Quote:
There is no escape!
David, Florence and Joseph, emigrated on board the Queen Elizabeth, leaving Southampton on 21 May 1948, bound for New York. David gives his occupation as "Cinema Manager". Their permanent residence will be Canada.
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Fabulous! Hope I can positively link the medals to this man some day. We can blame the Nazis for destroying his paper records!
Anyway, here's the Drill Hall tragedy mentioned some time ago on here. Hugh Baston I believe was the son of John Baston b.1856 in the above tree.
Journal 29 July 1916
FATAL EXPLOSION AT AMBLE
PETROL BARREL IN THE STREET FOR A FORTNIGHT.
CHILDREN AND MATCHES.
A remarkable accident occurred at Amble on Thursday evening, whereby two boys named Hugh Baston (9) and John James Bates (7), lost their lives, and a girl named Eva Emmerson was so seriously injured that she had to be removed to Alnwick Infirmary.
Yesterday afternoon Mr Hugh J. Percy, coroner, held an inquest on the two boys.
P.C. Hamilton, in his evidence, said at 7.40 on Thursday he was sitting in his house, which was opposite to the Drill Hall, when be heard an awful explosion. He went out to see what had happened and found two boys and a girl lying in the roadway. The boys died a few minutes later. He had seen a petrol barrel lying beside the Drill Hall, where the explosion took place, for the past fortnight.
Wm. Young, a schoolboy, said he had been playing with some other children, amongst whom were the two deceased boys. They had some matches, which had been given to them by Eve Emmerson, but they had struck them at the back of the Drill Hall, and not where the petrol barrel was. He did not see any matches struck when he was near the barrel.
Noel Douglas, who was injured in the hand by the explosion, said he was with the other children when they were playing around the Drill Hall. They then came around to the front and began playing around the barrel. He was four yards from the barrel when the explosion occurred. He saw the little boy Baston sitting on the lid. He did not strike a match there, and he did not see Baston strike a match.
A Match Struck.
Lizzie Morton, 7 years of age, said she was amongst the children playing around the barrel. She saw Baston sitting on the barrel; she was close beside the barrel when the explosion occurred. She saw the boy Baston unscrew the tap, and then she saw Douglas strike a match on the wall and put it into the hole, and then a great explosion took place. She was not hurt at all.
Noel Douglas was recalled and asked why he had said he had not struck a match, but no answer was given.
Captain C.B. Fenwick said that he was the officer commanding the company of soldiers at the Drill Hall, and when he took over the billet at the Drill Hall a barrel containing over 30 gallons of petrol was taken over by him. This the whole time it contained petrol was guarded by a sentry night and day. On the 17th July he and his company were moving from the Drill Hall, and he had the whole of the petrol emptied from the barrel, and since that time the barrel had been lying in front of the Drill Hall, absolutely empty and bone dry. The only explanation of the accident was that a pocket of petrol gas lay at the bottom of the barrel, and when the tap was removed and the air mixed with the petrol gas it formed a dangerous compound, and when the match was applied the explosion took place.
The verdict returned by the jury was that the deceased were accidentally killed by an explosion of petrol gas in a barrel belonging to the military authorities standing n the public highway. The explosion being caused by a match dropped in by a child. A rider was added drawing the attention of the military authorities to the danger of allowing a petrol barrel to be on the public highway, and recommending that a proper store be provided.