SAD DEATH OF AN AGRICULTURAL LABOURER
On Wednesday last week a steady and industrious agricultural labourer, 56 years of age, named Robert Shortland, working for Mr. S. H. Brown, by whom he had been employed for many years, being busy in the harvest field, was unable to get home for dinner until the evening. Having a good appetite, he then had a big feed of fried bacon and potatoes, about seven o'clock. The same bacon and potatoes had been already boiled at dinner time, and kept for him. He had no teeth, and consequently swallowed the fried potatoes in large pieces. After supper he went to bed, but at one o'clock he had dreadful pains and vomiting, and Dr. Mackenzie was sent for. The next day Shortland seemed to improve considerably, but later on, the doctor, suspecting some intestinal obstruction, sent him for operation to the Northampton Infirmary on Saturday forenoon. He was driven up in a closed carriage, and the operation successfully performed. Peritonitis, however, set in, and the poor man died on Sunday morning, to the great grief of his wife, who accompanied him and remained with him till his death. Deceased was interred in Raunds churchyard on Tuesday afternoon. |
