South Yorkshire Times – Friday 31 August 1934
War Wounds?
Conisborough Ex-Service Man’s Death
Question for Jury
Opening an inquest at Conisboro’ on Tuesday on John Joseph Burns (52), 22, Pope Avenue, Conisboro’, who died on Saturday, the Doncaster district deputy coroner (Mr. C. R. Marshall) said there was no disputing the cause of the man’s death was cancer. But the reason for the inquiry was that the man served with the 5th Batt. K.O.Y.L.I. during the war, and was discharged in 1919 suffering from shrapnel wounds in the upper part of his body. At the time of his death he was receiving from the Ministry of Pensions a life pension of 16s. a week, on the face of which it would appear that he was still suffering from some war disability.
He started work at the Cadeby Colliery, and worked regularly until two years ago when he was taken to hospital and remained there for 14 weeks. Afterwards he resumed work at Cadeby, and again worked regularly until 14 weeks before his death, when he was admitted to the Sheffield Royal Infirmary, and received treatment for cancer. He was sent home on Aug. 19th. In such cases it was usual to hold an inquiry to settle the minds of people.
Dr. L. D. Callander, consulting surgeon, Doncaster, who held a post-mortem examination on Monday, said the man was very thin and wasted, but the only disease in the body was a well marked cancer on the right lung. The left lung showed signs of pleurisy, but all other organs were normal. Externally there was a healed scar near the right shoulder, but there was no connection between the scar and the lung cavity, and there was no evidence of internal defect. The cause of death was cancer and in his opinion there was no connection between the scar and the cancer.
Dr. Callander added that he could not tell the duration of the cancer, and said: “We know nothing about it yet, despite all the money that has been spent on it. No one knows what cancer is, although we know it when we see it. It is impossible to state its cause, but there is no evidence to show that blows or irritation are the causes. If that were the cause, we would expect to find a great deal of cancer among miners, who receive very severe blows while working.”
The widow, Mary Burns, gave evidence corroborating the coroner’s opening statement and said her husband was wounded three times in all, the last being near the end of the war. Since 1919 he had been troubled continuously with phlegm accumulation in his lungs, but every time he had got rid of it he had been well again. His treatment at Leeds was for that and removal of shrapnel. Witness added that neither she nor her husband knew what was wrong with him, even after he returned from Sheffield.
Dr. D. M. Bell said he had treated the man since May last. He agreed with the opinions expressed by Dr. Callander.
The Coroner said the cause of death was obvious, and it was for the jury to decide whether it was possible to say that it was a consequence of war injury or of natural causes. The difficult subject of cancer was involved, and he had taken the trouble of getting a consulting specialist to conduct the post-mortem and, in fairness to Dr. Bell, it was advisable to have someone entirely independent of the case to hold that examination. He advised them to find a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.
After retiring, the jury returned a verdict of “Death from natural causes.”