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Charles Herbert Bowman

Age: 27

Sex: male

Date: 4 Dec 1917

Place: 47 Barlow Street, Bradford

Charles Herbert Bowman was found unconscious in the kitchen of his employer’s shop.

He later died at Ancoats Hospital on Sunday 2 December 1917.

He was a pawnbroker's manager. He was found by the shop assistant after she returned from dinner at about 2.15pm on the Tuesday afternoon. She said that when she returned she found the shop door half open which was unusual and went in to find Charles Bowman in a sitting position leaning against the safe with his head and hands covered in blood.

She said that the rest of the kitchen was in good order and that there were no signs of a struggle having taken place.

She said that there was a ladder in the kitchen that was in constant use for reaching down bundles from the top shelves.

When the police arrived they found Charles Bowman to be unconscious and found that he had several wounds on his head. They said that there was blood and hair on the side of the safe and about three or four feet away there was a pool of blood on the floor.

A doctor at the Ancoats Hospital said that when he examined Charles Bowman he found compound depressed fractures of the skull, that the covering of the brain had been torn and the brain lacerated. He said that an operation was carried out to remove pieces of the skull that were pressing on the brain but that Charles Bowman never regained consciousness.

He said that there were four wounds to his head, three small ones and a large one. He said that it was possible that the injuries could have been caused by a fall on the safe but said that he would have had to have fallen on two or three projections for the injuries to have been made. He said that alternatively he could have been struck with some object, which he said he thought very much more likely.

An open verdict was returned.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Manchester Evening News - Tuesday 04 December 1917