Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

Yet another example of how returns from the grave can be quite awkward appeared in the London “Sunday Dispatch,” September 22, 1907:

The return of a man after an inquest had been held on his supposed body and after his relatives had drawn his insurance money has had a strange sequel at the Westminster Coroner's Court. Then the "dead” man appeared in person to prove that the six persons who identified the body made an extraordinary blunder.

On April 27 the body of a man, apparently about sixty years of age, who had lost his left eye, was taken from the Thames, and on April 20 an engineer named John Steer, of Cannon-road, Bromley, Kent, attended at the mortuary, with a number of his relatives, declared that the dead man was Arthur Albert Steer, aged fifty-seven, a labourer of Bromley. Steer, they said, had only one eye. 

At the inquest the evidence of identification was accepted, and the friends of Arthur Albert Steer drew his insurance money, went into mourning, and buried the body. 

A few weeks later, however, the "dead” man appeared at his son's house, and in order to set right the matter of registration of the death the identifying witness attended before the coroner to prove that he had made a mistake. 

Addressing John Steer, the son, the coroner said: “I will now read what you said at the inquest: 

“I have seen the body in the mortuary, not for the first time today, but yesterday as well.  I identify it as that of my father, Arthur Albert Steer. My brothers and sisters are also satisfied as to his identity. My father had lost the sight of his left eye, and he had had a piece of bone removed from over the same eye.  I have no doubt at all about the identity.” 

The Witness: “I find the only mistake all made was that father had lost his right eye, and that the drowned man's left one was missing.” 

How many of you saw the body besides yourself?  “Six, sir.”

How did you come to make such a mistake?--We did not make a mistake, only about the eye, sir. (Laughter.) 

But you made another little mistake, as it was not your father at all?--I am very sorry I did make a mistake, sir. (Laughter.) Are you?--Well, I am glad about it. The man had a scar under the eye, and a tooth was gone from the front, and it was the same with father. 

Did you draw the insurance money?--Yes, sir, and I paid it back again.

The coroner said all he could do was to rectify the entry on the certificate of death, and say that the identification was a mistake, the body being that of an unknown man.

As far as I can tell, the dead doppelganger was never identified, but I’m assuming that Arthur Steer was very glad it was not him after all.