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Thanks for all the advice, and the extra info from Stan re: the issue of non compos mentis.

I'm still not sure whether to tell Mum - she has been very interested in her family history (she actually sparked me off a few years ago), but she's the sort of person who isn't too keen on hearing anything 'negative'.

I'll leave it for now, I think; I'll just tell everyone else in the family!

Clara 

Thanks for all these thoughts/information/personal experiences, etc to my original post.  For some reason, my hotmail account isn't registering these replies!

Meles: yes, my g-grandfather's suicide is registered as having happened when he was 'of unsound mind'.  I can imagine, certainly in the 20s when my forebear committed suicide, that widespread understanding of mental health issues was pretty poor.  My own take is that the Victorian value of 'the stiff upper lip' was still holding sway, and depression (as a psycho/social phenomenon) was something that was frowned upon and given short shrift.

I received a copy of the 1922 newspaper report yesterday and, although the circumstances of my g-grandfather's death are pretty gruesome, there's not that much to really explain why he did it.  But looking at the suicide all these years after the event, there are a few facts to take into account: my g-grandfather survived WW1.  I haven't been able to find his service records but his wife states (with irony, I think) that he survived WW1 'with no injury'.  I wonder though, what psychological affect the war might have had on him.  There is some talk of him being depressed about business worries (he is recorded as being a 'dining rooms proprietor' - I guess this means he ran a cafe).  Whatever, he got up on a Monday morning, went into the coalshed and cut his throat, apparently almost severing his head.  According to his wife, there didn't seem to have been any warning.

(I have more to say, but Rootschat is playing up!  It's really difficult to write my post as the message section keeps flicking up and down.  I'll try again later!)

Clara X

Many thanks, Carol 

It might mean that there's a headstone somewhere.  I got the impression that suicides were buried out of sight/mind at this time.

Clara

Thanks alot, Ken, for checking the images, and confirming what I'd thought re: my g-father's Boer War service.  Incidentally, my grandfather did also go by the name of Shaw (which eventually became his official surname).

As for the ribbons, they are definitely the KSA/QSA - they are mounted together on a pin.  On his obituary, it says that he fought in the Boer War, so this must have been what he told his children.

A mystery!

hi Ken

Don't mean to hassle, but I wondered if you had managed to access my g-father's service records?  If not, no problem - it was always a difficult query unless people could actually see the records I was referring to.

best wishes

Clara