Before T A Bramsden Esq.)

On Wednesday afternoon, the coroner presided at an inquiry held at the Windmill and Sawyers Tavern, Unicorn Road, Landport, touching the death of Thomas Morley Downman Jenner, aged 65, formerly in the Borough Police Force, but latterly of no occupation. - The deceased had lived with his son at the Windmill and Sawyers; and since the sudden death of his wife 2 1/2 years ago he had been gradually breaking up. At 11 o clock on Saturday night he was in the bar when his daughter, Mrs Annie Jane Silvester, who also lives at the house, remarked that it was closing time. The deceased said "Give me the bolts and I will put up the shutters." The deceased put up one of the shutters and returned to fetch two others. As he was passing through the centre doorway, Mrs Silvester heard a noise as if the deceased had let a shutter fall, one half of the double door going to at the same time. A moment or two afterwards a sailor put his head in at the door and after hesitating, said to Mrs Silvester "There's an old man lying in the gutter outside". She at once went outside and found the deceased lying with his head in the drain and his body across the pavement. There was a large quantity of blood near and the deceased was insensible. He was carried indoors and an injury on the head, near the back of the left ear (which bled freely) was bathed with cold water and the haemorhage was by this means arrested. Consciousness returned in about a quarter of an hour and the deceased was removed to bed. Next morning (Sunday) he appeared worse and
just before noon Dr Sheahan was summoned. The deceased, however, was past recovery and he died early on Monday morning.

The wind at the time of the accident was very high and the full force of it was felt at that corner. Thomas Seal a drayman in the employ of Messrs Long and Co, brewers living at 21 Samuel Road, spoke as to passing the house on Saturday evening and finding the deceased unconscious on the pavement with his head to the gutter. He was bleeding from a wound to the head while lying near, but in the roadway, was a shutter. Witness helped to remove the deceased indoors. - Dr D A Sheahan said he saw the deceased on Sunday just after 12 o clock. He was unconscious and witness noticed he was in a dying condition, totally beyond human aid. It was his opinion that the deceased never regained proper consciousness after the accident. The wound had very probably been caused by a fall. Compression of the brain was the cause of death. The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental Death".