Real memorial obituaries – Combe Down, Monkton Combe, Midford

In memoriam et celebrationem

In memorial and celebration

Combe Down Resident Found Drowned

CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY IN BROOK NEAR MONKTON COMBE

Retired Architect's Fatal Delusion

Two children on a mushrooming- bank of the Midford Brook, near noticed a bundle of clothes on the Tucking Mill, Monkton Combe. They returned an hour later and saw The clothes still there.

Water was dragged until midnight and The police were informed and the again from an early hour next day.

Then was found the body of architect to the London County 65- years-old Arthur Floyd, a retired Council, who lived with his sister at "Selborne," Horsecombe Brow, Combe Down.

The clothes found on the bank were a mackintosh, spread for sitting on. shoes and a hat.

There were also a pair of spectacles, and an umbrella.

The man was otherwise fully clothed. His pockets were weighted with stones. The two children who made the discovery are John New, aged 10, and his younger brother, Dennis, aged eight.

Lonely Spot.

The brook at the point where the body was found curves narrowly under overhanging branches, through pathless fields, little frequented.

The nearest approach from the highway is by the road from Monkton used by traffic. The children live by Combe to Midford, narrow and little Tucking Mill, which stands in a secluded quietude of this valley, and is only a few minutes' walk across fields to the scene of the tragedy.

The river is quite deep at this spot.

Inquest Story Of Delusion

The delusion that he had financial worries is believed to have caused the suicide of Mr. Floyd.

At the Inquest at Bradford-on-Avon on Thursday, the Wilts Coroner (Mr. Harold Dale) returned a verdict that Mr. Floyd committed suicide by drowning, during a period of mental depression.

Mr. John Levington Hancock, Combe Down, said he had known Mr. Floyd for many years.

He was a man who imagined he had financial worries over a house he had bought in Combe Down, where he had intended to reside. However, he changed his mind, and had put the property up for auction. He was a bachelor and had no domestic troubles.

Witness last saw him on the previous Tuesday at the breakfast table. He seemed very depressed and was not eating or speaking. He was simply crouching over the table. Witness did not think Mr. Floyd had any arrangements made for the day.

In reply to the Coroner, Mr.Hancock said he had never heard Mr. Floyd threaten to take his
life. When be left the room deceased was still sitting at the breakfast table.

Worried Over House

Dr. Oliver Colville, Oldfield Road, Bath, said he had attended Mr. Floyd since May of this year, when he made complaints about indigestion. He had never made any reference to his nervous state at all. A few days before he was rather depressed. On making Inquiries Floyd informed him that he had been foolish enough to purchase a house, and he was intensely
worried about the sale of it.

He was called to the house on the day of Mr. Floyd's death by Mr. Hanspeak; he seemed very preoccupied. Mr. Floyd told him he proposed to go to London to live with his brother and his wife. He did not look miserable but seems obsessed with the idea of the house and failed to take notice of what witness was saying.

Dr. Colville said he came to the conclusion that Mr. Floyd died by drowning. P.C. Cullimore told the Coroner that on Tuesday evening at 5.45 Floyd.

A search was reported missing. organised and at 7.30 a hat, a mackintosh, an umbrella and a pair of
shoes were found on the river bank in Kennel Field.

Five Large Stones

On the following day witness, in the company of other police officers, again visited the brook and from a spot in the water a few yards away from where the clothes were found, he recovered the body of Floyd, fully clothed. In an inner pocket he found five large stones.

There were no signs of of a struggle, and it appeared the dead man had waded into the water. his left cheek there was a slight cut, and his watch was stopped at 2.50.