Age: 43
Sex: female
Date: 14 Feb 1958
Place: Red Eagle Public House, Portsea
Eileen Cronin died from an overdose of sleeping tablets.
An open verdict was returned at her inquest at which the Coroner said that there were three possible verdicts, suicide, murder or an open verdict.
Eileen Cronin had been the licensee of the Red Eagle public house in Portsea.
After she was found dead the police found a partly-written letter to her cousin, the letter read, 'My dear cousin. I have been to see the probation officer this afternoon, and my dear husband, he tells me he is not interested in what I do. I can leave or I can stay. This after 19 years. He cannot see any solution except separation. Dear cousin. If anything should happen to me in the meantime I enclose my Post Office book and rosary. Time will tell, my love, who messed our marriage up. I hope he gets the reward he...'. The detective that read the letter out at the inquest said that from then on the writing deteriorated. He noted that the letter was not signed but that it was dated 14 February 1958.
The handwriting in the letter was identified as that of Eileen Cronin by her husband. He added that he had not been on speaking terms with Eileen Cronin for about a fortnight before her death.
He said that on the night of 14 February 1958 that his 6-year-old daughter slept between him and Eileen Cronin and said that when he woke up at about 4am he noticed that Eileen Cronin had been breathing heavily. He said that when he later got up he left Eileen Cronin and his daughter in bed and went to the brewery and that when he returned at 10am his daughter told him that Eileen Cronin was still asleep.
He said that his daughter then took Eileen Cronin a cup of tea and that he heard her shouting, 'Wake up, mummy. Wake up, mummy'.
Eileen Cronin's husband said, 'I went to see what was wrong. I put my hand against her shoulder and my cheek against her cheek and found it was cold. When I was in the kitchen, my daughter brought an empty box of sleeping tablets. I knew my wife had been taking tablets and I knew they were sleeping tablets'.
When Eileen Cronin's 6-year-old daughter gave evidence at the inquest she told the court about the sleeping tablets and when she was questioned, she said, 'It had quite a few in it. It was empty next morning'.
A friend of Eileen Cronin that lived in Prince George Street, Portsea, said that she knew that Eileen Cronin used to take one sleeping pill a night. She added that at about 9pm on the day before her death that Eileen Cronin had been happy and singing but that earlier she had been very miserable.
The probation officer that Eileen Cronin had been to see about her marriage said that he had seen Eileen Cronin on the evening before her death and said that he told her that her husband was a phlegmatic man set in his way and suggested that she should humour him. He said, 'I gathered from that interview that she was more hopeful. She was subject to fits of depression, and was an extremely emotional woman'.
However, he added that she had not implied that she would take her life. When he was questioned about the letter he said, 'I cannot agree with this unfortunate woman's last letter about separation'.
The pathologist that carried out her post mortem said that Eileen Cronin's death had been in his opinion, due to an overdose of the pills, with 'mechanical asphyxiation' being a contributory cause. When the pathologist was questioned about that he said that the obstruction of the air passage could have been caused by the position in which she was lying in bed.
He added that the state of her lungs was not as usually found in a case of narcotic poisoning.
When the Coroner summed up he said that there were three possible verdicts:
The Coroner then said, 'I can dispose of the second one. The question of foul play was taken up by the police, but there is not sufficient evidence to suggest that she had been murdered by anyone known or unknown. As regards suicide, I agree that there is a presumption that she took them (the pills) herself. But she was not of a particularly suicidal nature. In order to bring a verdict of 'Suicide' I think it would require more evidence than you have here'.
An open verdict was then returned.
see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
see Hampshire Telegraph - Friday 18 April 1958