arrow The Westmorland Gazette arrow 25 July 1863 arrow Boy Drowned in Derwentwater
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SATURDAY 25th JULY 1863

MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT
A BOY DROWNED IN DERWENTWATER
On Saturday an inquest was held at the Royal Oak Hotel, Keswick, before Mr.
Howson, the deputy coroner, on the body of Alfred Fisher Wilson, aged 11
years, son of Mrs. Wilson, of the Market-place, Keswick. Anthony Spedding
stated that on Thursday afternoon he went with Wilson and another boy named
Morley Stanley, to bathe behind the isthmus in Crow Park, on the shores of
the lake. Stanley went into the water first, and was followed by Wilson,
who, when up to his neck, said that he was going to swim. He suddenly got
out of his depth and sank. None of the boys were able to swim. The witness
had warned him not to proceed lest he should be drowned. He rose two or
three times, and Stanley held out a stick to him but he failed to reach him.
After sinking, the deceased came up two or three times, and his face was
very white, but he seemed to have no consciousness. Witness shouted for help
; failing to make himself heard, he ran to some haymakers in Crow Park, who
came to the spot but made no attempt to enter the water. It was a quarter of
an hour before deceased was taken out. - Morley Stanley gave corroborative
evidence. - John Gate, the guide and boatman, said - He was by the lake side
on Thursday, when he heard the alarm and moved towards the place where the
deceased had sunk. It was a small hole in a circle of 20 feet, in which the
water was eight or nine feet deep. Witness dived into the lake but failed to
get hold of the deceased, who was taken out immediately afterwards by Robert
Raven with a hay-rake. He was black in the face and his body was swollen
with the water. Witness and others rubbed the corpse in the hopes of
recalling vitality, and medical gentlemen also used every appliance for
restoring suspended animation, but without effect, as the body had been
under water for about half an hour - Robert Raven made a similar
statement. - The Coroner summed up, and the jury returned a verdict of "
Accidentally drowned while bathing

Steve

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