Newspaper Article 1941 – Coroner’s Inquest

CORONER’S INQUEST

Yesterday evening the coroner, Mr Walter Dobson, held an inquest touching the death of Janet Marjorie Russell, aged three years and 10 months, who died suddenly in the morning at the residence of her parents, Mr and Mrs W. N. Russell, Mangatoro.

The evidence showed that the deceased woke about six a.m. and a few minutes later the governess asked the parents to go and look at her, as she appeared to be ill. The father immediately went to the child’s room and thought she was dead. He rang Dr. Maclaurin. Every effort was made to revive the child, who had had a sore throat the previous evening but had not had any other illness except colds and complaints common to small children.

After hearing the evidence of Dr. Maclaurin, who said that he did not consider that anything further could have been done for the child had a medical man been present, the coroner returned a verdict that the cause of death was acute laryngo-pharyngitis, accentuated by a very enlarged thymus gland.