Henry Robert Oswald M.D., M.B., C.M., (8 February 1852Ancestry.com. India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947 atabase on-lineReference 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 – 1940) was a British

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

. He was president of the Coroners' Society of England and Wales.

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."Obituaries." ''The Times'', 15 March 1940, p. 11. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 16 Nov. 2014. He was privately educated in the Isle of Man and later Edgbaston, Birmingham, before moving on to the Royal High School, Edinburgh. Oswald originally intended to enter the Indian Civil Service but changed his mind and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He then went into practice as a medical doctor, achieving his MD from the University of Edinburgh in 1881. Then, in 1890 he entered the Middle Temple to train as a barrister, being

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1894.

Coroner

Oswald became the deputy-coroner in the Central and Western districts of London, and later in the South-Western and Kingston districts. 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. Oswald presided over between 20,000 and 30,000

inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a coro ...

s. Among the notable ones were the first inquest about death from a motor car (1904),"The Secrets of a Coroner", Bryan Reynolds, '' The Daily Mirror'', 19 March 1936, p. 12. a case involving Ronald True, the death of Freda Kempton from a drug overdose in which the dealer

Brilliant Chang Brilliant (Billy) Chang (real name Chan Nan; born c. 1886, death date unknown) was a Chinese restaurateur and drug dealer who was implicated in supplying the drugs that killed Freda Kempton in 1922.The Times'', 25 April 1922, p. 9. and deaths caused by the

1928 Thames flood The 1928 Thames flood was a disastrous flood of the River Thames that affected much of riverside London on 7 January 1928, as well as places further downriver. Fourteen people died and thousands were made homeless when floodwaters poured over ...

of London.The great 1928 flood of London.
Jon Kelly, ''BBC News Magazine'', 16 February 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2014. His reminiscences were published in 1936 by

Stanley Paul Stanley Paul are a firm of publishers founded in London in 1906. The original firm published mainly "cheap editions of thrillers and romances, and some light non-fiction" and traded until 1927 when it went in liquidation. In 1928 the imprint was r ...

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. Oswald died in early 1940 in the Salisbury district of Wiltshire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oswald, H. R. British coroners 1940 deaths British barristers British people in colonial India 19th-century English medical doctors 1852 births Medical doctors from British India People from the Madras Presidency Alumni of the University of Edinburgh