Worried by a Love Affair
Worried by a Love Affair is an article published in the Weekly Dispatch on 5 january 1913.
Worried by a Love Affair
Sir A. Conan Doyle Foreman of Jury at Inquest on an Officer.
An extraordinary story of an officer rushing down Piccadilly, London, in a state of undress was related at a Crowborough (Sussex) inquest at which Sir A. Conan Doyle, the famous novelist, was foreman of the jury. Deceased was Captain Gordon Campbell Blair, aged twenty-nine, late of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Captain Blair had served in Somaliland and in Burma, and when home on leave was worried by a love affair. Mr. Harrison Macdonald Blair, of Manchester, said that in October his brother was seized with a sudden illness while staying at the Junior Naval and Military Club, London. He cried throughout the whole of one night and in the morning he ran out of the club in his pyjamas into Piccadilly. Later his health became so bad that he was advised by Dr. Russell Risien to go to Crowborough. In September he had a love affair which had worried him very much.
Evidence, was also given by an attendant named Courtney, who said that one morning Captain Blair tried to keep him out of his room, and when he did admit him made motions with his fists and talked about boxing. At Captain Blair's own request his hands were tied loosely to the bed-post. He had several fits of violent excitement on Christmas night and died on Boxing Day morning. Sir A. Conan Doyle asked whether any greater degree of restraint than was considered necessary was used? — No. Dr. Griffiths, in whose house Captain Blair was staying, said that the captain stated on one occasion that he would like to murder his male nurse and the witness, and that he was afraid that on the impulse of the moment he might do it. Death was due to exhaustion following cerebral excitement. The jury found a verdict of Death from Natural Causes.
