Jonathan Creighton, Kendal, Westmorland, England, 1860

CHILD KILLED WHILE PLAYING WITH RAILWAY WAGGONS

Robert Stubbs, son of John Stubbs, Kendal, cart driver:
"I knew Jonathan Creighton. He was a boy about ten years of age. He was a scholar at St. George's Sunday School, and I am also a scholar at the same school. We both attended the school yesterday. About 4:00 in the afternoon, when I was leaving the school, I saw the deceased and some other boys playing about the railway wagons, which were in the siding near to the school. The deceased was riding upon a stick placed in front of an empty wagon, and some little boys were pushing it, along towards another wagon, which was loaded with wood. All the other boys and myself endeavoured to stop the wagon before it reached the wood wagon, and we pulled back as hard as could, but we could not stop it. As the wagons came near to each other, the deceased endeavoured to get away, but he was caught between the buffers, one being on each side of his chest, under his arms, and pressed and injured him. He shrieked out, and when the empty wagon retired, he fell down. Some people came and took him to a stable near to the place, and he died in a very short time. I think, if he had stooped down, he might have escaped, but he endeavoured to pass between the buffers and get outside. No one was to blame but the deceased himself. We all did our best to prevent the wagons from coming together."

Thomas Marshall, a little boy of nine years old, gave similar evidence.

Edward Scott, of Kendal, cabinetmaker:
"Yesterday afternoon, about 4:00, I was standing in the approach to the Kendal and Windermere railway station, near St. George's school, when a number of little boys came running towards me screaming. I went to the place, when I found the deceased sitting on the ground between the metals. I went down to him and found that he had been injured, and he was bleeding from his nostrils and ears. I raised him from the ground and took him into a stable connected with the Railway Tavern. Mr. Longmire, surgeon, was sent for, and I went to tell his mother. In about ten minutes afterwards, I met some persons bringing his dead body up Stramongate towards his mother's house.

Verdict:
Accidentally killed by being jammed between the buffers of two wagons on the Kendal & Windermere railway.


The Westmorland Gazette, Satruday, 25 Aug 1860, page 5