I have a George Henry GILLHAM, age 40, a cellarman of Hackney who died on 15 July 1890 at "The Hospital, Tottenham". Cause of death was delirium tremens (alcoholic withdrawal ?) and shock from railway injury. The certificate was issued by "R Macdonald", Coroner for Middlesex. Inquest held: 19 July 1890. I have tried searching for railway accidents c1890 both in UK railway archives and newspapers without success. I can only assume the accident was the same year as his death and presume it would have been in the Middlesex area. It's not important, purely a loose end that would be nice to tidy up
Trouble is that it could be an attempt to explain that the drinking was the result of the railway accident , possibly many years ago
The eminent Dr Roderick Macdonald M.P. no less Dr. Roderick Macdonald, Coroner for the North-East Middlesex District, headed the inquest on the death of one of Jack The Ripper's victims too, Mary Jane Kelly, who was murdered on 9th November, 1888.
It may not have been a big accident, just something like him falling out of the train as he got off. It's pretty scary sometimes even nowadays, I always think I'm going to miss the platforem
I queried 'delirium tremens' a couple of years ago on here. I can't find the thread so maybe it's been tidied away. Mine was a cab driver in Manchester city centre in the 1890s, and left me wondering whether he'd liked his drink, but as delirium tremens can, I believe, also be the result of a head injury or infection, I never quite got to the bottom of it. Generally, though, DTs are associated with withdrawal from alcohol.
I would have to go back through my records now, but one of my licenced victular relation's inns was the meeting place of some sort of "ripper's vigilantly" group.
It's disturbing to note that the vast majority of my ancestors were associated with the licences victuallar trade (he says, g&t in hand) LOL.
Well, I've had a really good rummage around the papers and can find nothing about George Henry and his accident. I thought it might pop up amongst one of the inquest reports in a London paper for the time, but no luck. Unfortunately the only paper 'local' to Hackney (Hackney and Kingsland Gazette) is only covered for the years 1869-1871.
