John Hynes

John Hynes died from a fractured spine.

It was said that it would have been impossible for his injury to have been caused by an ordinary fall.

He was a labourer.

He was found on the Monday morning 31 July 1905 lying insensible outside a lodging hut in Dawson City, a navvy settlement near Hebden Bridge used by workers with the Halifax Corporation's new waterworks at Walshaw Dean.

After he was found he was carried and put to bed but didn't seem to get any better and a doctor was called for.

When the doctor examined him he said that he noticed that his face was grazed and that he had a bruise on his forehead, as if caused by a fall, but said that he could not discover what the matter was with him.

His post mortem found that all his organs were healthy but that his spine was fractured at the neck in a manner that could not have been done without considerable violence or from an ordinary fall.

It was said that the wonder of it was that he had not died immediately.

An open verdict was returned.