Jane Iris May Webster - Albion Park, NSW - Graves Mentioning a Cause of Death on Waymarking.com

The National Library of Australia, Trove Digitised Newspapers has the Coroner's Report as published in the Kiama Independent and Shoalhaven Advertiser on 4 August 1928.

Sad Drowning.
CORONER'S INQUIRY.

An inquest was held in the Court house, Albion Park, by Mr. C. W. Craig, District Coroner, yesterday morning, concerning the death of Jane Iris May Webster, aged 11 years 2 months. Walter Webster, labourer, father of the girl, deposed that he had last seen his daughter alive at 1 p.m. on Monday, the 30th July. She was at her
grandmother's house and was in her usual health. Dr. Arthur Henry said he was asked to go and see the girl at 7 o'clock on the same day. He found that she was dead, and had, in his opinion, been so for about three hours. There was a slight abrasion on the upper lip as though she had struck a piece of wood or a stone. There were no other marks on the body.

Mrs. Rosina O'Keefe saw the child climbing a wattle tree after gum soon after three o'clock. She was in front of witness' place, and after staying about ten minutes, got through the fence, and on to the road. She was on her way home. David Birrell, farm labourer, said he joined in the search for the girl and was one of a party of four who went along a creek on Mrs. Gower's farm. Witness found the deceased's lunch-case.

Ernest Albert Sharp, headmaster of the Albion Park Public School, where Jane Webster was a pupil, said the school was usually dismissed at half last three, but in consequence of having received a note asking that deceased and Essie Simpson might go home at three, she was dismissed at that hour, and left the school by herself. The note (produced) was from Mrs. Simpson and gave as the reason for the request that the days were still short. The last witness examined was Constable James Taper, who said that he was informed at five o'clock by telephone that the child was missing. He immediately made enquiries and was informed by Mrs. O'Keefe that she had seen her climbing the tree. Together with a number of residents, witness searched the Macquarrie rivulet until about 7 o'clock, with lanterns. He was then informed that the lunch bag had been found on the bank of a waterhole in a creek a few hundred yards away. Witness procured the grappling irons from the police station and dragged the hole, recovering the body in seven or eight feet of water at half-past seven.

There were no signs of life, and the body was taken to Mrs. Simpson's house, about a quarter of a mile distant.The doctor being sent for arrived with in fifteen minutes. He pronounced life extinct. In witness' opinion, the girl stepped on to a quantity of rubbish washed in by flood, and which appeared to rest on solid ground. She then fell into the deep water and was drowned.

The Coroner returned a verdict of accidental drowning.

Type of Death Listed: Accident Website (if available): [Web Link] Cause of death inscription on headstone: Not listed

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