School’s REAL HUMAN skeleton gets proper send off

A SKELETON used by a school as a prosthetic model to educate generations of children has been identified - as the remains of a REAL HUMAN.
Mandy Case the owner of Haydock Funeral Service in St Helens, Lancs., with Arthur the SkeletonMandy Case the owner of Haydock Funeral Service in St Helens, Lancs., with Arthur the Skeleton
Mandy Case the owner of Haydock Funeral Service in St Helens, Lancs., with Arthur the Skeleton

The bag of bones, named Arthur, has helped to teach countless hours of art lessons at Haydock High School for four decades after staff believed he was just a prosthetic tool.

But when art technician Sandra Dixon considered whether he could have once been alive, she did some digging - to find he was an Indian man who died in the early 1900s.

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Sandra came across him while reorganising the department in Haydock High School and set about her own amateur detective work.

She said: “I remember thinking could this be a real skeleton.”

Sandra then approached a local funeral director for further testing and discovered Arthur was human, aged in the late 20s, from India.

It’s not known how he came to the UK, either alive or as a skeleton.

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Following the discovery, Bill Craddock from Haydock Funeral Service promptly offered to supply the school with a full funeral including wicker coffin, hearse and bearers free of charge.

He will finally get a fitting send off today at Greenacre Woodland Burials in Rainford.

Keely Thompson, marketing and community liaison at Greenacre, said: “We are delighted to provide a final resting place for Arthur. It’s a beautiful place of burial.”

The funeral will be attended by staff and pupils.