Inquest into the death at West Byfleet Secondary School

 

30th May 1960 at Woking Coroners’ Court

 

 

 

Abridged story

The decision to publish these sordid details has been subject to some considerable thought.   

 

However, brief reference to the unfortunate events of May 1960 was made in the book “Surrey in the Sixties” by Mark Davison and Ian Currie published in 1994 on page 24.

 

Subsequently, an abridged account published in the book “Woking – The Way we Were” in 2005 by Marion Field.      At the time of the tragedy in 1960 Marion Field was a pupil at the Woking Girls’ Grammar school.    The following is reproduced from her book, which has been based upon the Inquest report in the Woking News and Mail.     As a mark of respect, anagrams have been substituted for the two teachers involved.

 

Alarums Rundles from the Gambia, who lived in St. John’s, taught at West Byfleet County Secondary school.  He was a good teacher but he fell in love with another member of staff and they started an affair.  After it was discovered, it was obvious they could not remain at the school.   When the headmaster, Mr. F.W. Goodger, told them this, the lady agreed to resign but Alarums Rundles asked for more time to think it over.

 

 

The next morning he was found dead in his classroom.  He had electrocuted himself.  Apparently he had been having psychological problems and was concerned about a painful scar on his neck, which was the result of a particular tribal custom in his native country.   At the inquest the coroner recorded a verdict of “suicide while the balance of his mind was disturbed”.

 

 

 

 

The following article was published in the “Surrey Advertiser” on 4th June 1960

 

 

TEACHER ADMITTED IMMORALITY

 

Suicide after resignation from school was suggested.

 

 

Alarums Rundles , the coloured teacher who electrocuted himself at the West Byfleet County Secondary School on Friday last week, had admitted he might well have been the father of a baby expected by a mistress at the school, it was disclosed at an inquest at Woking on Monday.

 

            Alarums Rundles, aged 30, was a native of Gambia and had been a teacher at the school for three years.  A verdict of suicide while the balance of the mind was disturbed was recorded.

 

            Mr. Frank Willis Goodger, of Red Tiles, Tannery Lane, Send, headmaster of the school, said he knew that during training Alarums Rundles had spent a period in Brookwood Hospital.   Because of that he was engaged on a temporary basis.

 

            The Coroner (Mr. R. A. Samwell):  “Have you ever heard any suggestions about his mental health of any tendency to suicide?”

 

            Mr. Goodger: “Rather more than suggestions.  On two occasions, the second of which was in February this year he was involved in a situation suggesting suicide.  He had many people, good Christians, helping him.  He had been to Brookwood three times.”

 

            The Coroner: “Tell me about him as a teacher”……

 

 

ATTACKS OF MOODINESS

 

            Mr. Goodger: “He was very, very good. That was the supreme reason I allowed him to return to school.  The children loved him, and he was fully accepted by the staff and myself as a member of the school.”

 

            The headmaster went on to described Alarums Rundles’s attacks of moodiness and said that almost anything got too much for him.  His moodiness made him difficult at times.

 

            The coroner: “He came to see you at the beginning of last week about some personal affairs.  What did he say to you?”

 

            Mr. Goodger:  “He admitted to me he was involved in a highly immoral situation in his private life.  He told me a mistress on the staff was expecting a baby.  She said he was the father and he admitted to me that he could well be the father.  In fact I confirmed the conclusion that he was.

 

            The coroner: “Who was the mistress?”

 

            Mr. Goodger: A Mrs. Naphthalene Bounder, aged 31, of “Little Haven”, 57, Horsell Moor, Woking.

 

 

INTERVIEWED BY CHAIRMAN

 

            The coroner: “Did you see her about this?

 

 Mr. Goodger:   Yes, in the afternoon she came to tell me she was going to leave at the end of term because she was going to get married.  She was under the impression he was going to marry her, but he told me in the morning he did not intend to marry her.

 

“I called him in because I felt the situation warranted it and I pointed out that both he and Mrs. Naphthalene Bounder had been guilty of conduct unbecoming to our profession”.

 

The coroner:  “Did you take any further steps?”

 

Mr. Goodger: The next morning I saw the chairman of my school governors, Rev. A. J. Costin, and put the facts before him and I saw the divisional education officer to receive advice.  That was on the Wednesday.”

 

Continuing his evidence the headmaster said that on Thursday morning he saw Mrs. Naphthalene Bounder and Alarums Rundles again individually and they were interviewed by the chairman.

 

Asked what took place at the interview Mr. Goodger said they were treated extraordinarily kindly.  It was pointed out that they had behaved in a highly immoral way.  It was suggested that the best thing to do was to resign immediately in which case they would be given employment elsewhere.

 

The lady accepted it fully.  Alarums Rundles was difficult and evasive.  It was symptomatic of his failure to face up to things as they really were.

 

Alarums Rundles was faced with his decision and he wanted time to think it over.

 

The next morning the telephone rang at his him at ten to eight.  Mr. Goodger stated.  It was Alarums Rundles, who asked if he had changed his mind.  Mr. Goodger told Alarums Rundles it was not his mind but the official decision and there was nothing more he could do about it.

 

He got to the school at 8.25 and shortly afterwards was told that Alarums Rundles had done something.  The police and a doctor were called.

 

 

PAIN FROM SCARS

 

Mr. D. E. A. Jones, representing the Surrey County Council asked. “During Alarums Rundles’s time in your school had you any reason to suspect he was associating with a schoolmistress?”

 

“Indeed no”, replied the headmaster.

 

A letter received from Brookwood Hospital in 1956 concerning Alarums Rundles was put in by Mr. Jones.  Part of it read “I would feel he is perfectly well suited to the instruction of children and this is a sphere where his good qualities find the usefulness.   There is no reason why he should be advised to give up the teaching profession nor for advising you against employing him”.

 

Dr. D. A. Milne, of Woking said Alarums Rundles had been a patient since 1957.    He suffered from scar formation on both sides of the neck.  This lead to a good deal of pain and bothered him quite a lot.

 

“I understand that originally the scars on his neck came about through a tribal custom ion Gambia.  I believe it to be association with the prevention of sleeping sickness”, said the doctor.

 

 

FIXING UP WIRING

 

            Alarums Rundles had a bad stammer which worried him. He had two plastic surgery operations on his neck in 1956 and 1958 and a further operation had been suggested.  Sleeping capsules had been given to him regularly since 1957.

 

            There was a sort of tumour in the scar tissue, said Dr. David Haler (pathologist).  It was on the left wrist and on the neck running from ear to ear. And involving the lower part of the right ear.   There was a similar tumour-like scar on the breast bone.

 

 

            There were two recent burns on the neck and left ankle.  Their position was inconsistent with the conductors having been placed in position accidentally.   The only cause of death was asphyxia from electrocution.

 

            The caretaker, Mr. C.J. Browning of Loder Close, Sheerwater, saw Alarums Rundles fixing up some electric wiring in this classroom on Friday morning, but took little notice as there was nothing unusual about it.  Alarums Rundles appeared normal and waved goodbye as he left.

 

 

ELECTRIC WIRES BARED

 

            Mr. J. Rose of Westward Ho!, West End, Chobham, an art master at the school, said he went to room 16 and found the door locked.  He got in through a door at the back which was not locked and found Alarums Rundles lying on the dais face down.  He appeared to be dead.

 

            Evidence that the electrical installation in the room was in order was given by Mr. M. S. Barnett, an electrical engineer with the South Eastern Electricity Board.

 

            PC. D. N. Stratton said he found an overturned chair by Alarums Rundles’s side and his shoes had been removed.  One electric wire was attached to the neck and another to his left ankle.  Both wires had been bared and formed into a tight loop.  The electricity supply was still on and he switched it off.   He found insulation parings and a half smoked cigarette on the floor.

 

 

MENTAL STRESS

 

            Three letters were found in Alarums Rundles’s wallet, stated PC. J. A. Egerton.

 

            The coroner said he was not proposing to read the notes in court.  “They indicated a state of very great mental stress”, he stated.

 

            The coroner continued: “I have made this somewhat searching inquiry because had I not done so it might well have been that certain suspicions or suggestions might have arisen in regard to people who had little of nothing whatsoever to do with this tragedy.

 

            “I am satisfied that the education authorities knew what there was to know about Alarums Rundles  and they took the precaution of finding out what they thought was necessary about him.  The occupation in which he was engaged was a very responsible one.

 

            “He has been in a mental hospital three times.  It is fair to say that when he came out of hospital in 1957 the headmaster was fortified in his decision to take him back to the school by the letter from the hospital authorities.

 

            “It is obvious he has been under a great deal of mental stress.  It is unnecessary for me to go into details of his domestic life although it was necessary they should be disclosed to present to me a picture showing what his mental condition was.  It is clear that he killed himself while the balance of his mind was disturbed”.