Charles Hipkiss

Charles Hipkiss died following a stroke and a fractured skull.

It was said that his son-in-law had said that on 1 August 1959 that Charles Hipkiss had advanced towards him in a threatening manner with a poker and that he had pushed him away and that Charles Hipkiss had fallen.

He had said that Charles Hipkiss had entered a room in which he was sitting in a chair and challenged him with 'talking about me' and then picked up the poker and advanced towards him in a threatening way. He said, 'As he kept coming towards me I got frightened and stood up and when he was quite close to me I pushed him away with the flat of my hand and he fell down. It was only a push and not a blow'.

Charles Hipkiss was taken to Burton Road Hospital in Sedgley where he died the following day on 2 August 1959.

A doctor said that his death was due to a stroke and a broken skull, but said, 'It is only fair to add that the man would have died from the stroke without the additional haemorrhage from the fractured skull'.

When the Coroner summed up he told the jury that the medical evidence also showed that that at the moment that Charles Hipkiss had advanced on his son-in-law that he was either suffering, or going to suffer, a stroke.

An open verdict was returned at his inquest in Sedgley on Monday 17 August 1959.

Charles Hipkiss had been a widower.