Age: 26
Sex: male
Date: 26 Sep 1930
Place: King George Dock, Hull
Helge Arnold Carlsson was found injured at King George Dock in Hull and later died.
He was a Swedish Seaman and had come ashore with a friend on the evening of 26 September 1930 and visited several pubs. At about 10pm the friend had suggested that they take a tram to King George Dock where their ship was lying but that Helge Carlsson had refused to come back and had returned to the pub whilst the friend left him and returned to the ship.
The friend said that Helge Carlsson's eyes were very poor after dark.
Later on that night Helge Carlsson was admitted to the Hull Royal Infirmary with a fractured spine and paralysis of both legs. The doctor there said that Helge Carlsson was muttering something but he was unable to tell what he was saying.
The doctor said that in his opinion some heavy weight had struck Helge Carlsson whilst he was in a stooping position and he died on the following Sunday very suddenly at 6.15am.
An engine driver employed by the LNER said that on the Saturday morning at about 2.25am while he was driving his engine the traffic foreman told him 'A man has been knocked down by the wool shed'. The wool shed was near the entrance to the dock and the driver’s engine had not previously passed along that line. He said that when he looked he saw something on the line about 75 yards ahead of a light apparently injured.
Another engine driver said that he had run his engine down the side of the wool shed at about 12.30am and had heard an unusual noise and that when he had got out to look he had seen a man laid on his stomach with his head eastwards in the fourfoot way at the wool shed side line.
He said that he had passed over that way about seven minutes earlier but had not felt anything unusual then.
A foreman employed by the LNER said that he had been walking along when he had seen a man lying on the line. He said that he spoke to him but got no answer but that later the man got up and staggered off in the direction of the wool shed. He said that the man had had no right to have been where he was and said that he had appeared to been very drunk.
The Coroner said that although Helge Carlsson was found by the wool shed there was no evidence to show that he had been knocked down there and also added that there was no evidence of suicide.
An open verdict was returned.
see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
see Hull Daily Mail - Saturday 04 October 1930