FATAL BATHING ACCIDENT
A particularly sad accident, which resulted in the death of Lieutenant Roger Kerkham, of the Dunedin City Rifles, occurred at St, Clair baths yesterday morning. Mr Kerkham, who was a popular officer and an expert swimmer and diver, arranged on the previous evening, with two of his fellow subalterns (lieutenants Jackson and Ussher) that they should go down to the baths in the morning from their camp on the hill at Kew. They went accordingly, and each of them dived into the water twice. Then Mr Kerkham went back for one more plunge before finally coming out. He took a running dive in precisely the same manner as the one before it. His companions are convinced that he did not slip — in fact, deceased said as much himself afterwards. He struck the water at a good angle, but as he went in his knees were bent, and it is supposed that their contact with the water caused his head to tip downwards. At any rate, he did not come to the surface immediately, and for a few moments his companions thought he was remaining under water purposely, until one of them saw him floating slowdy upwards and remaining with his face immersed and blood issuing from a severe scalp wound. Lieutenant Jackson at once brought him into shallow water, and with the assistance of lieutenant Ussher carried him ashore and sent word of the accident to the camp. Deceased was quite conscious and rational, and told his companions that he was afraid he was “done for,” as he had a queer sensation at the back of his neck. On has legs being pinched he felt nothing, and about ten minutes afterwards his arms, too, became paralysed. He told his friends that he was very sorry, as he knew how he would have felt if it had been one of them who had been hurt. When Dr Coughtrey, who had been sent for post haste, arrived he at once attended to the injured man, who said to him: “I fear, doctor, that it’s a case,” and from the first the doctor had no hope that it might be otherwise. After considerably difficulty Dr Coughtrey succeeded in telephoning to the hospital for an ambulance, in which the deceased was taken to that institution. At about noon he became unconscious, and died shortly before 9 p.m, from laceration of the spinal chord. Lieutenant Kerkham was the son of the Rev. A. R. Kerkham, who some years ago was vicar of the Anglican Church, Roslyn, but is now in England. There is a brother in Western Australia, and one a sea captain; while a third some time ago went to India as a missionary, where he died. Lieutenant Kerkham was employed in the office of the National Insurance Company, and was a popular officer in the battalion to which he belonged. The spot from which deceased dived is known as “high rock,” a pillar of concrete standing 5ft from the side of the bath just be behind the bathing boxes. It is 5ft above the edge of the bath, which itself is about 2ft at low-water level, so that the height of the dive would be about 7ft from the take-off, and by measurement the water at its deepest part in the hole abreast of this “high rock ” is 5ft when the tide is coming in, as it was at the time of the accident. This is the third serious accident of this sort that has taken place in these baths, and it is time that the Domain Board saw not only to deepening the bath, but to keeping it deep, and to cutting away some of the pinnacles of rock that are alongside the wall. It would also be a good thing, and consistent with the practice in vogue in other places, to place in the bath gauges by which the depth of the water at various places would he plainly indicated. This morning the water abreast of the low-dive side of the bath was only four feet. Deceased, who arrived in Dunedin with his parents twentythree years ago this month by the New Zealand Company’s sailing vessel Wanganui, will be buried with military honors on Wednesday.
An inquest was held on the body at the hospital this afternoon before Mr C. C. Graham, coroner, and a jury consisting of six, of whom Mr John Duthie was foreman. Allan Main Jackson, civil engineer, one of those who accompanied deceased to the baths, gave evidence tallying with the facts already stated. Stuart Beauchamp Ussher, insurance clerk, the other volunteer subaltern present at the time of the accident, gave deceased’s age at thirtytwo years, and corroborated the evidence of the previous witness. Dr Coughtrey, who attended deceased, said that when he arrived at the baths there was no bleeding from the scalp wound on the deceased’s head, but that he could see that there was extensive injury to the spinal cord, and bleeding into its membranes, causing complete loss of power and sensation in the lower limbs and almost complete in the upper limbs, together with interference with the respiratory movements. He described how deceased was sent to the hospital, and said he thought all was done that could have been done. He also referred to the previous accidents which had occurred at the baths, and stated that he had heard complaints from bathers as to the jaggedness of the rocks in the baths. Dr Brown, resident surgeon at the hospital, testified that the cause of death was extensive laceration of the upper part of the spinal cord, with subsequent hemorrhage, probably due to striking the head on the bottom of the baths. He noticed no fracture of the skull, but probably one of the vertebra of the neck was fractured. William Farquharson Chisholm, lessee of the baths, said that in his lease there was no agreement as to clearing out the baths, but that he was in the habit of taking steps in that direction. About a month ago he, had cleaned the baths out, and removed all the large stones from the bottom. There never had been any means of indicating the depth of the water. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death (words missing) effect that in all public baths it would be desirable to have the depth of water dearly shown on direction posts placed there for the purpose. -Evening Star, 15/12/1902.
The funeral of the late Lieutenant Kerkham took place this afternoon, when the remains were conveyed on the gun carriage of the B Battery to the Northern Cemetery. There was a large muster of volunteers and others, the insurance companies being strongly represented. The Garrison Band played the Dead March, and the Dunedin Rifles, to which company deceased belonged, formed the firing party. -Evening Star, 17/12/1902.
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