Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 07 August 1920
A Holiday Tragedy
Denaby Man Drowned at Matlock.
Joseph Mahon, of 21 Cliffe street, Denby, was drowned on Sunday in the Derwent at Matlock Bath.
Mr. W. Oliver, a Matlock tradesman, was on the Lovers’ Walk when he saw Mahon topple over a rock on the opposite side of the river and fall into the water, thirty feet below. Mr. Oliver immediately took a boat and rowed to the spot, while another resident, named Ollerenshaw, swam across the river. Mahon was got into the boat, and the police tried artificial respiration for over an hour, but without success.
At the inquest on Tuesday Mrs. Margaret Myers, of Cliff View, Denaby, identified the body. The deceased lived at the same address, and was 37 year old. He left home for a Sunday trip to Matlock in his usual health.
Wm. Oliver, a Matlock Bath tradesman, told how he saw the man fall over the rocks from behind the Grand Pavilion at 4-10 p.m. and, rushing to a boat, he paddled across with floor boards as oars. A man flawed Ollerenshaw also swam across the river to assist. They found the deceased under the water, and took him to the ferry landing stage.
Sergeant Tipper said he applied artificial respiration for an hour and twenty minutes without success, and then a doctor visitor arrived and pronounced the man dead, and added that his opinion was that when he fell his head struck the rock and rendered him unconscious before he entered the water. The deceased had 14/10 on him, and a gold hunter watch, which was still going. There were wounds on the head, as though he had hit the rock in his fall. Deceased had come by motor char-a-banc, but had missed the return journey, which went 40 minutes before the fatality. The Sergeant added that it was nothing unusual for people to be left behind.
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