Robert Parker, a stable boy of 26, Pontefract Road, Broomhill, said he was walking along the canal bank at Brampton on Saturday, when, looking into the water he saw what he took to be a man’s head. He notified the police and assisted in the recovery of the body.

P.C. K. A. Jackson, said that following information from Parker he recovered the body from the canal and it answered the description of a man who had been reported missing. He found no marks of violence on the body which had apparently been in the water for three weeks.

The coroner then asked if there were any evidence that the man had taken his life, and recalled the widow. She stated that she did not think that her husband had taken his life.

A report from Doctor. Lister, of Rawmarsh, who made a post-mortem examination of the body, stated that death was due to suffocation by drowning. The organs were perfectly healthy and he had made a careful examination of the head but there was no form of injury at all.

Summing up the coroner said that there was no evidence on which he could say the man  had drowned himself and on the other hand there was no evidence of an accident. He expressed sympathy with the widow and recorded a verdict as stated.