H. R. Oswald
Henry Robert Oswald M.D., M.B., C.M., (8 February 1852[1] - 1940[2]) was a British barrister and coroner. He was president of the Coroners' Society of England and Wales.
H.R. Oswald | |
|---|---|
| Born | Henry Robert Oswald 8 February 1852 Trichnopoly, Madras Presidency |
| Died | 1940 Salisbury, Wiltshire, England |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Medical Doctor and Barrister of Law |
| Known for | Coroner of London |
Early life
Oswald was born on 8 February 1852 in Trichnopoly, Madras, India, the son of Surgeon General H.R. Oswald who was serving in the Indian Army.[2] He was privately educated in the Isle of Man and later Edgbaston, Birmingham, before moving on to the Royal High School, Edinburgh.[2] Oswald originally intended to enter the Indian Civil Service but changed his mind and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh.[2] He then went into practice as a medical doctor, achieving his MD from the University of Edinburgh in 1881.[3] Then, in 1890 he entered the Middle Temple to train as a barrister, being called to the bar in 1894.[2]
Coroner
Oswald became the deputy-coroner in the Central and Western districts of London, and later in the South-Western and Kingston districts.[2] In 1902 he became the coroner for the South-Eastern district. He moved to the Western district in 1919, a post he held until he retired in 1930.[2]
Oswald presided over between 20,000 and 30,000 inquests.[2] Among the notable ones were the first inquest about death from a motor car (1904),[4] a case involving Ronald True,[4] the death of Freda Kempton from a drug overdose in which the dealer Brilliant Chang was implicated (1922),[5] and deaths caused by the 1928 Thames flood of London.[6]
His reminiscences were published in 1936 by Stanley Paul as Memoirs of a London County Coroner.
Family life
Oswald married twice, firstly to Jean Moir-Byres with whom he had a daughter. Jean died in 1907. He married again in 1908 to Ethel Mary Cundell.[2] Oswald died in early 1940 in the Salisbury district of Wiltshire.
References
- Ancestry.com. India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947 [database on-line] Reference ID v 31 p 66. Record of Baptism on 17 Mar 1852 of Henry Robert Oswald has father as Henry Robert Oswald and mother Sarah Georgiana Oswald with a birth date of 8 February 1852
- "Obituaries." The Times, 15 March 1940, p. 11. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
- Oswald, Henry Robert (1881). Epidemic of enteric fever (Thesis). University of Edinburgh. hdl:1842/24206.
- "The Secrets of a Coroner", Bryan Reynolds, The Daily Mirror, 19 March 1936, p. 12.
- "Freda Kempton's Death" The Times, 25 April 1922, p. 9.
- The great 1928 flood of London. Jon Kelly, BBC News Magazine, 16 February 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2014.