Soldier died after elephant threw him 20ft, inquest told
‘I heard a scream and observed an elephant throwing Mathew about 20ft into the air’
AN ELEPHANT threw a British soldier 20ft into the air and on to its tusks as a herd charged at an anti-poaching patrol, an inquest has heard.
Guardsman Mathew Talbot, 22, was on his first operational deployment with the Coldstream Guards when he was killed in the elephant charge in Malawi in May 2019.
The soldier, from Great Barr, West Midlands, suffered fatal injuries while on an eight-day anti-poaching patrol in the Liwonde National Park.
The patrol Leader, Lance Sergeant Robert Padgham, told an inquest yesterday at Oxford coroner’s court that the patrol was going through a patch of elephant grass “when the lead man identified elephants about 30 metres in front”.
He said: “We started to back off before another elephant appeared about five metres to our right.
“We started running and I believe Mathew started following me and I ran for about 50 metres to a tree which I started climbing. I heard a scream and observed an elephant throwing Mathew about 20ft into the air.”
He said that from the tree he was in he saw about 20 to 30 elephants. He ran straight towards Mathew. “He was bleeding heavily and I applied a tourniquet to the area and then I heard the elephants returning,” L/sgt Padgham said.
He managed to drag his injured comrade into nearby bushes before again climbing a tree to get out of harm’s way.
The inquest was told that both soldiers and three park rangers had begun running in different directions, and as Gdsm Talbot initially attempted to climb a tree, he was seen being “thrown” and “knocked” into the air.
L/sgt Padgham described the actions of the elephant as a sweeping motion with its head.
He told the court he had then lit and thrown a firecracker in an attempt to scare a group of elephants away, and they left the area.
L/sgt Padgham, who immediately began first aid, said: “As I went down to him initially, I dragged him into the cover of that tree.”
Asked how quickly it all happened, the soldier replied: “The lead ranger gave the signal for dangerous game to the front.
“We started to back off and then from my right it came charging through so we just dispersed, like we were taught.”
L/sgt Padgham said soldiers on antipoaching patrols had been taught to fire warning shots to scare away animals posing a danger, but only as a last resort.
However, he added: “In my mind personally, if an attack like that happened and I was in a position to, I would have fired a warning shot.”
Explaining why he had not fired a shot after climbing into a tree, he added: “The sharp shooter is quite long-barrelled.
“I was hanging on the tree with one hand. I didn’t want to fire a shot in the direction where the animal was in case of hitting Mathew.”
The inquest was told a report into the death had identified the “leadership and personal strength” of L/sgt Padgham in evacuating Gdsm Talbot on a stretcher and controlling a haemorrhage as being “initially life-saving”.
The first day of the inquest was told Gdsm Talbot died from complications of chest and soft tissue injuries.
The inquest follows a Ministry of Defence inquiry, published last year, which highlighted shortcomings in estimating how long it would take to get a casualty from a remote location to the nearest hospital.
The hearing continues.