Peter AWDRY [26968]

  General Notes:

Peter Awdry
Event Type: Baptism
Birth Date: 26 Aug
Baptism Date: 12 Oct 1911
Baptism Place: Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England
Father: Walter Robert Awdry
Mother: Margaret Annie Awdry

VANISHED AT MIDNIGHT,
DRAMATIC STORY OF BATH BOY'S FATAL ESCAPADE.
DOWNSIDE HEAD'S EVIDENCE.
An inquest was held by the Coroner for North Somerset (Mr. Burroughs) on a Downside School boy, Peter Awdry, the seventeen-year-old son of Mrs Walter Awdry, of Edward Street, Bath, and of the late Dr. Walter Awdry, who was found drowned on the mud flats at Weston-super-Mare. Evidence was given at the inquest by Dom R. S. Trafford, Head-master of Downside School, that Awdry had been at Downside since April, 1928. His work was above the average in point of intelligence, and he was interested in football. He as leaving the School in a year's time. He was always out for adventure, and at different times had been in trouble for what witness termed escapades, but nothing of a serious nature.
OUT OF BOUNDS.
Recently, about a fortnight ago, be had been before witness for being out of hounds. Witness questioned him as to whether he had taken out a motor-cycle and sidecar which was found damaged. He denied all knowledge of the existence of the machine. On the previous Tuesday (July 23rd) It came to witness's knowledge that the deceased did take the combination out, and witness understood that it was found down the road about a mile, having had a mishap. Witness interviewed the lad and told him he was always inclined to deal leniently with him in the matter of his escapades, but he had never before found him untruthful. Witness said he was much distressed and would not discuss the point with him then as he had another appointment. He told him he would send for him later. Awdry left witness's room at 2.5 p.m., and he understood that on meeting some of the boys downstairs, he said, "It is not worth having a row, so near the end of the term, and I will clear." At 4.15 p.m. witness found him absent from the examination room, and gave instructions for the School to be searched, but Awdry was not to be found. About 5.30 p.m. he informed the deceased's mother that the boy was missing from the school without permission. Witness waited, but no news was forth-coming. I had a feeling said the witness, that this was only another of his escapades, as only a few days previously he had informed me in friendly conversation that it was no use breaking the school rules unless it was necessary that something should come out of it. He thought he must have meant excitement,
AT MIDNIGHT.
About midnight witness was in the school grounds when he heard footsteps coming round the school laundry. He was about 30 yards distant, and there was a rather high wall separating them. He put on his flashlight and saw Awdry and another boy named Neilson, who had been with the deceased at the interview. They ran back and witness called out. He presumed they heard him, but before he could get to the spot where he had seen them he had to walk a hundred yards and could see nothing further of them. He called a master and a senior boy and made a thorough search of the building and grounds, but they could not be found. This confirmed his impression that it was another of their escapades, and that they intended, to hang out time in the vicinity until the end of the term on Saturday, and not give the impression that they had run away from school. Witness added: "I am certain my colleagues thought there would be no harm come to these particular boys. They were thought to be boys who could run riot for two or three days. I was confronted with a difficult situation."
BODY INDENTIFIED.
On Friday, at 6.50, be received a message front the Weston-super-Mare Police and he went there and identified the body. Deceased was one of the most adventurous boys he had ever come across. The other boy, Neilson, was of the same temperament, and both were concerned in the motor-cycle affair. He had no idea how deceased got to Weston-super-Mare. The boy was poplar in the school, and was amenable to discip-ine in school life. Awdry, added witness, had once told a fellow schoolmate that he might run away, and that if he did so he would make for the seashore and "pinch a boat."
The Coroner (Mr. W. Q. Burrough)
Was the boy (Awdry) likely to do himself any injury ? \emdash No. He was not of that temperament at all
Peter Awdry, witness proceeded, was keen on the O.T.C. He had spent several of his holidays at Weston-super-Mare.
Replying to Inspector Barber witness said that as soon as he heard there was a canoe missing from the Weston foreshore it struck him it was just the sort of thing deceased would do, to have an adventure in a canoe.
In answer to a juryman, Mr Trafford said Awdry was not afraid of punishment.
Dr. T. L. Scott, house surgeon at the Hospital, gave evidence as to the condition of the body.
RECOVERY OF THE BODY.
P.C. Foxwell stated that, in consequence of a telephone message he went to Anchor Head with P.C. Duncan. Looking through a telescope, they saw an object in the mud. Accompanied by four boatmen, they went in a motor-boat to the spot, and there found what looked like a human body. They waded to it and found it was the deceased youth. He was fully clothed and lying face downwards. They removed the body to Anchor Head, and then to the hospital. Among the articles found in the pockets of the clothes were a brown leather wallet containing a training certificate, a railway ticket from Chilcompton to Bath, a silver crucifix, a bottle if methylated spirits, a cigarette holder, and circular pieces of glass.
Robert Clapton Chance, of Claremont Crescent, Weston-super-Mare, gave evidence that be was the owner of a canvas covered canoe, which was built to carry four on a calm tide and one or two on a rough tide. He kept it on the seaward side of the retaining wall of the marine lake. He last saw it on July 25, and, as far as he knew, it had not been seen again.
MOTOR-BOAT SEARCH. Inspector Barber said in view of the possibility that there might even now be another casualty he had communicated with the police up and down the coast. On the instructions of the Rev R. S. Trafford that morning a motor-boat expedition had gone to sea, and a thorough, search was being made of the Steep Holm, and the people of Flat Holm hnd been communicated with. No trace of a boat and no trace of the other boy or the body had been found.
The Coroner:
And I suppose the chances are now that that body will be washed up elsewhere than at Weston ?
Inspector Barber:
I understand from the state of the tides at present if a body was in the Channel somewhere in the vicinity of Weston it would probably land in due course somewhere down the coast, somewhere about Watchet or Mine-head.
The Coroner told the jury that if they thought any advantage would be derived thereby, the inquest could be adjourned, but it did not seem, him that that would throw any further light upon the death of Peter Awdry. Assuming that the other body and the boat were found he did not think it would give them much further information.
"FOUND DROWNED." The jury, Mr. Burrough observed, had heard the very clear and frank statement given by the headmaster with reference to the deceased. He was one of those boys who, apparently, was very anxious for adventure, it was a most extraordinary thing that that canoe had not come to shore. There was no evidence to show that the two boys arrived at Weston together, but they got into trouble together, and disappeared at the same time.
Downside School, Mr. Burrongh continued, stood in the front rank of our great public schools, and it was a very sad matter for the school as well as for the relatives. Alluding to the escapades in which the deceased boy had taken part, and for which he had been admonished, the Coroner added that in such a school boys were largely placed on their word of honour. Greater freedom was nowaday given to boys, and it was expected of them that they would live up to their responsibilities as well as to their privileges. The jury returned a verdict of "Found drowned,' the foreman (Mr. G. V. Court) adding that there was no evidence to show how the deceased came into the water. Sympathy with the relatives and the headmaster was expressed by the Coroner and jury, and Mr. Trafford, replying, observed "No one can really appreciate what I have been through during the past week since the boy disappeared." No trace has been found of the missing boy Philip Neilson. His mother, Mrs. B. de B. Neilson, is on a cruise off Norway, and it with not until Monday that relatives were able to get into touch with her. She returned immediately.
DOWNSIDE BOY'S FATE.
Missing Canoe Found Near Otterhampton.
The canvas canoe in which it Is believed two Downside schoolboys embarked in, a tragic trip which resulted in the death of Peter Awdry, son of Mrs. Walter Awdrv, of Edward Street, Bath, and possibly that of his companion, who is still missing, has been found at the mouth of the River Parrett, near Otterhampton. It is stated that a man named John Moul, of Otterhampton, saw the canoe floating in a waterlogged condition, and recovered it. There were two bottles containing what be thought to be water, in the boat, but the mast and the sail were gone, The boat belonged to Mr. Ellis Chance, who had moored it on the seaward side of the wall of the marine lake.
Ref:Bath Chronical & Herald Sat Aug 3 1929