The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-17 00:00:00

FATAL PUGILISTIC ENCOUNTER.

Yesterday morning Mr. William Carter, coroner
for the eastern division of Surrey, held an enquiry
at the Fox Tavern, Castle-street, Southwark, into
the circumstances attending the death of George
Mitchell, aged 32, an engineer in the service of
Messrs. Easton and Amos, engineers of the Grove,
Guildford-street, Southwark,.who lost his life in a
pugilistic encounter in Battersea-fields with a fel-
low workman of the name of William Williams, at
present in custody on the charge, together with two
other men, who acted as seconds at the fight. Mr.
Fletcher, solicitor, attended to watch the proceed-
ings on behalf of the friends of the deceased ; and
Mr. W. Edwin appeared for the man Williams and
the two seconds, William Davis and Henry Walker.

Mary Mitchell, the wife of the deceased, identi-
fied the body.
Mr. Henry Leach, surgeon, of No. 22, Union-
street, deposed that on Sunday morning he was called
upon to see the deceased at his house, No. 3 Cottage-
place, and found him lying on three chairs in an
insensible condition, his breathing being slow and
laboured. Witness examined his person and found
his face contused in several places, especially his
eyes and temples, neck, and behini the right ear.
He expired on the Monday afternoon. On cutting
into the scalp he found the left muscle of the tem-
ple full of blood. The dura mater itself was in a
highly congested state, and there was another large
clot of blood on the posterior part of the right side,
also under the exterior, injuries which had arisen
from the rupture of another vessel of the brain. He
attributed the rupture of the vessels to a blow or
number of blows.
By the Coroner—The cause of death was the
effusion from the ruptured vessels of the brain,which
in his judgment were the result of external injuries.
Such injuries would be likely to be received in a
pugilistic encounter. Had not the least hesitation
in saying that the deceased died a violent death.
John Kayan, engineer, residing in White-street,
St. George's, after being duly cautioned by the
coroner, deposed that he witnessed the fight. The
contest lasted about half an hour, during which
Mitchell fell and Williams on him,

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sent appeared to try and prevent the men from
fighting. The seconds were Davis and Walker, and
brandy was giyen to the men. The man Davis
seconded Mitchell, and Walker, Williams. At the
end of half an hour Mitchell was unable to come
up to time, and was declared vanquished. He con-
sidered it to be a fair stand-up fight. Both men
were much punished; and he considered Williams
had the worst of it. The deceased was able to walk
home part of the way. He only partook of a bottle
of ginger beer in returning home.
.Richard Garlick stated he resided at Battersea.
On Sunday he saw a number of persons go into a
field near the British Flag Tavern. He followed
them and saw two of the men strip. They. were air
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