Thomas Leigh

Thomas Leigh died from head injuries. A man was tried for his murder but acquitted.

Thomas Leigh was a steel worker and had lived on Silver Street in Wigan.

The man that was charged with his murder was a hawker who had lived in a caravan in Wigan.

It was said that they had had a fight at the Wigan Fairground and that the man had knocked him down and kicked him.

Thomas Leigh died a few days later from heart failure due to pressure of a blood clot on the brain. After the fight he was taken to hospital but had refused to stay there and went home and then went to work the next day.

Thomas Leigh's widow said that he had told her that he had gone to the fair and had gone on the swinging chains and had caught his head.

At the trial it was heard that the man on trial had said to Thomas Leigh that he would not allow him to come out with bad language to his wife and that he had then tupped him twice. It was heard then that he had taken off his coat and kicked him twice on the temple and five or six times in the groin.

At the trial the judge said that it was not a case of murder and that it should be tried as manslaughter, but after the jury heard the man's evidence the jury stopped the case at the direction of the judge and the man was acquitted.