A FORMER Southampton dock worker died after unloading asbestos from boats for over 20 years, an inquest heard.

Edgar Wardrop, of Bullar Street, died on September 4 at Southampton General Hospital after being diagnosed with mesothelioma the previous year.

Senior coroner for Southampton and the New Forest, Grahame Short, heard how the 73-year-old stevedore unloaded hessian bags filled with asbestos from boats that had travelled from the Cape of Good Hope.

Dr Sanjay Jogai, a consultant pathologist at Southampton General Hospital, said Mr Wardrop had a severe tumour which was a direct result of asbestos exposure.

Recording a verdict of death due to industrial disease, Mr Short said: “Given the very clear diagnoses and the correlation and the asbestos exposure, taking that with his work history and employment where asbestos was present, and he was working in close proximity to it, I find on balance of probability that he breathed in this and he died from asbestos.”