Richard Whittington: outspoken coroner who investigated the last recorded death from smallpox

Richard Whittington was a compassionate and often outspoken examiner who, as coroner for Birmingham and Solihull for 26 years, presided over several high profile inquests. These included the suicide of serial killer Fred West in 1995, while he was on remand, and the murders of stepsisters Alice and Edna Rowley, killed in their Birmingham corner shop in 1987 in a case that has still not been solved.Whittington often wrote personal letters of sympathy to the families of the deceased, particularly those who received unwanted press attention. This included the family of a man who died after being given infected blood products in 1989.Whittington called for midwives’ working hours to be reformed after ruling that neglect by an exhausted midwife, who had already worked an 11 hour shift and eventually completed a 16 hour day, had contributed to the death of a baby at Heartlands Hospital in 1998. Driving fatalities led…