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Ian Francis Desmond Miller

Age: unknown

Sex: male

Date: 8 Aug 1940

Place: Lewes Road, East Grinstead

Ian Francis Desmond Miller was found dead in the road.

His body was found by an army ambulance that had also ran over him.

Ian Miller was a New Zealand soldier.

He had been seen in local public-houses the evening before, but the other soldiers that he had been with said that he had been all right when they last saw him and quite capable of looking after himself.

A passenger in the ambulance said that he had been asleep in the ambulance as it was driving along and was awakened by a bump as if it had passed over something.

The driver said that as he was driving along, he had seen something in the road but said that it was too late to pull up adding that it was dark and that he didn't see it until it was about 20ft in front of him and that he didn't have time to stop.

They drove back to the spot and found Ian Miller in the road.

It was later heard that amongst Ian Miller's injuries, there was nothing on the ambulance that could have caused the injury to Ian Miller's scalp as it was found which had been torn upwards in a particular way although it was thought that many of his other injuries could have been caused by the ambulance running over him.

The doctor said that he had multiple injuries about his body but said that he found no gravel marks or superficial bruises that would have indicated that he had been dragged along the road.

He said that Ian Miller's neck was broken and that his death must have been instantaneous, but that some of the other injuries might have occurred afterwards.

The Coroner returned an open verdict saying that there was insufficient evidence to show how Ian Miller received his fatal injuries, but that in view of the medical evidence that his scalp wound might have occurred before the other injuries, he thought that it was probable that Ian Miller had been dead before the ambulance had run him over.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see West Sussex Gazette - Thursday 08 August 1940, p3