Burning Fatality
 

Came across another child who died from burns in Amble. Sadly the newspaper also reports the name of an apprentice who set the fire. What a thing to live with.
Newcastle Journal 17 June 1918:
"An inquest was held on Saturday at Alnwick, before Mr Hugh J Percy, coroner for North Northumberland, on the body of Margaret Bryson Smith, four years and eight months old, 31 Broomhill Street, Amble. The evidence showed that an apprentice boy at the Amble Cooperative Stores, named Thomas Arthur Rowell, was sent on the 12th inst. to burn some rubbish from the stores, wastepaper, broken cardboard boxes, etc., on the foreshore near the Harbour Office. He lighted it, and after it had burned down he covered it over with sand, then left expecting everything was safe. An hour afterwards the deceased was seen running with her clothes in flames, which were extinguished by a man named Gair. The child was conveyed to Alnwick Infirmary, where she died the following evening. The girl told her mother that a fire on the shore blew out on her. The jury found that deceased died from shock and obstruction of the skin action, consequent upon burning accidentally received from a pile of burning refuse on the foreshore near Amble, and the jury were of the opinion that it is a dangerous practice to burn refuse in a place to which the public, and in particular young children, had access, and that the practice should be discontinued."

Very sad, most probably a great uncle of mine, he was 14 at the time, you have to ask who set a 14 year old lad away to burn work rubbish on a public beach, times have changed thankfully