The Death of David Ingle (Darnall,Sheffield) - September 1962

In June this year I received this mail from a person who had read the site

I am wondering if you could possibly help me, please? I have been told by my dad that his cousin was attacked at a fairground in 1962, most probably in Sheffield. He was aged just 24, and he died of a head injury sustained during the attack, but his attacker was never caught. I don't have a death certificate for him, but I know his name was David Ingle.

I responded and said that I would try and help.The first place I checked was Free BMD and found
the following entries for David
Deaths Sep 1962  INGLE David 24 Sheffield 2d 62

Births Mar 1938  INGLE David Boldock Sheffield 9c 583

This information narrowed the time of death to roughly May - September 1962. The local archives have copies on microfiche of the local newspapers but these are not indexed. This of course means that in the absence of an exact date of death you would have to search through approx 4 months of newspapers

I went to the local studies library on Thursday 25th June and went through 4 months editions of the Sheffield Telegraph for the period June to September 1962 but could not find any record of David and his death. That does not mean that there wass no report - it just means that I could not locate it..

I used the Sheffield Telegraph as it is more a paper of record as opposed to the Sheffield Star.

So after my visit I received this information -

The death certificate for David has now arrived, and the causes of death are shown as Intraventricular
Haemorrhage and Ruptured Congenital Aneurysm.
The date of death was 2nd Sept 1962 and David's address was 40 Swale Road, Sheffield, which I believe was in Darnall. David was a waterworks labourer.
His father is shown as Arthur F.Ingle, of 74 Rudyard Road.

On the basis of the certificate I ruled out murder/manslaughter but there may be have been an assault that led to David's death. Now that I had a precise date of death I returned to the Local Studies Library

Attached is the entry from The Sheffield Star dated 4th September 1962 - Births Marriages Deaths

The family notice states that he died in hospital after a short illness.I did check the 3 weeks preceding his death but could find no mention of an assault

I think that this entry cleared the mystery up - he may have been assaulted prior to his death but it had nothing at all to do with his actual death, at least officially. He died in hospital after a short illness

My take on the family lore mentioned in the initial mail would be "David never got over that fight he had that day at the fairground - never the same again et al " but that is just pure conjectureon on my part.