When we started the project, we knew we’d be finding details which took us down to the individuals involved in the accidents. We’d long known the top-level figures: the hundreds who died each year and tens of thousands who were injured. Those numbers were almost too large to grasp, to feel a personal connection with. […]
Tag Archives | child
117 under 18s
In the past we’ve featured cases from our database involving railway employees who were what we’d now understand as children: R Kennedy, for example, who sprained his wrist and ankle in 1914 aged 14, or James Beck, killed at work in 1914, aged just 15. Obviously, legal, social and cultural standards change: at the start […]
Fatal Accident at Steele Road Station
By Kenneth G Williamson on September 10, 2018 in Blog, Family History, Guest contribution, Linking sources
In this post, Kenneth G Williamson outlines the circumstances around the death of his Great Uncle in 1907. Whilst not strictly a worker accident – in the sense that his Great Uncle was only 9 at the time of his death, & not employed on the railways – it happened in the railway workplace, and […]
They started – and died – young
Volunteers working on the ‘Railway Work, Life & Death’ project have uncovered the stories of nearly 4,000 individuals who were either injured or killed whilst working on Britain’s railways between January 1911 and June 1915. Amongst the casualties was 16-year old James Beck, a ‘wagon greaser’ (someone responsible for ensuring the axle boxes of freight […]
