Matthew McCallum, 1835-1876

The 93rd Highland Regiment was famously described during the Crimean War as a "thin red streak, topped with a line of steel" as it stood with fixed bayonets to face an approaching Russian cavalry charge.  They did not have enough time to form a defensive square, the usaul formation for receiving cavalry,  and stood in line, two men deep.  As the Russians approached they fired three volleys - at 600, 350 and 150 yards' range.  Their fouth musket volley and point blank range, was not fired, as the Russians turned and fled.

This phrase went down in history as "the thin red line," and it was the 93rd that Matthew McCullum joined after the end of the Crimean War but in time for action in the Indian Mutiny in 1857.  He remained in India after the Mutiny, moving to Dunedin, New Zealand in 1875.  His occupation is recorded as engine driver.

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Matthew McCullum, aged 41, formerly a soldier through the Indian mutiny, was found dead in his bed on Saturday. He had been drinking heavy lately, and on Friday swallowed, a bottle full of chloral, with which he was being treated.  -Lake County Press, 4/10/1876.

CORONER'S INQUEST.

A coroner's inquisition was held at the European Hotel on the 2nd, before Dr Hocken, touching the death of Matthew McCallum, engine-driver, who died through an over-dose of poison on Saturday morning.

The Coroner: Gentlemen, though there is nothing of a suspicious nature about this case, I thought it advisable to bring it before a Jury. It appears that deceased, who died suddenly on Saturday morning, had been suffering from the effects of drink, and was prescribed for by Dr Murphy. On the Friday evening, his wife asked the doctor to increase the dose of medicine, which contained chloral hydrate, a narcotic medicine, administered to make people sleep. He took three doses out of the fresh bottle, and on the following morning his wife found that he had swallowed the rest — thirteen doses — in one draught. Altogether, I thought it necessary to hold an inquiry to see whether proper care had been taken in order that there should be no circumstance of suspicion cropping up afterwards. 

The Jury having viewed the body, 

Marian McCallum deposed that she was the wife of the deceased. He was forty years of age, a native of Dumbarton, Scotland, and an engine-driver by occupation. He came to this Colony fourteen months ago from Bombay, India, and for two months past had bean drinking continually. He was very drowsy, but could get no sleep, and he got a draught from Dr Murphy to induce sleep. On Friday last she got another bottle of the same medicine from Dr Murphy, with instructions to give him a tablespoonful every four hours. He took a spoonful at 9 o'clock that evening, another about an hour afterwards, and a third about 4 o'clock on the following morning. She got up at 6, and on entering his bedroom about 8 discovered that he was dead. The bottle which had contained the medicine was on a dresser close by, empty. She had no doubt but what he had taken the whole of it, and did not believe he thought it would injure him, because he had always considered it a cowardly act to commit suicide.

Michael Dominic Murphy, registered medical practitioner practising in Dunedin, said he had prescribed for deceased, who he found suffering from heart disease and the effects of heavy drinking. Witness prescribed for him three drachms of hydrate of chloral, which he afterwards increased to 3 1/2. That would represent 180 grains, being about 11 1/2 grains to the dose, and he instructed Mrs McCallum to give deceased a dose, or tablespoonful, once every four hours until he slept. The dose of chloral was a very small one, on account of deceased's complaint, and he had often ordered three times that amount to persons. Witness afterwards increased the dose to 13 1/8 grains, which, if taken as directed, would not be dangerous. Deceased having taken 2 drachms 15 grains in one dose, or 13 doses together, in witness's opinion caused death. 

The Jury enquired whether it was wise to trust so much poison to deceased. 

The Coroner remarked that the prescription was a good one, and the amount of chloral in it was remarkably small. Of course, when a doctor ordered a prescription, his directions were expected to be attended to. Some medicines contained prussic acid and morphia, which, if the whole quantity were taken in one dose, would cause certain death. Thirteen grains of chloral was very small, and he (the Coroner) had often prescribed 40 grains himself. 

A verdict to the effect that deceased died from an overdose of chloral, taken while in a state of ill-health, accompanied by delirium, was returned.  -Otago Witness, 14/10/1876.

Northern cemetery, Dunedin.