A FORMER Royal Engineer died after accidentally falling down his stairs at home in Kendal, an inquest heard.

Bernard Joseph Arnold, 87, was heard falling by his regular carer Tina Hesmondalgh as she made her regular morning visit to his home on White Stiles at around 8.30am on October 17, 2022.

After knocking on his door Mr Arnold was heard acknowledging Ms Hesmondalgh from the top of his staircase at which time she reported hearing his stairlift begin to operate followed by a 'loud noise' as he fell.

Ms Hesmondalgh called 999 but neither herself nor the attendant paramedic were able to resuscitate Mr Arnold, who had suffered two fractured vertebrae in the fall.

This, according to Area Coroner for Cumbria Kirsty Gomersal, caused Mr Arnold's death.

Mr Arnold had had a history of falls but was considered to be able to live at home, receiving twice-daily visits from a carer.

His son, David Arnold, told how his father was born in Cambridgeshire.

He signed up for a further five years in the Royal Engineers after his national service.

He moved to Millom in the late 1950s, where he met his first wife Mary.

He worked in construction and at Millom Ironworks before moving to work at Leyland Motors in the mid-1970s.

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They returned to Millom in the mid-1970s and Mr Arnold was employed as a process worker at Sellafield until his retirement in 1998.

Mary passed away in 1996 and he married his second wife Janice in 1998, but the pair divorced in 2005.

According to his GP, Dr Allan Young of Station House Surgery in Kendal, Mr Arnold had suffered a heart attack in 1997 and required yearly monitoring from then on, suffering from various heart conditions.

He also had a history of musculoskeletal issues, reporting lower back pain in 1990, and later osteoarthritis in both knees.

A postmortem found that Mr Arnold had suffered no acute medical events such as a heart attack or thrombosis before his fall and no abnormalities in his brain.

Ms Gomersal concluded that the reason for the fall could not be determined, but ruled that the cause of death was accidental.