Maddison, Ronald inquest

Immediately afterwards the Wiltshire Coroner took the unusual step of holding an inquest in camera. The only members of the public allowed inside the courtroom were personnel from Porton Down and the elderly parents of Leading Aircraftman Ronald Maddison, a twenty-year-old National Serviceman from Consett, County Durham. No details of the inquest were made public, and Maddison s father was instructed not to discuss his son s death, even with his wife. It proved impossible, however, to suppress the details of the airman s Death Certificate. The document revealed that Maddison had died from blocking of the bronchial tubes, a classic symptom of nerve gas poisoning. 

Source. Inquest by David Masters, HM Coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, into the Death of Ronald Maddison, 2004.1 am grateful to Terry Alderson for granting me permission to use the image in... 

In 2004, the author was appointed historical expert to HM Coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon at the inquest looking into the death of Ronald Maddison (Maddison Inquest, abbreviated to MI). Unless stated otherwke, the material presented derives from the Exhibits that were supphed to the interested parties and from the Inquest Transcript Schmidt 2006 Schmidt 2007b Schmidt 2012a. 

W, Collection of papers relating to the death of Ronald Maddison, 1953 and the re-opened inquest, 2004... 

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