MELANCHOLY DEATH FROM DROWNING

On Wednesday last R.S. Hayes Esq., coroner, held an inquest at the Hare Park, Curragh Camp, on the body of Henry C. Andrews, Curragh Camp, a private in the 97^th Regiment, who was accidentally drowned while out bathing in the River Liffey, near Athgarvan, on the day previous. On the body being taken out of the water it was at once removed by his comrades to the military hospital of the Curragh Camp.

A respectable jury having been sworn, the following facts were deposed to by the witnesses examined on the inquiry:-

Corporal William Benham sworn and examined – I knew the deceased; he was a private in the 97^th Regiment, 21 years of age, and unmarried; the deceased, myself, and some others went to bathe in the River Liffey, on yesterday, at the wire wall, below Athgarvan; only three of us could swim; and the deceased, with others, stripped, and went in; I and two others swam across the Liffey, and got out on the bank; when about sixty yards away, I heard an alarm given that a man was drowning; I called on the men that could swim to give assistance; Private Henshard, with Corporals Gledden and Bennett, attempted to save him, but the drowning man having caught one of them by the arm while he was attempting to hold deceased by the hair of the head, he was obliged to let go; after that the man sunk; we could see the body at the bottom; it remained in the water for an hour and a half, when Thomas Stanley and Dr. Johnson, of the 1^st Dragoon Guards, dived for him, and got out the body.

Joseph S. Johnson, Esq., Assistant Surgeon, 1^st King’s Dragoon Guards, deposed – I was informed on yesterday by Corporal Benham, of the 97^th Regiment, that a soldier belonging to his corps had been drowned in the river Liffey; I rode over to the place, and found a number of soldiers sitting on the bank; there were also a couple of civilians present; I could see the body lying in the centre of the river; the parties on the bank told me that they had tried to get out the body of deceased, but had failed to do so; I took off my clothes, and swam out, and one of the civilians came after me; while I was swimming about looking for the body, the civilian dived down, and brought him up.

The Coroner, in charging the jury, said there was no doubt that death was accidental; still it was extraordinary that in the presence of sixteen men such an occurrence should take place. He should have expected some greater exertion would have been made to save the man; but it appeared that once he sunk they gave him up as lost.

The jury, after a brief deliberation, returned the following verdict: “We find that Henry C. Andrews was accidentally drowned in the River Liffey, near Athgarvan, while bathing, on Tuesday, the 30^th instant.