George Albert Youngman

George Albert Youngman was found lying injured by the side of the road and was taken to hospital but died.

He was a carpenter and lived on Sunnyside Avenue in Poringland.

He had gone out on the Saturday evening and gone to Norwich where he was last seen crossing over Trowie Bridge on his way home. A person that saw him said that he was staggering along. After leaving Norwich he had called in at the Crown Point Tavern at about 9.30pm and asked for some beer but he had been refused. When he was seen in the Crown Point Tavern he looked white and had been vomiting.

At 10.45pm a policeman was told that there was someone lying on the grass down the road at Framingham Earl and when he went to investigate he found George Youngman badly hurt and arranged for him to be taken to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital where he died the next day.

The person that had seen George Youngman lying on the grass was a labourer from Poringland and said that he had left a cottage at the top of Trowe Hill on the Saturday evening and ridden towards Poringland during which he saw George Youngman but thought he was drunk. He said that he carried on and when he told the policeman he told him. He said that from the time he had left the cottage until the time he had seen George Youngman no vehicles had passed him other than a traction engine. He also said that he didn't see anyone walking along the road either.

A bus driver said that he had been driving a United motor bus from Bungay to Norwich on the Saturday and had left Bungay at 9.15pm and arrived at Poringland Railway Tavern at 10.12pm. He said that he then picked up some passengers and left for Norwich with them at 10.15pm. He said that after he passed the Arminghall turn he passed a traction engine and at the top of Bixlet hill he passed two cyclists walking along the footpath with their bikes and a man following just behind. He said that when he got to the top of Trowse Hill he saw a motor car with very brilliant lights and had to pull up as he could not see and allowed it to pass. He said he could not say whether it went down the Bungay Road or the Loddon Road from there. He said that next he passed a car with dim headlights in the middle of Trowse Hill and then arrived at his stand in Bar Street in Norwich at 10.30pm and then left again for Bungay at 10.45pm. He said that when he got to the garage at about midnight his conductor asked him if he had seen that man lying on the grass just past Bixley Round House but he said that he had not and laughingly assed 'I expect you have dreaming'.

At the Coroner's inquest he the bus driver stated that he didn't hit anything that he knew of on his route and it was heard that his bus had been inspected for damage and nothing had been found.

A man that had driven his car from Norwich to Brooke on the Saturday night said that when he was near a bungalow that had just been put up by W Hicks of North Walsham on the Poringland Road a motor car approached him from the direction of Poringland Street. He said that he thought it was a Ford motor car and that it was swerving all over the road and almost hit him. He said that he followed the tracks of the car which were zig zagging down the road towards Brooke and said that they seemed to have pulled up outside the Dove pub door. He said that he particularly noticed the tracks of the car after leaving the Dove at the bottom of the hill round the bend because it had been on the wrong side of the road.

He added that before he saw the swerving car he had seen a man walking towards Poringland, but had had taken no particular notice of the man.

A doctor who examined George Youngman said that there was a bruise on his right thigh about the size of a half crown piece and the knuckles on his right hand were bruised whilst similar bruising was found on his left hand. He also found abrasions to his face a broken nose and three wounds to the top right side of his head. One of them was 1 in long and another 2in long and the third which was below them was above a fracture to his skull that had bruised his brain to a depth of 1in which he said was an extraordinary depth.

The doctor said that he thought death was due to injury to the brain following a depressed fracture of the skull. He said that he thought that it had been caused by a hard object that presented an oval or elongated surface about 1.5in by 1in.

The doctor said that before he was aware of the facts of the case he had formed the opinion that George Youngman had been fighting and added that he could not conceive of a man being hit by a car and not receiving more severe injuries to other parts of his body.

The Coroner returned an open verdict saying that there was no evidence to show how he had received his injuries.