Age: unknown
Sex: male
Date: 13 Dec 1914
Place: Winchester
WJ Guerin was found at the foot of an embankment suffering from injuries from which he later died.
He was in the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry that was encamped at Winchester.
Another Private said that he had been out drinking and had met WJ Guerin at the First In and Last Out Inn at Winnall they met and that after the pub closed at 9pm they had gone to a cottage in Wales Street where they had continued to drink with women and civilians until about 11.05pm when they left. When they left they were the worse for drink.
The private said that it was a dark and foggy night and that on their way back to camp they parted company and he rambled on until he found himself on the Mornhill Road where he said that four soldiers suddenly jumped out from a hedge and attacked him. He said that he remembered nothing more until he woke up in a ditch and then he crawled back to camp.
WJ Guerin was found at the foot of an embankment on the Didcot Railway the next morning.
The Coroner's inquest also heard that WJ Guerin had had a handful of money in the cottage and had gone off with a woman and that when he was found he only had 9s. 3d. which he said suggested robbery and an open verdict was returned.
see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
see Portsmouth Evening News - Wednesday 23 December 1914