Ellen Walker

Ellen Walker died in a bath from electrocution after an electric fire got in her bath at her home at 83 Medway Drive, Perivale on 7 February 1959.

An open verdict was returned at her inquest after the Coroner said that he was not satisfied as to how the fire had come to be in the bath.

It was heard that they had had two electric fires at their home, one with a short lead and another with a long lead and that it was customary to use the electric fire with the short lead when using the bath as the lead was too short to reach it.

Ellen Walker's husband said that Ellen Walker occasionally had fits of depression when she was unable to sleep but had never threatened to take her life before.

He said that when the main electric fire was used in the bathroom that the fire would be plugged into a socket point on the landing and the fire itself then placed just inside the bathroom door and said that the lead had been specially shortened for that reason.

He said that the other electric fire with the longer lead was always kept downstairs and that it was that electric fire that he had found in the bath.

He said that he could not understand why it had been brought upstairs, however, he pointed out that it was a more modern fire and that it gave out more heat and observed that 'it had been an extremely cold day'.

Following Ellen Walker's death the other fire with the shorter lead was tested and it was found to be in perfect working order.

Ellen Walker's husband said that he had gone out to work that day but that he had been unwell with influenza and had returned home from work shortly after noon. He said that he didn't have a key as Ellen Walker was always at home when he returned in the evenings. He said that when he got back he obtained a front door key from a neighbour who had kept a spare one for some years. However, he said that he also found that the front door was bolted from the inside. He said, 'This was not unusual because my wife always locked the doors when she was upstairs in the house alone. It was her habit to bolt the door while having a bath'.

Ellen Walker's husband said that he then climbed up a ladder at the rear to the house and got in through a window that he managed to unlatch and that before he went into the bathroom that he looked about the house after which he discovered Ellen Walker dead in the bath with the electric fire. He said that he then turned the switch off at the point and then went for help.

When Ellen Walker's husband was questioned by the Coroner at the inquest, he said that he didn't notice whether the fire was still on when he had switched it off.

He added that Ellen Walker was an intelligent woman and knew of the dangers of having an electric fire in the bathroom.

A policeman that examined the bathroom said that the electric fire could have been placed on a ledge, which was about five inches wide, at the end of the bath, noting that the ledge sloped slightly towards the bath.

He added that the other electric fire with the short lead was also in the bathroom on the floor and said that it didn't appear to have been touched.

Another policeman said that both fires had been tested and were found to be in working order. He said that the fire that had gone into the bath must have acted as an immersion heater.

The pathologist that carried out the post mortem said that Ellen Walker had burns on her legs and back but that her cause of death was electrocution.

When the Coroner summed up he said that he was not satisfied as to how the fire came to be in the bath. He said that it could have fallen from the ledge, but then it had not been explained why Ellen Walker, an intelligent woman, had not used the fire with the shorter lead as had always been the custom in that particular home.