A Grisly End to a Lancashire Policeman.
A grisly end. Sergeant William James Bedwell of the Lancashire Mounted Police had tied his legs together, cut his throat and jumped in the River RIbble -buried at Preston Cemetery, Lancashire. [Some years before he had been severely injured when he had been thrown from his horse and landed on his head]
What a very sad ending for this well regarded man he must have suffered mentally and could take no more.
ReplyDeleteThe pain suffered by Bedwell following his accident would have been nothing compared with what he inflicted upon his surviving family. All of them. His wife Rachel, alongside each and every one of their FIVE children. Wonder why his daughter died aged 37? Winifred would have been just eight years old when her father died. Maybe his parents were still living — not too unusual when inviting death at age 53. Then siblings. Nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, possibly a grandparent or two.
ReplyDeleteSuicide is analogous with a stone thrown into a pond. The ripples
reverberate through the family. Sometimes down the generations.
Modern science tells us that damage to the frontal lobes of our brains causes the removal of inhibition. Increasing impulsivity, amongst a host of other problems. Sgt. Bedwell's suicide may well be blamed on the accident that caused his head injury. That knowledge would have been small comfort to his widow and their five children. So sad.
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