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Christopher Graham Miller

Age: 24

Sex: male

Date: 30 Apr 1951

Place: Bradford Royal Infirmary, Bradford

Christopher Graham Miller died from cyanide poisoning at the Bradford Royal Infirmary on Monday 30 April 1951.

He was a house surgeon at the infirmary.

He was also the son of a consulting pathologist at the Harrogate Clinical Laboratory.

It was suggested that he might have been worried about tuberculosis which he had.

It was not known where the cyanide had come from. The coroner said, 'There is no evidence at the present that Dr Miller was ever in possession of any poison of any kind'.

A senior maid at the infirmary doctors' quarters said that she took a cup of tea to his room at about 8am on the Monday 30 April 1951 and that when she got there she found that he was lying on his side in bed and that when she spoke to him he didn't answer. However, she said that that was not unusual and so she left the tea and went off. She said that later, at 9am, when she heard his name being called on the hospital loud speaker, and thinking that he had overslept that she went back to his room and found him that time lying on his face and that one side of his face was discoloured and so she went off for another doctor and then found that Christopher Miller was dead.

The senior maid noted that when she returned she found that the cup of tea that she had brought him was empty but that she didn't think that it was of any significance and so she took it away.

After a pathologist carried out a post-mortem on Christopher Miller, he determined that his cause of death was cyanide poisoning. He also noted that he had tuberculosis and said that Christopher Miller might have discovered that by coughing up blood and said that it might have worried him.

A resident surgical officer at the Bradford Royal Infirmary said that cyanide was kept at the infirmary, in the dispensary, but said that it was always under lock and key and said that doctors always had to sign for it and that there was no trace of Christopher Miller ever having had any.

The police said that they mad extensive inquiries at chemists’ shops in the Bradford and Harrogate area but found no trace of any poison or cyanide ever having been handed to him.

His father said that so far as he knew, Christopher Miller had not visited his laboratory in Victoria Avenue, Harrogate, for six years and said that there was no cyanide or similar poison ever kept at his home.

At his inquest on 23 May 1951 the coroner returned an open verdict stating that there was no evidence at all as to where the poison had come from or whether Christopher Miller was ever in possession of such poison. He added also that there was no evidence as to how the poison was administered or by who.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Wednesday 23 May 1951

see Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Saturday 05 May 1951