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Reuben Davies

Age: 48

Sex: male

Date: 17 Oct 1929

Place: Rishton

Reuben Davies was found drowned in a canal. He also had some head injuries.

He had lived at Lower Hollin Bank Street in Blackburn.

His body was found by a canal boatman about 200 yards from the Queen's brick works.

A policeman said that the body appeared to have been in the water for some time.

His widow said that Reuben Davies had worked at a Blackburn mill from the age of ten until about a year earlier when the mill was closed. He was unable to get work as a tapesizer and the only job he could get was as a part-time coal-bagger. She said that he had told her that he was fed up because there was no work but said that he had never threatened himself. She said that she last saw him on the Saturday, 5 October, when he had gone twice to the coal sidings for work.

When the Coroner said 'There is no real reason why he should take his life' his widow said 'No', noting that he was only depressed and that they were happy at home and could manage.

The Coroner noted that he had wounds to the back of his head that could have been fatal but it was not possible to say how they had been caused. He said that a number of canal boats passed up and down and the wounds might have been inflicted by them.

An open verdict of found drowned was returned.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Lancashire Evening Post - Thursday 17 October 1929