CRIME IN OLD ROTHERHAM: PC dies at election demo

Throughout the previous week, Bridgegate had been crowded with people who made noisy demonstrations with shouts and jeers. Several times the police had been called out to disperse the noisy crowd. Two days earlier a group of persons, mainly youths, were assembled at the entrance to Angel Inn at some point between 2pm and 3pm where over 50 constables were on duty. Occasionally cinders and stones were throw at the police, but it was claimed at the time, that it was done more in fun than with any real violence. About 4pm the crowd increased in such large numbers that several gentlemen attempting to enter the Inn were jostled. The constables were forced to charge at the mob with their staffs drawn. Others were equipped with whips and they were seen to lash out at the crowd.

The mob attempting to escape from the onslaught, ran in all directions and some were knocked over as they tried to flee. It was reported that at this point the mood of the crowd changed and the missiles, which had previously been flung in a light hearted fashion, were now thrown with great violence.

People looking out of the windows of the Angel Inn looked down and saw the attack which injured a young constable called Edwin Pryor. It was said that one missile had knocked his helmet off and then a second, which looked like a stone, had hit him directly on the head. Bleeding badly Pryor had informed Sergeant William Lennard that he was feeling sick and dizzy and asked if he could go home.

The sergeant gave permission and told him to go straight home and to call out the police surgeon, Mr Wright. The surgeon attended, but thought the wound was trivial, but he patched the man up and told him to call him out the following day if he needed him.

Edwin Pryor went to bed and his mother, Mrs Sarah Flood cared for him. Although he complained of feeling ill, the wound itself was so small that she did not call the surgeon again until  the following Tuesday.

Unfortunately Edwin Pryor died in the early hours of the following day, on Wednesday April 1. An inquest was held at the Grapes Inn, New Church Street by the coroner Mr T Badger Esq., where the body was identified by his mother. She told the inquest that her son came home on the day of his injury at 4pm complaining of the wound to his head, which he said had been caused with a stone.

Mr Wright surgeon also gave evidence and claimed that the wound was so small that it did not seem to be life threatening, and he had simply told the man to call him out if he felt ill. Hearing nothing over the weekend, he assumed that Pryor had recovered.

On Tuesday he was called out again and found him in a state of complete insensibility. The young man had difficulty in articulating, but the surgeon visited him several times during the day. Mr Wright told the coroner that he thought the injury had caused inflammation of the brain and the membranes. The coroner adjourned the inquest to the following week.

When the inquest was again resumed, this time at the Town Hall, Mr Rayner the chief constable brought in several missiles, which were rough sharp cornered pieces of sandstone. He asked the surgeon Mr Wright if such implements could have caused the death of Edwin Pryor and the surgeon agreed that they could. Mr Rayner stated that throwing implements at the police was on the increase in the town.

If a prisoner was arrested, however small the offence, the police were in constant danger from such stones being thrown at them. The chief constable was forced to admit that no person suspected of throwing the stone which had killed PC Pryor had been brought into custody. Mr Badger told the jury that if the guilty party had been found, he could have been convicted of manslaughter.

He concluded that ‘he regretted that anyone should have indulged in the cowardly and unmanly proceedings of throwing stones, which seemed to have been so recklessly indulged in’.

The coroner advised the jury to bring in an open verdict. The jury returned a verdict that Edwin Pryor had died from inflammation of the brain, caused by being struck on the head with a stone or a brick. By whom the implement had been thrown there was no evidence to show’.

* Margaret’s new kindle book is now available to download from Amazon. It is called Rotherham Crimes and is based on the stories that have appeared in the Advertiser, but expanded to contain letters and witness and prisoners statements, and is priced at £2.99.