Drunk in charge

Hertfordshire Mercury, 8th May 1915

Transcript

At Cheshunt Petty Sessions John Whitmarsh (53), of Shadwell, carman, and William George Renham (22), a driver in the Royal Field Artillery, Aldershot, were charged with being drunk in charge of a pair horse van in High Street, Cheshunt, on April 27.  Neither of the defendants appeared.  The police reported that Renham had given himself up that morning at Woolwich as an absentee from his regiment, and he would be dealt with by the military authorities.  They therefore applied for the withdrawal of the charge against him.  This the Bench granted.

The defendant Whitmarsh subsequently appeared.  Sub-Divisional Inspector Rayner said that on the day in question he saw a soldier driving a van in High Street, Cheshunt.  The soldier was reeling about, and the witness pulled him up and asked who was in charge of the van, and the man pointed at Whitmarsh, who was lying drunk in the bottom of the van.  Both men were taken to the police station, where they were seen by a doctor, who certified them drunk.  Whitmarsh had been to Hoddesdon with a load of empty whisky bottles, and was returning from there when the witness stopped him.  Fined 19s. 6d. or 14 days.

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