He was employed at Usworth Colliery, but of no fixed abode, fell down one of the shafts early on the morning of the 18th December. He had finished his work and had gone into the fire hole to sleep for the night. He was told by the fireman to go away, and was then seen to proceed to the shaft, open the gates, and to disappear, and on an alarm being raised, he was found at the bottom of the pit dead. Whether he had mistaken the gates for some others, or had deliberately opened them, it is impossible to say. The cradle was at the landing, and the space through which he fell did not exceed 18 inches in width. His wife stated at the inquest that he had not been himself for some time past.