Richards, Mabel 1898 March 18th East Dean
The Recent Burning Accident
An inquest was held on Monday by the city coroner (Mr S Buchanan Smith) at the Infirmary, on the body of a baby, aged a year and a half, named Mabel Richards, of East Dean, who died from the effects of burns at the Salisbury Infirmary on Friday last. Mr G A Woodroffe was foreman of the jury.
Susannah Richards, mother of the deceased, said she lived at East Dean. Her husband was a dairyman. On Tuesday last, about 5.30 in the evening, the child was sitting in the kitchen about two yards from the fire. Her brother was with her. She was taking a mattress upstairs and her little boy must have thrown a basket on the fire. She heard screams and when she got downstairs she found the child burned, and the basket in flames on the fire. They wired for the doctor, but he lived at Whiteparish, and he was so long coming that they brought the child to the Infirmary. The child was sitting in an ordinary chair, but was not strapped in. The little boy was playing with the basket when she went upstairs. There was no guard to the grate.
William Gordon, house surgeon, said deceased was brought to the Infirmary on Tuesday last at 8.30. The child was attended to by his assistant, and he (witness) saw it. The whole of the abdomen and both legs were burnt, and the child was suffering from severe shock. Her condition got gradually worse and she died from exhaustion on Friday evening.
The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental death.”
Wiltshire Coroner's Inquests 1801-1920 