The Bucks Standard August 22nd. 1896

SHOCKING SUICIDE ON THE LINE:- On Saturday morning Mr. E. T. Worley, deputy coroner, held an inquest at the Carrington Arms Inn, Castlethorpe, relatives to the death of Thomas Hurst, aged 67, labourer, of Hanslope, who was killed on the line about a mile from Castlethorpe Station on the Hanslope side on Friday morning by being knocked down by the 9.40 train from Rugby.- Harriet Nicholson, Hanslope, a married daughter of the deceased, identified the body, and said her father was at one time a labourer in Wolverton Works. Deceased for some time past had been working for Mr. Checkley, but was discharged the day before his death owing to the strangeness of his actions. Deceased had been very strange in manner for a long time past. Deceased left home on Friday morning about nine o'clock, and she did not see him again alive. She had never heard her father threaten to commit suicide, but on his return from his work on Thursday he complained of being ill, but made no trouble of losing his work. - William Horrell, engine driver of the London and North-Western Railway Company, deposed that he was in charge of the 9.40 passenger train from Rugby on Friday. When about half a mile from Castlethorpe Station he saw deceased on the down line. He was apparently looking at some object on the line, and witness whistled to him. Witness's attention was then directed to his boiler, but a moment after he felt a concussion, and his mate told him they had knocked a man down. When he first saw deceased witness was on the up line and the deceased on the down line, so that deceased must have crossed over two lines of rails to the up line. On arrival at the Station he gave information of what had occurred.- Richard Lee, fireman of the train in question, deposed that he saw the man on the line. He could just see him over the buffer, and he appeared to be lying across the rails. Before witness could speak to the driver the train was over him. He did not think the man could have got in the position witness saw him in unless he purposely put himself in the position.- Henry Woodland, a platelayer on the line, stated that on Friday morning he was following the 9.40 train from Rugby on a trolley. When he got by the bridge near Hanslope he found the body, which was in a frightful condition of mutilation, and was completely cut in two. Although he knew deceased he failed to recognise the body owing to its mutilation. Witness added that he had previously warded deceased off the line.- In reply to the jury, he said the Stationmaster found the deceased's coat on the bank near where he was killed. - The jury returned a verdict of "Suicide during temporary insanity,"