Charles Frederick CLAY

The Evening News,
Wednesday, March 5, 1913

Page 4

MARRIAGES

CLAY—Harnden—On March 1st, by licence, at St. Mark's Church, North End, by the Rev. I. M. Atkins, Charles Frederick Clay, of Southsea, to Ivy Gwendolin, younger daughter of J. W. Harnden, of North End.

The Evening News,
Tuesday, April 9, 1935

Page 2

MILTON WIFE'S SAD DISCOVERY

DOCKYARDMAN'S END

On the day that he was to have restarted work, a Milton man was discovered lying dead on the scullery floor of his house, by his wife, who had just returned fron a shopping expedition. He was Charles Frederick Clay (51), an engine fitter employed in the Dockyard, and the tragedy occurred at 47 Bonchurch Road, Milton.

His wife, Mrs. Ivy Gwendolin Clay, Left home at 12.30 p.m., returning at 6.30 p.m. last evening. When she opened the front door she smelled gas, and on entering the scullery she found her husband lying on the floor with his head, which was covered with a box cloth, on a hassock. A piece of tubing led from the gas copper to Mr. Clay's head. Dr. Duthie was summoned, but her husband was dead.

The Evening News,
Tuesday, April 10, 1935

Page 9

MILTON TRAGEDY OF ILL-HEALTH

DOCKYARDMAN'S END

A tragic ending to many years ill-health was described to the City Coroner, Sir Thomas A. Bramsdon, J.P., sitting without a jury at the Guildhall this afternoon, when Mrs, Ivy Gwendolin Clay narrated how she returned to her home at 47, Bonchurch Road, Milton, on Monday, to find her husband dead in the gas-filled scullery.

Mrs. Clay said that her husband, Charles Frederick Clay, 51, a Dockyard engine-fitter, had been in poor health for the past 14 years, and four years ago he had tried to gas himself. Ever since that time he had been under the care of a doctor, and had not been working. He had suffered from neurasthenia for the past seven years and at one time was a patient in the City Mental Hospital. On Monday, he was to have started work in the Dockyard, but he did not want to go,

At about 12.30 p.m. Mrs. Clay left the house, and did not return home until 6.30 the same evening. She found her husband lying on the floor, his head resting on a hassock and covered with a box-cloth. There was a piece of tubing leading from the gas copper to Mr Clay's head.

Dr. G. H. Duthie told the Coroner that last Saturday he suggested to the deceased man that he had improved enough physically to go back to work, and he took him off the panel books. On Monday morning Mr. Clay came to him and complained of his nerves, saying that he could not go back to work. The doctor put Clay back on his books and heard no more until he was summoned that evening. Clay had been dead for about two hours, death being due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

The Coroner returned a verdict of "Suicide whilst of unsound mind."