Margaret MURTAGH (or MURTY) died from "shock and toxaemia from accidental burns" on July 19th 1944 at the Royal Halifax Infirmary, aged 79. Her death was registered by the Coroner, as an inquest was held on 20th July. I know that trying to find an inquest report from a court is difficult - to say the least! However, if anyone is able to find a report of such in the newspaper, I would be grateful. Many thanks,
I've had a good rummage Jan, but you aren't in luck I'm afraid. The only Halifax paper represented is the Halifax Courier, the dates covered being 1853-1939 Doing a search of all the papers for Margaret Murtagh brings up a few hits, but nothing that matches your criteria. Did she come from Halifax or was she admitted there from somewhere else?
Thank you so much for looking, Ann - it is much appreciated. I believe that she was living in or around Halifax prior to being admitted. My friend, on whose behalf I am asking, says that the story goes that Margaret was standing with her back to a fire to get warm, when her skirt caught alight. She is after some substantiation of the story.
I faced a similar problem when trying to find how a cousin had been burned to death on his 11th birthday in 1953. The advice given to me was that as the tragedy had occurred in the last 75 years, unless a newspaper report could be found, the only course open to me would be to submit a request directly to the Coroner's Office for a copy of the inquest findings. I was advised that requests made "out of interest" are very rarely accepted.
I had a grandmother who died from burns & shock following an explosion - she was 36. Have you tried the local records/archives office. They should know where they are kept?
The Halifax Courier is still going, so maybe contacting them might be an option? After all your friend has almost exact dates so there wouldn't be much searching to do - that is, if they maintain their own archives. http://www. halifaxcourier.co.uk/
Found this below, from: Code: http://www.archives.wyjs.org.uk/documents/archives/User-Guide-11.pdf Coroners records: The two main types of records created by local authority coroners’ offices are inquest files and written off files. Apart from some nineteenth century material for the Liberty of Ripon area, full inquest papers (giving much more detail than the inquest returns to Quarter Sessions) only survive from the late 1940s. Our Wakefield office holds a set of notebooks belonging to one Thomas Taylor, who was County Coroner and coroner for the Honour of Pontefract in the late nineteenth century. These notebooks are a personal record of the cases where he presided and include a wealth of detail. Access to all Coroners’ records on reported deaths is restricted for a period of 75 years. To request access to a record less than 75 years old an application must be made in writing to the relevant Coroner’s office.
