Tributes paid as former coroner dies at age 81

A former coroner for South Staffordshire who was instrumental in improving the safety of trains has died aged 81.

Reginald Browning from Abbots Bromley had suffered a short illness and leaves two sons and four grandchildren.

He retired in 2002 but his long career had included the inquest into the Colwich rail disaster of 1986 when locomotive driver Eric Goode was killed in a collision between two packed express trains near Stafford. Mr Browning campaigned and helped bring about changes in rail safety.

Among the safety changes he helped to bring about was the requirement that train doors be automatically locked when in motion.

He had presided over a number of inquests on people who had fallen from trains in an area that became known as the Tamworth Triangle for the number of deaths.

He also once asked for a post mortem on a dog found with a victim of carbon monoxide poisoning.

London-born Mr Browning qualified as a solicitor in the capital before moving to Staffordshire in the 1960s.

He worked in the Rugeley office of Hand Morgan and Owen solicitors.

He was a prosecutor for the police and agent for the Crown Prosecution Service, former president of the Staffordshire Society, treasurer of the Browning Society of London and a freemason.

His wife of more than 50 years, Veronica, died in 2010. Mr Browning's son Ben said: "He was a compassionate man and was acutely aware of the grief that families and friends were going through when having to attend and even give evidence in his courts.

"He always tried to make the experience as bearable as possible while at the same time going through the correct procedures.

"He was widely known and liked across the legal fraternity of Staffordshire."

A service of thanksgiving will be held on Monday at 2.30pm at St Nicholas' Church in Abbots Bromley.