Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of William and Sarah PERKS of Heath Farm, Wythall near Alverchurch, Birmingham England

Husband of Maud PERKS - met his wife in a casualty clearing station in France when he had been wounded in the head and thigh by shrapnel.

The death is reported of John Perks, late of the A.I.F., under mysterious cicumstancee, yesterday morning. Mr. Perks, who is the holder of a block on the Manus Soldiers' Settlement, got out from his bed about 2 a.m. yesterday morning, leaving his wife asleep. She awakened some time after and found  him missing. As he did not return, she became uneasy and eventually dressed and went in search of her husband, little dreaming of the tragedy  awaiting her, for she found him lying in a paddock close to the homestead quite dead.
The whole affair is shrouded in mystery. Perks returned on the previous night apparently in full health and first rate spirits. He was a young man and  with his young English wife was living happily on the Manus Settlement. He was considered one of the most promising of the settlers, and held a first rate block of land. He was making good progress and his prospects were rosy. As far as is known, he had neither financial nor domestic worries. It 1s understood the Tumbarumba police have the matter in hand.

A post mortem examination on the body of John Perks, a soldier settler on the Manus settlement, was held at Tumbarumba yesterday.  It was found that a piece of shrapnel which had lodge in his head when he was wounded at the front had suddenly shifted ,casing him to become mentally deranged, while the contents of his stomach showed that death had been caused by strychnine.

A verdict was recorded that the strychnine had been self administered while Perks was temperarily insane.

Quite a gloom was cast over the Manus on Wednesday morning last, when it became known that Mr. John Perks, a returned soldier settler had been  found dead on the roadside a little distance from his home. Deceased left his home about 2 a.m. that day, and not returning within a reasonable time,  his wife became alarmed and hurried in the cold and darkness to the residence of Mr. J. Heron, about half a mile distant, and asked that gentleman, to  go in search of her husband. This Mr. Heron did, and a little later found the lifeless body of Mr. Perks on the side of the road leading to Mr. Fuller's, and several yards from deceased's home. The late Mr. Perks suffered from a wound in his head, received at the front. The remains were laid in the Church of England portion of the Tumbarumba cemetery on Thursday, the rector officiating. On Thursday afternoon Mr. Coroner Figures opened an inquest into the death of the deceased. Dr. Armitage deposed to holding a post mortem examination of the body. In the skull he found marks of an old wound from the  war. On opening the skull be found pressing on the brain apparently a piece of shrapnel about ¼in. each way, and weighing about half an ounce. One  side of the brain was softened, the other side normal. In the stomach he found a quantity of liquid substance, and chemical analysis showed it to  contain strychnine. He had no doubt death resulted from strychnine poisoning. James Heron, on oath, stated that about 2 a.m. on Wednesday Mrs.  Perks came to his place and informed him that her husband had got but of bed some time before and had not returned. He went over to have a look for him and failed to find any trace of him about deceased's own place. Witness then started to go to the residence of Mr. C. Fuller to get his assistance,  and on the way, about a quarter of a mile along the road, he found the dead body of deceased. He went on and informed Fuller, and later reported the matter to Sergt. O'Connor. Frederick Manego, a neighbour, testified to seeing deceased about 4.30 p.m. the previous day, and to thinking him a bit  peculiar in his way. From his conversation deceased seemed to be worrying about his wife, his stock dying, and other things. The coroner's verdict was  that deceased died, from poisoning self inflicted while temporarily insane.