South Yorkshire Times – Saturday 03 January 1942

Christmas Day Discovery

Tragedy in Wombwell Home

How Joy was turned to tragedy in a Wombwell home on Christmas morning was related at the inquest at the Methodist Schools, Cemetery Road, Wombwell, on Saturday, on Susan Mary Brackpool, eleven month-old daughter of Charles William Brackpol, 30, Summer Lane Wombwell, a canteen manager now serving with the Forces.

The excited cries of a child who had found his Christmas toys led to the discovery that his little sister was dead. The baby had died from asphyxia.

Mrs. Brackpool told the Deputy Coroner (Mr. B. H. B. Gill) that the child was normally healthy, but had been attended by Dr. Maxwell for infantile ailments. About six o’clock on Christmas Eve she put the child to bed in its cot and found it all right when she went to bed at 12.30. She heard nothing during the night. At 7.15 the following morning she went to the cot and found Susan lying face downward in the pillow. She turned her over and started shaking her but without effect. “She looked so funny,” said witness, “that I was frightened. I ran outside but could see no one, so I went to the A.R.P. post and fetched a man.” She also called in a neighbour. When Dr. Naylor arrived he told her the child was dead.

In reply to the Coroner, witness said it was a kapok pillow, which they were supposed to have for children. The child often rolled over on her face.

The Coroner: You have never had the child in bed with you? No, sir.

Witness added that they had one other child, a boy of three, and he also had his own cot.

Dr. L. Taylor said that on being called to the house on Christmas morning he found the child lying dead in the cot. The body was warm and he formed the Impression that it had been dead from one to two hours. “Blue-ing” of the lips, fingertips and toes indicated asphyxia. The mother told him that the older child had found his toys and in his excitement had woken her up. Ongoing to the cot she found the baby dead. The condition of the body and a subsequent post-mortem examination pointed to asphyxia, which was the cause of death. This could happen as the mother stated, the child being suffocated by burying its face in the soft pillow. It was a very thick pillow.

Witness added that It was a healthy well looked-after child with no sign of disease anywhere.

The Coroner returned a verdict of “Death by misadventure.”