George Grindell

George Grindell was found injured in a lane off Bute Terrace in Cardiff on the night of Saturday 18 October 1902 and died soon after.

He had lived with his mother at 42 Bridgend Street, East Moors and had been a labourer.

His mother said that George Grindell had been out to a football match on the Saturday afternoon and had come home under the influence of drink. She said that they then went out together to purchase a pair of boots and that whilst out George Grindell had a glass of stout and a glass of beer at the Quebec Inn where he later left her at about 10.45pm.

She said that she saw no more of him until she identified his body at the mortuary on the Monday morning.

At his inquest his mother said that George Grindell had had no illness in recent years, nor suffered from his chest or been under the doctor.

She later noted that she could not say whether George Grindell had had any money on him when he had left her.

George Grindell's body was found by a marine fireman that had lived in Tredegar Street and after informing the police he helped them get his body into a cab.

A labourer that had lived in Gough Street was noted at the inquest as having given his evidence very strangely and in a thick, incoherent voice. He said that he had seen George Grindell enter the lane at about 11pm on the Saturday night in the company of two men and two women, noting that the two women had been supporting him by the arms, one on each side. He added that the two men had been walking behind them and that one of them then hit George Grindell a violent blow on the jaw that caused him to fall down and that his head fell against the wall.

The labourer said that he then went away to get some tobacco.

When the labourer was questioned he said that it had been a light place and that he had seen George Grindell well and that it was the same man that he later saw at the mortuary.

When he was asked whether the men and women did anything else to George Grindell he said that they then picked him up and took him further down the lane and that he then went and told them to let him go. However, the judge noted that he had just said that he had gone off to get some tobacco after seeing George Grindell struck but the labourers reply was incomprehensible.

The Coroner then remarked that the jury would probably not want to ask the labourer any questions as he was very deaf and that in such in unfortunate condition it was difficult to understand him.

A police constable said that when he arrived at the scene he examined George Grindell's pulse and found that he was not quite dead.

He said that when he went back to the lane and examined it that he found three or four splashes of blood on the wall near to where his body was found. He agreed that it was a likely place for anyone to entice a person if they had wanted to rob them.

He said that when he later examined George Grindell that he found 2s 9d in money and a Cardiff Football Club ticket on him.

A doctor said that George Grindell was brought into his surgery at 11.45pm and that by that time he had been dead for about five minutes.

He said that there were no marks of violence about his body other than on his head and that after he later carried out a post-mortem that he found that he had a fractured bone in the head and congestion about his scalp.

He said that his cause of death was due to the injury he had received to the head.

He said that his head injury was probably caused by him coming into contact with the wall and that it was improbable that it had been inflicted with any instrument such as a stick.

He said that a man falling heavily whilst under the influence of drink would be liable to inflict such an injury to himself as was found on him.

However, he noted that if George Grindell had received some violent blow to the jaw as described by the labourer that he would have expected to have found some evidence of it.

Another policeman noted that the labourer had apparently been drinking during the afternoon of Saturday 18 October 1902 and that when he had described the man that he had seen being assaulted in the lane that he had said that the man had been wearing a watch. However, it was noted that George Grindell had never had a watch.

After hearing the evidence the jury returned an open verdict, stating that there was no evidence to show how George Grindell had come by his injuries.