By the irony of fate a man who for many years had been a staunch teetotaler has met his death by drowning in a vat of beer.
The victim is James Canham, 41, of 108, Farnan-avenue, Walthamstow, employed in East-end brewery. He was engaged yesterday in keeping down the froth on a vat of fermenting stout, standing on a ladder for this purpose.
His foreman saw him at work, and shortly afterwards missed him. A search was instituted, but without avail, and as a last resource the froth was taken off the vat, as the ladder was found to have been partly shifted from its position, and Canham’s body was found floating in the stout. It was It was afterwards taken to the mortuary.
The contents of the vat are to be run off as waste before the Excise authorities, the loss amounting to over £600.
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, London, England, July 14, 1907
