Webster, hanging dead from a rope in the kitchen she rushed into the street screaming for help.
George Highcock, St Helens Recs forward who chanced to be passing with another man ran into the house, cut the body down and applied artificial respiration without avail. It was stated that Webster had suffered for two years from miners nystagmus.( An occupational disease that occurs among coal miners, usually those of middle age or elderly, who have worked for a period of 25 to 30 years underground. Its physical symptoms consist of difficulty of seeing in the dark or in poor light, excessive sensitivity to and intolerance of glare, and a rhythmic oscillation of the eyeballs. As a result of these oscillations, there may be apparent movement of the objects looked at and defective visual acuity. Associated with these ocular symptoms are other general disorders, such as headaches and dizziness, particularly after stooping or bending, and the development of psychoneurotic symptoms is common in the later stages of the disease. If the disease is not checked, the nervous disorders may become so severe as to render the miner totally disabled.)
Mrs Webster, wife of the deceased, gave evidence of identification. She said she and her husband lived together with their two children, aged 10 and 14 years at
31 Gladstone Street. He was formerly a haulage hand at St Helens Collieries. Since contracting Nystagmus two years ago he had been in receipt of compensation and had also worked as a labourer at the same colliery.
A SUFFERER

At the beginning of last April he was admitted to the Borough sanatorium Peasley Cross, suffering from Eryspelas (erysipelas )(, acute infection of the skin characterized by a sharply demarcated, shiny red swelling, accompanied by high fever and a feeling of general illness. The causative agent is the hemolytic streptococcus, which often enters the body through a break in the skin. Erysipelas affects the skin of the face so frequently that when it strikes other parts of the body, it may often be misdiagnosed. Bacteremia (blood poisoning) and pneumonia are the most common complications. Erysipelas is a highly contagious disease that was formerly dangerous to life; however, it can now be quickly controlled by antibiotic therapy) and was discharged after three weeks treatment. Arrangements were in progress to send him to a convalescent home. During the past week he had seemed a little depressed, but had never hinted that he would do himself any harm.
The widow added that she went shopping with her daughter on Saturday night and had arranged to meet her husband at the market. When she left her husband in the house he seemed quite normal.
“ “He did not keep the appointment at the market” said the widow, “and I returned home”. When I entered the house at 8.30 I saw my husband hanging by the neck with a rope attached to a beam over the back kitchen door. I rushed to the front door and shouted for help. Men passing by rushed in.
Addressing Mr W Foster, miners agent Mr Brighouse said “I suppose at another court you will try to support the proposition that if the man had never got Nysagmus he would never have done this and that the nysagmus was acquired in the course of his employment?”
“Yes” replied Mr Foster.
John Day, glass cutter from Silkstone Street said he heard Mrs Webster shout for help and he and Highcock rushed to the house, and lifted the body down from the rope. They telephoned for the police and did everything they could for the man, but it was obvious he was dead.
A DREAD DISEASE

The coroner said it was a well known fact that the disease nystagmus affected the nerves of its victims and caused them to suffer heavily from depression, and they, had been known to take their own lives in consequence.
“In this case” he added “I will say this poor fellow took away his life and I feel certain at the time that he was so depressed ye yielded to a sudden impulse he could not overtake. I am entitled to say that at the moment he was of unsound mind”.
“Whether the employers ought to pay his dependants compensation in another curt is not a matter for me. If there is however, a clear connection between this unfortunate death and the complaint, the man acquired in the course of his employment, I should say there is only one course the court ought to pursue, if not form a legal point of view, from a moral standpoint. If he had not acquired nystagmus he would not have done this. Anyway Mr Foster will look after him in the civil court.

[daggers]

What a sad story, but if he really had the height recorded on his papers, it would have had to be a very high beam...
[Sorry, couldn't resist].
D