Wilfred Gowthorpe
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Wilfred Gowthorpe was an alleged survivor of spontaneous human combustion.
In January 1991, the 71-year-old man of Pocklington, Yorkshire, England, was found by friends to have sustained serious burns to his left hand and forearm, with no apparent cause. Additionally, the forearm burns occurred under clothing which itself remained undamaged. He required extensive skin grafts to his forearm and the little and ring fingers of his left hand had to be amputated.
He lived alone, and stayed with younger friends during the daytime, chiefly Sandra Stubbins and her husband George Michael Stubbins, also of Pocklington, who had 'adopted' him as a sort of relative. He helped them out with household tasks. In a written statement, Mrs Stubbins said: "He was more like an uncle to us."
On the day in question (the precise date has been forgotten by the Stubbins), the couple were decorating their house. Mr. Gowthorpe was present, helping out with various tasks. Mrs Stubbins bade him goodbye and went out for half an hour on some mundane errand. When Mrs Stubbins returned, she found Mr. Gowthorpe at the kitchen sink. A paste bucket and brush were before him and the cold tap was running 'full bore'. He was motionless and showed no reaction to Mrs Stubbins's presence.
Mrs. Stubbins, a home help by profession, immediately thought Mr Gowthorpe had suffered a stroke and called for the doctor.
The doctor -- a family GP named Dunham -- arrived very soon and examined Mr Gowthorpe. He noticed what the shocked Mrs Stubbins had not: That Mr. Gowthorpe's hand was very badly burned.
In Mrs. Stubbins's words: "Both fingers were amputated at hospital. They were so charred if they had not been amputated they would have broke off on their own."
In Mr Stubbins's words (statement of 4 December 1994): "What I find so strange was that his shirt sleeves were buttoned up and his jacket sleeve came down to his wrists, yet his left arm was burned up to the elbow. [...] The weird thing was that his thumb was not damaged at all. He couldn't have caught hold of anything hot enough to burn two fingers to cinders without damaging his thumb.
"I asked at the hospital if he could have electrocuted himself but they said that to do that sort of damage it would have killed him long since. He was in hospital for about fifteen weeks altogether."
Mr. Gowthorpe left the hospital in April 1991, and his 'mysterious case' was reported in local newspaper The Pocklington Post, edition dated 25 April 1991.
Mr. Gowthorpe could not remember what had happened to him. He died 18 months later.
Mrs. Stubbins stated her opinion that, given Mr. Gowthorpe's painful injuries, the distress he experienced at his amnesia, and his confusion at the lack of a rational explanation for either, it would have been better had he died at the time of the incident.
