Peter Howland

Peter Howland was found drowned in a bath with five inches of water in it at his home in Brooklyn Street, Hull in May 1938.

An open verdict was returned at his inquest.

It was suggested that he had stood on a stool and leaned over into the bath to sail his toy battleships and had then fallen in and that his arms had become trapped by the narrow bath and that he had drowned.

He had been missing since he had returned home from school and a search was made for him in the surrounding streets, but he could not be found. He was eventually found fully clothed in the bath at his home.

He was found by his mother. She said that he was lying face downwards in the bath and was fully dressed and wearing his overcoat. She said that she had warned him never to sail his boats in the bath.

At the inquest, a doctor said that he would have expected Peter Howland to have had bruises on his arms indicating that he had struggled to get out of the bath but said that he found none. He said that he might have become dizzy with the blood rushing to his head as he lent over the bath to play with his toy ships.

A police inspector said that the bath was an old-fashioned narrow bath and said that it might have been that Peter Howland, whilst leaning over the side of the bath had fallen with his arms behind him so that they were pinned and he could not raise himself.

The Coroner said that that was a possible explanation but thought in the circumstances he would record an open verdict.

Peter Howland had been the son of a clerk.