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Samuel Sharpe

Age: 59

Sex: male

Date: 25 Jan 1924

Place: 13 Norfolk Crescent, Paddington

Samuel Sharpe died from coal gas poisoning at 13 Norfolk Crescent, Paddington, but it was not known he had come to be poisoned.

He had been a caretaker at 13 Norfolk Crescent.

Earlier in the day on 24 January 1924 he had been out and when he returned he found that there had been a burglary and £20 worth of jewellery was missing. The police attended the house and Samuel Sharpe told them that he would he sit up all night in front of the fire.

However, the next day he was found dead in a servant’s room stretched out in front of a fire which was burning. As such, it was not known how he came to be poisoned.

A police divisional surgeon said that when he had gone to the house that he could not detect any smell of gas in the room and that it was not until he carried out the post mortem examination that the thought of gas poisoning occurred to him. He noted that it was however unmistakable that his death had been caused by carbon dioxide poisoning which he said was a highly dangerous constituent of coal gas.

It was suggested that one of the jets had not caught fire and had leaked gas but that idea was ruled out as if that had been the case there would have been an explosion.

It was also suggested that someone might have come into his room, switched on the gas and waited for Samuel Sharpe to die and then gone in and relit the fire but it was said to have been a very far-fetched theory.

Norfolk Crescent has since been redeveloped from its original terraced housing.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Dundee Courier - Tuesday 29 January 1924

see Jedburgh Gazette - Friday 08 February 1924

see Westminster Gazette - Tuesday 29 January 1924

see National Library of Scotland