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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Jomot on Saturday 05 July 14 14:37 BST (UK)

Title: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Jomot on Saturday 05 July 14 14:37 BST (UK)
Not sure that this is necessarily 'the lighter side' but received a death certificate in the post today giving the place of death as the workhouse and the cause as Gangrene of the Scrotum....  :o

'twas three days before Christmas too, poor man.

Made my son turn a nasty shade of green when he read it  ;)
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Treetotal on Saturday 05 July 14 14:41 BST (UK)
Aw...imagine the suffering ???...and some men complain like babies if they have a hangover  :P  ;D
Carol
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Craclyn on Saturday 05 July 14 14:46 BST (UK)
Not seen that one before. Can´t help wondering what happened to him that triggered the gangrene.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Jomot on Saturday 05 July 14 14:53 BST (UK)
Apparently its also known as Fournier's Gangrene and in researching the causes (often diabetes or alcohol related) I came across a report of an otherwise healthy 29 year old male who was admitted as an emergency case.  I wont post the link in case there are those of a delicate disposition, but lets just say my son may be sitting on his hands for a long, long time  ;D
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Craclyn on Saturday 05 July 14 15:15 BST (UK)
Just looked up the article you referred to :) Ouch !
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: philipsearching on Saturday 05 July 14 19:05 BST (UK)
Just looked up the article you referred to :) Ouch !

When I was a teenager I sprained my wrist.  I learned that "self-abuse" had its dangers but I never knew it could be fatal!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jbml on Saturday 02 August 14 01:27 BST (UK)
My great great grandfather Joseph Oakey (3.5.1851 - June 1896) was a carrier's carman (i.e. horse & cart driver).

Family tradition related that, working ridiculously long hours, he had fallen from the box seat and been crushed under the wheels of his own cart.

The coroner's inquest record certainly corroborates the tradition that he was crushed under the wheels of his own cart ... and it happening in June would certainly be consistent with working ridiculously long hours (plenty of daylight in June ...)

I've always thought that one was pretty unpleasant ...
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Skoosh on Saturday 02 August 14 10:25 BST (UK)
Can't find the particular reference but in the Stourbridge area a glassmaker crawled into the space below a glass furnace to look for a hotspot, when the roof gave way and he was enveloped in molten glass.
Not really the "Lighter Side!" though.

Skoosh.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: groom on Saturday 02 August 14 13:40 BST (UK)
In December 1880, my great x 3 grandmother died after an oil lamp she was filling spilled over and caught her clothes alight, she was 89 at the time. The inquest said that a passing labourer rushed in and extinguished the flames but her throat and face were badly burnt and she died a week later. I've always thought that must have been a painful death.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Jool on Saturday 02 August 14 13:46 BST (UK)
Just looked up Fournier's Gangrene, the images are shocking  :o. Do not look if you are delicate or male !!!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: barryd on Saturday 02 August 14 13:52 BST (UK)
Females and especially female children were more likely to be burned in a home setting because of the clothing they wore at the time.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: rosie17 on Saturday 02 August 14 14:29 BST (UK)
Just looked up Fournier's Gangrene, the images are shocking  :o. Do not look if you are delicate or male !!!
Quote
Will take your word for it
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Jaxyfone on Saturday 02 August 14 15:00 BST (UK)
The daughter of Thomas Cook, the travel pioneer, died in her bath. Not by drowning and not of natural causes, but of (presumably) carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a faulty boiler. A boiler which, incidently, was fairly new and which the Cook family wouldn't have owned had not Thomas been the successful businessman that he was. :'(
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Guy Etchells on Saturday 02 August 14 16:35 BST (UK)
Females and especially female children were more likely to be burned in a home setting because of the clothing they wore at the time.
Do not forget young male children wore very similar dresses to their sisters in the past and many men wore smocks
Cheers
Guy
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: sugarbakers on Saturday 02 August 14 16:50 BST (UK)
"15 Sept 1879, Hans Rathgen, age 69, sugarbaker. Cause of death - shock to the system from scalds through having fallen into a pan of boiling sugar. Accidental. Middlesex Coroner's inquest held 18 Sept 1879". (Death cert)

... and the eye-watering ...

"Hamper, Daniel ... German sugar refiner, aged 70, died at London Hospital from injuries received. When stood in a chandler's shop in Fashion St, Spitalfields, the floor gave way and he fell, legs apart, across a rafter resulting in a crushed pelvis. Taken to hospital, but he did not survive the operation." (Hereford Times 1842)

... are just two of many nasty deaths related to sugar refining at  www.mawer.clara.net/fatalities.html  including the deaths of Wm Hy Hodgkinson and Michael Reynolds both involving the old shafts and belts that used to drive machinery ... but I'll not copy them here !!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: ThrelfallYorky on Saturday 02 August 14 17:40 BST (UK)
-No wonder they say sugar isn't good for you!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Gillg on Sunday 03 August 14 17:00 BST (UK)
A great-uncle of mine worked in a warehouse which received tea chests from India.  He scratched his hand on the tin edging of one of these chests and developed severe blood poisoning, from which he died, there being no treatment available to save him at that time (1910).
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Erato on Sunday 03 August 14 17:16 BST (UK)
A great-uncle of mine worked in a warehouse which received tea chests from India.  He scratched his hand on the tin edging of one of these chests and developed severe blood poisoning, from which he died, there being no treatment available to save him at that time (1910).

One of my uncles died as a child in a similar way in 1919.  He was stung by a scorpion and developed incurable blood poisoning.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: GrahamSimons on Sunday 03 August 14 17:28 BST (UK)
Part of a lengthy newspaper report of 1844:
JAMES SCOTT, accused of culpable homicide, "in so far as, on the 25th day of July, 1844, Dewar & Co, coach proprietors in Stirling, having started a new coach for the conveyance of goods and passengers between Stirling and Alloa Ferry, by a road on the south side of the river Forth, the said James Scott did wickedly, culpably and recklessly drive the said stage coach at so rapid and furious a pace, that, at or near Poppletrees Pow, the said stage coach was upset, and thereby William Jaffray, farmer, Skeoch, was thrown off, and in consequence of the concussion, was so grievously bruised and otherwise injured that he soon thereafter died."
William Jaffray was my great-great-grandfather. James Scott was found guilty, but without intent to injure, and was sentenced to one month's imprisonment.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Jomot on Friday 22 May 15 15:08 BST (UK)
Came back to this topic looking for a different post, but given recent newspaper headlines this one caught my eye as being somewhat ironic. 

The daughter of Thomas Cook, the travel pioneer, died in her bath. Not by drowning and not of natural causes, but of (presumably) carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a faulty boiler. A boiler which, incidently, was fairly new and which the Cook family wouldn't have owned had not Thomas been the successful businessman that he was. :'(
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: groom on Friday 22 May 15 15:13 BST (UK)
Very ironic. I'm surprised none of the newspapers have picked up this coincidence.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: BW252 on Friday 22 May 15 17:36 BST (UK)
I have a relative who cut her throat with a razor 13 days after giving birth (1905)     
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: DavidG02 on Friday 22 May 15 19:28 BST (UK)
Speaking of Ladies fashions

From the Hereford Journal 4 May 1831

A young lady named Harris 22 suddenly dropped dead from apoplexy, occasioned by that foolish fashion amongst females-tight lacing. On the inquest a jury asked that the public record serve as a warning to females on a practice so decidedly injurious to their health

Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Jomot on Friday 22 May 15 20:13 BST (UK)
I have a relative who cut her throat with a razor 13 days after giving birth (1905)   

Oh that's absolutely awful, how tragic.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Gan Yam on Friday 22 May 15 20:47 BST (UK)
A great-uncle of mine worked in a warehouse which received tea chests from India.  He scratched his hand on the tin edging of one of these chests and developed severe blood poisoning, from which he died, there being no treatment available to save him at that time (1910).

One of my uncles died as a child in a similar way in 1919.  He was stung by a scorpion and developed incurable blood poisoning.

My 2x gt grandfather suffered a similar fate, blood poisoning, after breaking his leg! (1867)

Attended the Centenary Service for the Quintinshill Rail Disaster today, there were some truly horrendous deaths resulting from the crash.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Rosinish on Friday 22 May 15 21:32 BST (UK)
Both of my maternal g/parents had terrible deaths within a year of each other (prior to my birth).

Aug 1947 my g/father (50 yrs) was hit by a train, his left leg almost completely severed.

May 1948 my g/mother (47 yrs) was cleaning an upstairs window & fell from it.

My mother who was born 1941 was orphaned but was taken in by her father's sister who turned out to be one of the ugly sisters.

My mother sadly died aged 43 yrs of heart disease which was not diagnosed................she was being treated for heartburn  ???

Annie


Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: ladybird on Friday 22 May 15 22:36 BST (UK)
Paisley Daily Express dated 8th Sept 1891
"A distressing fatality occured at the works of Messrs J&P Coats Ltd at Ferguslie shortly before 3 oclock yesterday afternoon. Three of the female workers in the mill were hurrying to resume their duties, when one of them, Robina Townsend, stopped about 40 yards from the door at No. 9 Thread store. ....her companions went on and stepped into a hoist worked by hydrolics, to be taken to a higher flat. Townsend arrived when the hoist was in motion...with the result that she was knocked down by the descending guard. Her head was pressed with considerable force between the guard and the floor...and the skull was fearfully crushed and life was extinct....

My poor gg aunt  :'( a nasty way to die!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Joyful on Friday 22 May 15 22:48 BST (UK)
My GG/Grandfather tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat, he had cancer of

the rectum and the pain was too much for him. It took him two days to die...poor man :'( :(

Joy
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Billyblue on Saturday 23 May 15 03:59 BST (UK)
One of my Blue family died aged 27.
Cause of death (on certificate): Fell down stairs while drunk

 :o  :o   :o

Dawn M
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Erin2012 on Saturday 23 May 15 12:01 BST (UK)
My greatgrandfathers brother fell out of a window and impailed himself on a fence.... NY Times (1923)

And what about children being scalded to death. How did that happen?
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Billyblue on Saturday 23 May 15 12:14 BST (UK)
Children scald themselves on a regular basis even these days.
How does it happen?
A saucepan on the stove, with the handle pointing out, child grabs handle, resultant scald.

OR
the house's HWS is set too high.  What an adult can stand as a hot shower can scald a young child.

Dawn M
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Seoras on Saturday 23 May 15 12:16 BST (UK)
This is how my great great grandmother died. The unpleasant part is she was in an asylum at the time with no family at hand.

Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Erin2012 on Saturday 23 May 15 12:20 BST (UK)
Seoras:

Did she just fall over and die?
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: groom on Saturday 23 May 15 12:22 BST (UK)
Sounds like a heart attack or stroke. Nice quick death though!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Seoras on Saturday 23 May 15 12:32 BST (UK)
Hi Erin and Groom. I have a lot of info on her thanks to an RCer who very kindly went along to the Archives at Stirling Uni. She had been in this asylum for 12 years. She had also been in one in Edinburgh previously. She had tried to kill two of her children as she thought that they had been replaced by cats ???. I know, it beggars belief but I have it in writing from the Procurator Fiscal who states that she must never be released without he was consulted. She had a child very late and I wonder if a severe form of post natal depression could have been involved.

As to the death. Two days before she was described as so stout that her heartbeat couldn't be heard, or pulse felt. Cause of death was heart failure and at the time she was sitting talking and just went.

PS. She wasn't the wife of my GG grandfather in my avatar. That is a different family and equally tragic at times.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Erin2012 on Saturday 23 May 15 12:37 BST (UK)
Ok.... Its just that my grandmother and great grandmother died that way too.

My grandmother said she felt ill and needed a coffee and when they came out of the kitchen she was dead.

Great grandmother just talking and boom.... Fell over dead.

As no autopsy was done, its been a bit of a family mystery.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Seoras on Saturday 23 May 15 12:43 BST (UK)
Was no cause put on the death certificates Erin.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jan57 on Saturday 23 May 15 13:33 BST (UK)
 My 3xGreat grandfather  was a Railway  Engine  driver ,  and  got killed  in an accident  in 1852, he  was the  only  fatality ,  although  a  number  of  people   had broken  limbs,   cuts , concussion  .The  local  paper   gave  a very  detailed  account  of the accident ,  and the  inquest   also  , '    an  excerpt  reads ,  ''The  body of the driver  of the  express train  was  found   in  a  shockingly   mangled state,   a  severed hand,     head almost  cleft  in twain ,  and  body  almost  severed  in  half''' 
  The  inquest    found   that   the  accident happened   as   a result of  my  ancestor   not  heeding  a red flag   and going too  fast  !     His   son   was also  a railway  worker   and died 34 years after  his father,   after'  slipping  on a hillock of ice  , and  fell between 2 wagons,   crushing  his   chest '                                             
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Billyblue on Saturday 23 May 15 13:45 BST (UK)
Ok.... Its just that my grandmother and great grandmother died that way too.

My grandmother said she felt ill and needed a coffee and when they came out of the kitchen she was dead.

Great grandmother just talking and boom.... Fell over dead.

As no autopsy was done, its been a bit of a family mystery.
This is usually heart attack or stroke.  Or a burst aneurysm.

Here are a few I know of.
A set of twins in our family, one died.  The second one went the next day to look at his brother in the coffin and dropped down dead.

My uncle (Mum's brother) died one Christmas Day. Had a shower, getting ready to go out, and dropped down dead as he stepped out of the shower.

In 1960s I was nursing at Brisbane repat hospital. One evening we heard a crash and ran into the ward to find a patient on the floor, dead.  I asked the (visibly shook up) patient in next bed what happened and he said the other guy, who was to go home the next day, came over and shook his hand and said "Goodbye. It was nice knowing you.  I'm going now."   

Dawn M
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: rayard on Saturday 23 May 15 14:03 BST (UK)
Many years ago a friend was killed by a bus when he slipped on ice in the gutter, his head was smashed. He was drunk at the time...I hope he didn't feel too much! At least he died happy!!!
rayard.

Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Billyblue on Saturday 23 May 15 14:16 BST (UK)
A friend of a friend was decapitated when she drove her car under a big truck.
Jayne Mansfield died in much the same way, from memory.

And about 60 years ago, when there were still trams in Sydney, some guy jumped off the tram while it was still going, lost his footing, rolled under the tram and was decapitated!

Dawn M
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Erin2012 on Saturday 23 May 15 14:56 BST (UK)
Rather gruesome thread!

Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Skoosh on Saturday 23 May 15 15:53 BST (UK)
I read of an accident in a glass cone at Stourbridge, an operator crawled along the narrow brick channel under one of the glass furnaces to investigate a hot spot when the floor of the furnace gave way and the guy was trapped under a deluge of molten glass.

Skoosh.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Erin2012 on Saturday 23 May 15 15:59 BST (UK)
Oh yikes. Sound like something out of a movie.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: groom on Saturday 23 May 15 16:55 BST (UK)
Rather gruesome thread!

 ;D  Each tale is worse that the one before! 
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: DavidG02 on Saturday 23 May 15 21:18 BST (UK)
A friend of a friend was decapitated when she drove her car under a big truck.

One of our teenage group moved on to drive trucks for a living. Carting steel plate a car cut in front of him just before the lights went red. Truck Driver slammed on brakes only to have sheets of steel keep going. Through the cab.

 :(

Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Erin2012 on Saturday 23 May 15 21:24 BST (UK)
Wow... How horrific.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: groom on Saturday 23 May 15 22:20 BST (UK)
A friend's parents were touring in America with relatives in 1980 when the volcanic eruption occurred at Mount St. Helens, so there were clouds of dust everywhere. They were following a truck carrying huge logs which came off, crushing their car and killing all the occupants. I can still remember how shocked we all were when we heard about it.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Erin2012 on Saturday 23 May 15 22:26 BST (UK)
Oh my god. This thread just gets worse and worse.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: bibliotaphist on Saturday 23 May 15 22:48 BST (UK)
Searching for relatives in the newspaper archives on Findmypast, I came across this one. He's not one of 'mine' as far as I can tell, but I saved it anyway. Real 19th century sensationalist gruesome regional journalism at its finest.

Quote
"WORKMAN CREMATED ALIVE AT WARRENBY.
"At Redcar yesterday a fireman named John Stainthorpe (19), employed at Messrs Walker, Maynard, and Co.'s ironworks, Warrenby, met with a terrible death. He was coupling bogies full of molten slag to an engine when the engine was backed on to the bogies with such force that the molten slag splashed over the sides, and completely covered the unfortunate man. The flesh was stripped from off his bones, and the body presented a fearful spectacle..."

Anyone who reckons that "health and safety has gone mad these days" is welcome to go and do his job.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: groom on Saturday 23 May 15 23:07 BST (UK)
That's horrible.

Perhaps this thread ought to carry a warning - Not for the Squeamish.  :o
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Erin2012 on Sunday 24 May 15 00:06 BST (UK)
Tomorrow I will have to post my coal mining deaths in Wales.

Ah yes, a warning isnt a bad idea.... But this is interesting!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Seoras on Sunday 24 May 15 00:26 BST (UK)
I have 3 suicides, all by hanging. Two cases were found by their sons and one by his mother. Not something I would like to come across.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: LizzieW on Sunday 24 May 15 01:38 BST (UK)
Very ironic. I'm surprised none of the newspapers have picked up this coincidence.

They did, there was a short article in The Times (I think Friday's edition) which told this story and stated that Thomas Cook himself would have handled the recent case much more sympathetically due to his own experience of gas poisoning.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: grouse on Sunday 24 May 15 07:24 BST (UK)
Family rumour I heard as a child said that Great Grandma had died of a dart in the nose. As a kid this envisaged her hacking her way through the deep jungle to be attacked by a native blowing a poisoned dart and dying of her encounter surrounded by the dancing attackers
Turns out she sat too near the dart board in her local East End pub where a stray dart hit her on the nose and she died of blood poisoning 
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: DavidG02 on Sunday 24 May 15 07:46 BST (UK)
Yes our Grade 7 teacher tried to stop us from scratching pimples by using the example of a man in the 30s scratching his forehead and dying from toxicity through sweat mixing with the hat dye

As it was 1970s and we only wore beanies we figured we were safe
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: William Abraham Akese-Mackay on Sunday 24 May 15 10:21 BST (UK)
Such tragic death will not happen to you
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: GrahamSimons on Sunday 24 May 15 23:04 BST (UK)
Pontypridd Observer 8 June 1907: Inquest on the Body of Mr Vazie Simons [my great-uncle]

Mr R.J. Rhys, Coroner, Aberdare, held an inquest on Monday touching the death of the late Mr Vazie Simons, the well-known solicitor who was found in his chambers, Market Square, Pontypridd, on Saturday last shot near the heart.

The evidence of Mr Sidney (sic) Simons, Mayor of Merthyr, who was much grieved, was to the effect that the deceased was 48 years of age and lately resided at Bradford Place, Penarth. He left a widow and three children. Witness last saw him alive at Tredegar about a month ago but had since had no communication with him.

In answer to the Coroner, witness said he personally did not know anything about any depression his brother had lately suffered. He had lately lost a very important appointment, which he held, and that gave him a great deal of trouble and anxiety. He never knew the deceased to have a revolver in his life, neither was he in the habit of going about with one in his pocket. He had been abroad in Australia and might have carried one there.

Mr W Upham, a clerk in the deceased's employ, spoke to seeing his late chief coming to the office on Saturday morning. Witness went into the room three times, but the deceased never spoke to him. He had been very quiet during the last few days and different to usual. Witness did not hear the report of a firearm but his fellow-clerk shouted to him and when he rushed into the deceased's room, he saw him sitting in his chair with the revolver on the blotting pad. Deceased lived for about four minutes but did not speak. Witness had never seen a revolver with the deceased and was not aware that he carried one.

Mr James Taylor, chief clerk, states that he had a conversation with his master that morning and he appeared to be very rational. Witness, however, knew that he had been depressed for some days. Witness heard a report of a pistol and on going into the room saw Mr Simons in his chair. He immediately telephoned for medical assistance.

Inspector Salter said when he got to the office, the deceased, who was being supported by his clerk, was quite dead. He examined the body and found a bullet mark in the region of the heart. The revolver (produced) was on the table directly in front of the deceased with one of the five chambers discharged.

The Coroner (inspecting the weapon): It is quite a new revolver. Have you any information where it has been bought?

Inspector Salter: No, but it has not been bought at Pontypridd.

Dr Shaw Little, Cilfynydd, described a small circular wound in the left breast. The wound had lacerated edges and there must have been a considerable laceration of the lung tissue to account for the profuse bleeding. The bullet appeared to have just missed the heart, but it was difficult to say definitely what direction it had taken. The vest was blackened and torn, and in his opinion the wound must have been self-inflicted.

The Coroner, in directing the jury, said that he always thought in cases of that nature that the least said the better. They had the fact that the two clerks heard the report, and immediately after found the deceased dying in his chair; and Dr Lyttle (sic) had told them that the wound was self-inflicted. The brother had informed them that the deceased had just lost a very important appointment which had made him depressed and it was for the jury to say whether that was sufficient to justify them saying that the deceased was of unsound mind.

The jury returned a verdict of "Suicide during temporary insanity" and the foreman, Mr Roddy, expressed sympathy with the bereaved family.

The Coroner joined in the expression of condolence, adding that it was his business to be in the midst of trouble, but in this case he felt it more particularly because he had known deceased since he was a lad.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Suzy W on Friday 29 May 15 00:07 BST (UK)
Oh my goodness there seems to be some horrid deaths in these posts.  So I will add mine.

Three year old boy kicked in head by horse, took a month for the poor lad to die.

Grandmothers little sister drunk poison (thinking it was lemonade)

My mother's brother pulled a boiling hot pot of soup onto himself (nearly two years old), which took all his skin off.

Another family member squished by horse and dray

And another family member slipping on the wharf hitting his head and drowned

Then this one sticks in my mind, a story told to me via a South African friend.  A lady they knew while she was growing up there, was walking down the street with her little girl, she was busy skipping down the road and slipped in front of a rubbish truck and had her head crushed.  The horror for both mother and driver must of been unbearable for many years.

Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: youngtug on Friday 29 May 15 06:43 BST (UK)
That brings back memories, A toddler fell under a bus wheel outside of [my] school, the same happened. Bad timing, it was when school was finished and everyone was on their way out of the gates, upset/traumatized a good number of 11 to 15 years olds.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Treetotal on Friday 29 May 15 22:58 BST (UK)
Some of these are so sad...One of my ancestors was crossing the road in 1903 when a wagonette ran over her foot....she was taken into the foyer of a nearby pub where they sat her down and removed her boot only to find a ruptured vein....they put her foot in a bucket of water but she bled to death before help arrived. She was 29 and left behind 7 children the youngest of which was just 9 months old.
Carol
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Skoosh on Saturday 30 May 15 08:50 BST (UK)
Death can be fatal!

Skoosh.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: LizzieW on Saturday 30 May 15 14:04 BST (UK)
When I was at school in the 1940s we had to have a bottle of milk each day - remember that? - anyway one day the milk didn't arrive and most of us were really happy not to have to drink the stuff.  The reason it hadn't arrived was that the milkman had jumped off a road bridge onto the railway track below and had been run over by the oncoming steam train.  I didn't like milk in the first place, but that put me off forever.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: DavidG02 on Saturday 30 May 15 15:33 BST (UK)
Death can be fatal!

Skoosh.
Its life changing
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jbml on Sunday 07 June 15 11:48 BST (UK)
Just learned that my grandfather died as a result of a sword wound ... in 1961!!

Well, sort of ...

... he was a fencing instructor, and the tip guard came off a student's foil, which pierced his body protector and nicked his nipple. The wound subsequently became cancerous. He was unaware of this until he applied for an assisted emigration scheme to Australia, and failed the medical because of his cancer.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Genegirl on Sunday 28 June 15 06:47 BST (UK)
My grandmother was in the war and had to keep escaping bombs.
Her best friend was bombed. I am not sure if she witnessed this. How awful for her and the friend that died. She saw dead bodies and arms and body parts everywhere. It traumatized her. My grandmother was a very hard cold woman which she blamed on what she saw. She wasn't affectionate to me or anyone else.

Also, my grandmother saw her own dog decapitated... I'm not sure if she really did see this. But my mother said my grandmother told her this happened. I have no idea why it happened or who did it.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: a-l on Sunday 28 June 15 12:00 BST (UK)
My great aunt had an epileptic fit and fell onto the fire. Her father rolled her around in a rug and succeeded in extinguishing the flames but she was dead. She was 14.      I remember a 3yr old boy from childhood who picked up a bottle of milk from the doorstep and fell. The bottle broke and went into his heart.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Braindead on Monday 20 July 15 12:45 BST (UK)
The Lincolnshire Chronicle of the 24th April 1903:
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: andrewalston on Tuesday 21 July 15 19:06 BST (UK)
The requirement to take care at level crossings is nothing new.

From the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 23 Mar 1861:-

A MAN KILLED ON THE RAILWAY - A fatal accident occurred on Wednesday at a crossing on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, near Smithy Bridge. The express from Normanton, due in Manchester at 11 10 a.m. passed Littleborough at 10 45 a.m. and when it was reaching the crossing, a man unknown, but apparently a collier, attempted to cross the line. He was caught by the engine of the express, carried about eighty yards, and then run over, his head being completely severed from his body, and the body mutilated. The remains were conveyed to the nearest public-house, to await the inquest.—At the inquest before Mr. Dearden yesterday it appeared that the man's name was John Donbavand, a chimney pot maker. He left home for Rochdale, and when he came to the Smithy Bridge crossing he found a luggage train passing. As soon as that had passed he stepped on the line when the Yorkshire express came up at the rate of 40 miles an hour and caught him, cut off his head and left foot, and then carried his body eighty yards. A verdict of "Accidental death" was returned.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Jebber on Tuesday 21 July 15 19:45 BST (UK)
I have a woman burned to death in a fire when an oil lamp overturned, her husband tried to save her but died of his burns on the day of her funeral.

Another relative was murdered by his friend on a country road at night, he had mistaken him for someone else in the dark.

Then another, a railway worker, was crushed by the buffers of a train. His death resulted in a Board of Trade inquiry into the long hours railway employees had to work


Then there are five suicides.
One hanged himself in the house.

One lay in front of a train after being made bankrupt.

Another, also lay in front of a train, being unable to face life without his wife who had died of cancer.

A fourth drowned himself in a ditch while suffering from depression, he had told a neighbour he wanted to murder himself.

Then a fifth  drowned himself in a water butt, having already been saved by his wife from hanging himself a couple of weeks earlier.

Finally the 7 deaths that are one of the things that sparked my interest in family history.
Seven members of the same family hacked to death by an ex employee.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Jomot on Tuesday 21 July 15 20:14 BST (UK)
Oh my! 

I don't think I'd have wanted to marry into your family back in those days Jebber, sounds like it would be tempting fate  :o
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Jebber on Tuesday 21 July 15 20:44 BST (UK)
Jomot, Fortunately most of them are only distantly related, the closest are the two who died under trains, and I have still to find the connection to the family of seven.

I keep my fingers crossed that I don't end up added to the list myself 😁😁😁😁
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Skoosh on Tuesday 21 July 15 22:15 BST (UK)
"Lucky White Heather!"

Skoosh.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: conahy calling on Wednesday 29 July 15 23:49 BST (UK)
See 2nd paragraph on the link
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=PBH18871006.2.24

Explains how W C Lysaght caught diphteria and died.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Noy1818 on Thursday 30 July 15 03:54 BST (UK)
This is a newspaper article regarding the death of my 3rd  great uncle. He had only been in Australia for about a year. What a horrible way to go.

(Saturday September 17th, 1870)
FRIGHTFUL CASUALTY ON THE NEW ROAD

An accident which is apprehended must terminate fatally, happened yesterday morning to a young man named William Henry Trembath. He was engaged chopping some firewood for Mr Richard Davis who occupies a house on the sideling track leading out of the township, when a stone of several pounds weight, which it is believed had been uprooted by some swine on the slaughter-yard hill above him, came bounding down the precipitous sideling with fearful velocity, gathering impetus as it proceeded, and struck him on the right side of the head, fracturing the skull and actually forcing the fragments of the bone into the brain. The sufferer was instantly taken into the dwelling, while a messenger was speedily despatched for Dr McDonald. The doctor arrived with commendable promptitude, and upon proceeding to examine the patient found the scalp terribly torn, and the skull literally battered in, indeed with the aid of his surgical instruments he succeeded in removing several particles of bone varying from the size of a shilling downwards, which had been embedded nearly an inch deep in the convolutions of the brain, and yet marvelous to relate, the unfortunate sufferer although totally insensible to pain retained his consciousness throughout the whole operation.
Upon enquiry at a late hour last night, we learned that Trembath had sunk into a comatose state.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Finley 1 on Thursday 30 July 15 10:40 BST (UK)
just had to stop reading this one half way through the pages... oh dear...

xin  :-[ :-\ :'(
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Nanna52 on Thursday 30 July 15 11:33 BST (UK)
My great uncle, 10 August 1885.

A miner named  George James, who was working in the shaft of the 'Transit Company, Newtown, was killed yesterday afternoon by the dummy of the cage falling upon him and precipitating him to the bottom.  When picked up he was alive, but he died shortly afterwards.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: bikermickau on Thursday 30 July 15 11:34 BST (UK)
One I found last week
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article149180087
A LAD'S DEATH.
Some gruesome particulars were com-
municated to-day to the City Coroner
when he held an inquest on the body of
the poor lad Daniel O'Sullivan, who was
killed at Moore's timber yards on Tues-
day.. It may be remembered that he
climbed to an overhead beam to adjust
a belt on a moving wheel, and must have
slipped, as when next seen was being 
whirled round and round the wheel. 
To-day it was stated that every revo-
lution he was dashed against some
planking, and not only were both legs
and arms torn off, but portions of his
body were thrown over 40ft. away.
Sullivan's mother said the lad was
not subject to fits, and was in good
health and spirits when he left home in
the morning for his work. The Coroner
found that death was due to injuries sus-
tained by deceased being caught in the
belting and held, and that no blame at 
tached to anyone.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: groom on Thursday 30 July 15 11:41 BST (UK)
They certainly went into graphic details in those days didn't they!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: GenesA on Thursday 30 July 15 11:45 BST (UK)
I have man on my mother's side who was an widower and had become a bit of an alcoholic after his wife's death. His eighteen year old daughter found him dead in the kitchen after he had choked on his own vomit. Must have been awful for the daughter!

I also have a Mr Turner who was killed by his own cart but didn't die until a week later. The poor man must have suffered  :( he was only in his 30s.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: coombs on Thursday 30 July 15 13:00 BST (UK)
Several of my rellies died from phthisis, and the death cert says "3 years" or 4 years.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Skoosh on Thursday 30 July 15 13:38 BST (UK)
James Ingles Hamilton, Colonel in the Scots Greys at Waterloo, led his regiment in that famous charge and had both arms cut off but still urged his mount on with the reins between his teeth until he was shot & brought down.

http://www.salsburghheritagegroup.co.uk/21.html

Skoosh.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Gillg on Friday 31 July 15 09:10 BST (UK)
Phthitis pulmonaris, for any who haven't come across it on a relative's death cert, is TB or consumption.  It was a common illness in older times, sometimes because of living conditions, but could be a slow and miserable death, as Coombs' message shows.  And it was infectious. :(  It crops up on the death certs of several of my ag lab forebears.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Nanna52 on Friday 31 July 15 09:15 BST (UK)
In the same vain my grandfathers death certificate said TB and exhaustion.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: coombs on Friday 31 July 15 12:13 BST (UK)
Phthitis pulmonaris, for any who haven't come across it on a relative's death cert, is TB or consumption.  It was a common illness in older times, sometimes because of living conditions, but could be a slow and miserable death, as Coombs' message shows.  And it was infectious. :(  It crops up on the death certs of several of my ag lab forebears.

My 3xgreat grandfather's first wife died of phthisis and they lived in Brighton. She had to then be buried by the parish expense. He was a servant and out pensioner after 25 years as a private. Maybe the medical bills sucked him dry and he had to get the parish to bury her.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Skoosh on Friday 31 July 15 15:39 BST (UK)
James Inglis Hamilton, Colonel in the Scots Greys at Waterloo, led his regiment in that famous charge and had both arms cut off but still urged his mount on with the reins between his teeth until he was shot & brought down.

http://www.salsburghheritagegroup.co.uk/21.html

Skoosh.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Deirdre784 on Friday 31 July 15 19:25 BST (UK)
Not as gruesome as many in this topic, but very unpleasant nonetheless, and sad too .... one of my husband's 4x great grandmothers died in the workhouse of bed sores and exhaustion :'(
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: GenesA on Friday 31 July 15 19:39 BST (UK)
That's very sad, the poor lady  :(
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: dowdstree on Friday 31 July 15 20:26 BST (UK)
Have just read most of the posts on this subject. How much suffering must have been endured :'(
absolutely awful.

I have quite a few ancestors who died of TB one was a cousin (can't remember how many x removed offhand) in the 1870's, her husband scarpered and her two kids went into the workhouse.

My own grandfather was badly gassed in WW1 and his health was never good after this. He died in a Military Hospital in 1927 from TB. From his army records I have copies of two letters he wrote to the MOD about his pension in which he says that hopefully when the weather improves he will feel better but he died a few months later.

Yes, TB often took years to end a life.

Its just as well we not know what our cause of death will be or we might jump of a bridge now :'(

Dorrie

Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: coombs on Friday 31 July 15 21:38 BST (UK)
In 1861 my farm labourer ancestor was in the workhouse and his wife was dying of phthisis. She died 2 months later. He later remarried in 1865. God, imagine how horrendous it was to have phthisis, or pulmonary TB.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Finley 1 on Saturday 01 August 15 16:17 BST (UK)
Is it me -- or did these people move on darn quickly after the death of a 'supposed' loved one!!!

xin
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Jebber on Saturday 01 August 15 16:41 BST (UK)
If you mean the speed at which they remarried, it was a matter if survival. Men needed women to care for the children while he worked, women need men to support them and their children. No government dolling out benefits, only the workhouse if they had no other means of support.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: GenesA on Saturday 01 August 15 16:53 BST (UK)
If you mean the speed at which they remarried, it was a matter if survival. Men needed women to care for the children while he worked, women need men to support them and their children. No government dolling out benefits, only the workhouse if they had no other means of support.

That's very true, Jebber. I remember being slightly shocked at discovering my Aunt Nelly had remarried just a year after her husband had been killed in WW1. But she had three children to support and how would she work with three young children? Her only option was to remarry.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Deirdre784 on Saturday 01 August 15 17:20 BST (UK)
I've got 3 close but long ago ancestors (all men) who married again within 10 weeks!

One was understandable (handful of young children), though i was surprised when i first found out about it, but one had only 1 child (a girl aged 12), and the other, a man of 60 with grown up children, married a 28 year old spinster, had 4 children (the first died early) in quick succession then died of 'general decline' leaving her with 3 young children.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: coombs on Saturday 01 August 15 18:02 BST (UK)
I even know of people who had another wife lined up while their first wife was still alive if she was dying of a long illness.

Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: groom on Saturday 01 August 15 18:11 BST (UK)
My uncle by marriage's mother died giving birth to him. His father remarried within three months- to his dead wife's sister.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: sharonmx5 on Saturday 01 August 15 18:25 BST (UK)
I even know of people who had another wife lined up while their first wife was still alive if she was dying of a long illness.

Yes I've known of this too.  Sadly it wasn't that long ago, only about 30 years, and the children were not that young.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: coombs on Saturday 01 August 15 20:17 BST (UK)
I suppose it was stress of a dying spouse and probably as they had children, they found a new woman/man to marry once their current spouse was dead. Maybe a friend, neighbour, work colleague.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: andrewalston on Monday 03 August 15 15:11 BST (UK)
I even know of people who had another wife lined up while their first wife was still alive if she was dying of a long illness.

I've even come across one chap having the banns read before the funeral!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: coombs on Wednesday 05 August 15 12:30 BST (UK)
He certainly did not let the grass grown under his feet then. Some men even got their next wife pregnant before their first wife was dead.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: dancingcar on Monday 10 August 15 18:04 BST (UK)
A cousin of my mothers was being looked after by her grandparents, sitting on a 3 legged stool on the pavement. A horse drawn dray mounted the pavement and killed her. My mother and her sisters on hearing the news, after school rushed home thinking it was their young sister ,who had the same first name. The poor grannie was distraught, airing the little girls clothes on the fireguard. This happened about 1914, I remember the stool in a relatives house when I was a child. I think I would have chopped it up!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jamie300 on Wednesday 03 January 18 17:48 GMT (UK)
My gg-grandfather died on Christmas Day aged 44 leaving a wife and three children. A bit shocked when I got the certificate and saw he jumped in the river as that was the same way his great-grandson went.

The inquest with a jury was all done and dusted on Boxing Day, they certainly didn't mess around back then. Verdict was "suicide during temporary insanity". I thought the insanity bit was a common get-out so they could receive the full Christian honours etc.

However I then found a newspaper report that said the suicide followed an incident with a work colleague who said "I was only having a lark with him" after hearing people in the pub saying the deceased "was a little bit gone in the rocker". So, perhaps he was known to have been mentally ill for some time.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: giggsycat on Wednesday 03 January 18 19:48 GMT (UK)
I MAY have posted this link before? If not, there is plenty here to 'amuse' you ghoulish people!  :o

Gloucester Inquests from Gloucester Journal 1722-1838.

http://www.genebug.net/glsinquests.htm

Giggsy

Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Ayashi on Wednesday 03 January 18 20:10 GMT (UK)
One of my ancestors died of "cancer of the vulva", which makes me cross my legs quite tightly  :o

I've got ones like "a carbuncle of eight weeks duration", "the consequence of the prickle of a finger," "Acute cellulitis of the face and neck, cardiac failure", one who died of multiple injuries after he rode his tricycle (one of those monster things like penny farthing) down a hill and hit a horse and cart.

One that has always upset me was a premature baby dying aged 1 hour. Not so much for baby but for the mother, to go through the labour knowing you are so early and then to hold that tiny little child waiting for it to die. Another child burned to death aged 5.

I also remember a story a rootschatter showed one time of a man letting his kids out to play and then hearing a massive explosion- turned out they'd gone into a field near the house and the army had been in it during the war. He found some of them dead and one that lived long enough to tell him that one boy had kicked a hand grenade before dying in front of him. That was a sad article.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: giggsycat on Wednesday 03 January 18 20:17 GMT (UK)
"One of my ancestors died of "cancer of the vulva", which makes me cross my legs quite tightly".

It is something that you don't hear anything about, but a friend of mine has it.

Giggsy
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: dowdstree on Wednesday 03 January 18 20:29 GMT (UK)
My aunt died in 1960 and cause of death was -  Carcinoma of Vagina - 2 years 9 months, Metastatic Deposits on Bladder Base - 2 years 5 months, Cervix, liver - 3 months, Toxaemia - 1 day.

Absolutely horrible as she was one of the kindest, gentle ladies I have ever known.

Dorrie
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Erato on Wednesday 03 January 18 20:47 GMT (UK)
I have a death from mushroom poisoning and it was long and painful.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: cristeen on Wednesday 03 January 18 21:52 GMT (UK)
My 3x G grandfather was poisoned with arsenic by his housekeeper, who had previously been his mistress, in 1904. The trial made national headlines :)
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Skoosh on Wednesday 03 January 18 22:03 GMT (UK)
Falling into a furnace must be up there with the worst!

Skoosh.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jaybelnz on Wednesday 03 January 18 22:24 GMT (UK)
I have one of a 5 week old baby who was accidently given an overdose of medicine by her mother.  Very sad!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: LizzieW on Thursday 04 January 18 09:32 GMT (UK)
"One of my ancestors died of "cancer of the vulva", which makes me cross my legs quite tightly".

It is something that you don't hear anything about, but a friend of mine has it.

Giggsy

I used to work for a consultant gynaecologist and he would probably have one patient a year with cancer of the vulva.  Nasty cancer, as far as I can remember part of the "cure" was to totally cut out any gynae part of the body, so even if cervix, uterus and ovaries were not affected, they went too as a precaution.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Skoosh on Thursday 04 January 18 10:50 GMT (UK)
One from Stourbridge had a worker crawling into the vent below a glass furnace to look at a hot-spot & the roof gave way!

Skoosh. 
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: andrewalston on Thursday 04 January 18 11:31 GMT (UK)
I was going through the burial registers for All Saints, Daresbury, and came across a strange entry for 12th September 1915.
"Legs of Charles William Roberts taken from canal at Keckwick other portion of Body Buried at Dunham Massey in Altrincham. Late of 2 Dobson St, Warrington".

Keckwick and Dunham Massey are about 15 miles apart. The Warrington Guardian gave the fuller story:

SOLDIER'S TRAGIC END
FOUND DROWNED IN BRIDGEWATER CANAL

The tragic circumstances surrounding the death of Charles William Roberts (35), a private in the Royal Engineers (West Lancashire Territorials), whose home was at 3 Robson-street, Warrington, were investigated by Mr. E.A. White (deputy coroner), at an inquest held at the Institute, Moore, on Saturday. The lower portion of the man's body was found in the Bridgewater Canal at Keckwick on September 8th.

Peter Jones, canal banksman, Pepper-street, Preston Brook, said on September 8th he received a report that the body was in the canal. He and P.C. Collier recovered the body and found that on the feet were a pair of soldier's boots and socks, though there was no other clothing. The body appeared to have been cut by the propeller of a steamer.
P.C. J.H. Hough, of Moore, also spoke to examining the body.
Police sergeant George Kingman, of Bowdon, near Altrincham, said the remains appeared to correspond with the upper part of a man's body found at Dunham Massey on September 6th. In that case an inquest was held at Altrincham by Mr. Yates, coroner. The body was not identified, and a verdict of "Found drowned" was returned.

"GOD BLESS MY CHILDREN"
Annie Roberts, wife of Charles William Roberts, said her husband enlisted two months ago, and was stationed at St. Helens. She last saw him alive on Wednesday, September 1st, at 5 a.m. when he went out of the bedroom. He had been an absentee since the previous Monday, and had been drinking heavily. He kissed the children, said "Good-bye", and went out. Her husband had lately been strange in his manner. He left the paper (produced) on which were the words "God bless my children." on the back kitchen table. The following Tuesday, an escort came for him, but he had not returned. She recognised her husband by a mark on his left leg, caused by his having been run over at one time. His boots, socks and cap (the latter having been found in another part of the canal) were just like her husband's. The photograph, taken in connection with the former inquest also resembled him. She was quite certain the body was that of her husband.
The jury recorded a verdict of "Found dead" and added that there was no evidence of the date, cause or place of his death.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jaybelnz on Thursday 04 January 18 23:03 GMT (UK)
My grandfathers nephew, Gibb McAughtrie, and many other relatives of mine, were involved in the Knockshinnoch Mining Disaster in the 1950's. (New Cumnock).  Some of them did not survive, but  Gibb was the first person to be brought to the surface during the rescue mission. Several miners died, including a number of my relatives who were involved in the drawn out rescue procedure.  One of them, Andrew Houston, lead the rescue team.  Another relative got the George medal!  Both my grandparents were born in New Cumnock, so there were a lot of my relatives from both sides whose lives were lost, or they were seriously injured.

I have a video of a film that was made about the rescue "The Brave Don't Cry", sent to me by a relative, I also have a book that was written about the Disaster, "Black Avalanche"!

https://newcumnockhistory.com/2015/09/14/knockshinnoch-the-rescued-men/
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Ayashi on Friday 05 January 18 00:25 GMT (UK)
One of my ancestors had a baby, registered it after the father's father, and then literally only a couple of days later her brother, her only sibling, was killed in a mining accident aged 18 (and was later blamed). The baby got re-registered naming him after the brother. It's the only amended birth cert I've got.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: GrahamSimons on Friday 05 January 18 00:31 GMT (UK)
My grandfathers nephew, Gibb McAughtrie, and many other relatives of mine, were involved in the Knockshinnoch Mining Disaster in the 1950's. (New Cumnock).  Some of them did not survive, but  Gibb was the first person to be brought to the surface during the rescue mission. Several miners died, including a number of my relatives who were involved in the drawn out rescue procedure.  One of them, Andrew Houston, lead the rescue team.  Another relative got the George medal!  Both my grandparents were born in New Cumnock, so there were a lot of my relatives from both sides whose lives were lost, or they were seriously injured.
My grandfather was a Procurator Fiscal and had to deal with the results of mining accidents. His bitter comment was that if you were to be killed, you should ensure you were killed in an accident with many deaths, because then there would be a big collection for your widow and the other widows.
Mining has never been safe: it's a good thing that there's less deep mining than there was.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jaybelnz on Friday 05 January 18 01:13 GMT (UK)
You're so right Graham Simons!  It's sad how many of my Scottish relatives have died or been seriously injured due to accidents while they were underground mining!  And several also dying of lung disease!   Although sometimes ugly, the opencast mines much be much safer for the miners!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Yonks Ago on Friday 05 January 18 04:35 GMT (UK)
I have a chap in my "tree" died due to a large cask falling onto his head causing a fracture of the skull: duration was 3 hours in Tayport Scotland. Poor chap what suffering he must had gone through.

Yonks
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: coombs on Friday 05 January 18 13:31 GMT (UK)
I have ancestors from County Durham and a few of them died in mining accidents. One of them was hit by a falling stone aged 15 in 1872. I went to Beamish a few years back and we did a tour of the mines. If a stone fell today, the family would drag the mining company through every court in the land.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: familydar on Friday 05 January 18 16:56 GMT (UK)
Diarrhoea.  Can't have been pleasant for the child or the family.  Age 14 months, his mother was newly pregnant with her next child.  I suspect the infant was intolerant of cow's milk.

Jane :-)
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: dowdstree on Friday 05 January 18 18:29 GMT (UK)
My grandmother had a terrible time in 1915/1916.

A brother died on 6/9/1915 aged 7 from Typhoid Fever.
On 29/11/1915 she gave birth to her second son.
Another brother died on 28/2/1916 aged 15 from Lumbar Pheumonia.
On 6/10/1916 her baby son died of Gastro Enteritis and Meningitis.

At the time of her second baby's death she was 5 months pregnant with her third son -my dad.

During these years her husband - my grandad - was serving in the Royal Navy.

I have attached the only photo of baby John.

Dorrie
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: pharmaT on Tuesday 16 January 18 05:37 GMT (UK)
I have one that says "crushed between 2 railway carriages" which I think must have been especially awful for the witnesses.

Then there's one  I find intriguing "In a well, whilst in a state of weakness".
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: fallingonabruise on Tuesday 16 January 18 10:22 GMT (UK)
I MAY have posted this link before? If not, there is plenty here to 'amuse' you ghoulish people!  :o

Gloucester Inquests from Gloucester Journal 1722-1838.

http://www.genebug.net/glsinquests.htm

Giggsy
thanks for this , was up till midnight reading it, and still only about quarter of the way through :)
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: carlineric on Tuesday 16 January 18 10:58 GMT (UK)
I have a brother and sister who, within a couple of years of each other, died in the same house after falling into a fire. They were not discovered for a few hours afterwards. On a more modern note a local shop had a problem with an unpleasant smell. The cause was soon located when the ductwork was dismantled and a body fell out. It turned out the shop had been having trouble with unexplained thefts and it turned out a pair had been targeting the shop through the ductwork. Unfortunately one night one of them had taken a wrong turn and become stuck, the other took panic and fled leaving his companion behind.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: ThrelfallYorky on Tuesday 16 January 18 14:49 GMT (UK)
fallingonabruise, that's fascinating! Wish I could find one for Lancashire areas! thank you.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Kay99 on Tuesday 16 January 18 16:11 GMT (UK)
I was helping OH with research on railway employees working in the Wimborne area of Dorset, when I came cross a newspaper article about one of the station master Chapness William Edwards.
I was always fascinated by his name and why he died in 1888 at only the age of 42 unmarried

The article - Sad Death of a Bridegroom

The mutilated body of Mr C W Edwards, the Wimborne Stationmaster, was found near Wimborne Station on Thursday.(Other reports refer to part of his head being found 26 metres away from his body)  He had been run over by a passenger train the night before.  It was more sad because the stationmaster was to be married today 

I would love to know who the poor man was to marry



Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: a-l on Tuesday 16 January 18 16:46 GMT (UK)
I MAY have posted this link before? If not, there is plenty here to 'amuse' you ghoulish people!  :o


Gloucester Inquests from Gloucester Journal 1722-1838.

http://www.genebug.net/glsinquests.htm

Giggsy
thanks for this , was up till midnight reading it, and still only about quarter of the way through :)

Thanks from me too, I'm gripped!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: fallingonabruise on Tuesday 16 January 18 20:06 GMT (UK)
fallingonabruise, that's fascinating! Wish I could find one for Lancashire areas! thank you.


 thanks to giggsycat for the original link :)
but yes it is fascinating reading,  so sad for all those children burnt to death and thrown away babies :(   tho I have spent all day terrified that I will suddenly drop dead from a vistation of god as there seemed to be an awful lot if it about !!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Treetotal on Tuesday 16 January 18 23:51 GMT (UK)
One of my OH's ancestors was crossing the road when a wagonette ran over her foot...the landlord of a nearby public house took her inside and when he removed her boot, blood poured from her ankle. He put her foot into a bucket of water and she bled to death before a doctor could be found.This was in 1905....she was 28 years old and left seven children, the youngest was only seven months old. Four of her sons later died at sea within the space of eighteen months, two of the brothers were on the same ship.
Carol
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Erato on Wednesday 17 January 18 03:49 GMT (UK)
One of mine was shot in the neck and pistol whipped to death, then buried in a shallow grave beneath an avocado tree in the back yard by a notorious serial murderess, Louise Peete.  This was Mrs. Peete's last crime and she died in the gas chamber for it in 1947.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: GrahamSimons on Saturday 20 January 18 10:15 GMT (UK)
Dorothy L Sayers involved peripherally in one:
http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/death-doctor-detective-writer/

By the way, what's a topic called Unpleasant Deaths doing on a board called The Lighter Side??
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: littlesis 76 on Saturday 20 January 18 10:49 GMT (UK)
Was reading through a newspaper from 1900 last night and came across a article about a shocking death.
Anyway a young family including the mother were travelling across the Atlantic and when the children were naughty the mother threatened them with putting them out of the port hole.
She left the children unattended and when she returned she asked where the baby was to which they replied,baby was naughty so we put her through the port hole.
Apparently the ship looked but to no avail and the passengers were most affected
How awful !!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: louisa maud on Saturday 20 January 18 17:44 GMT (UK)
Oh how awful, I would imagine everyone was much affected, terrible

Louisa Maud
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: pogo99 on Sunday 29 July 18 17:33 BST (UK)
My grandfathers nephew, Gibb McAughtrie, and many other relatives of mine, were involved in the Knockshinnoch Mining Disaster in the 1950's. (New Cumnock).  Some of them did not survive, but  Gibb was the first person to be brought to the surface during the rescue mission. Several miners died, including a number of my relatives who were involved in the drawn out rescue procedure.  One of them, Andrew Houston, lead the rescue team.  Another relative got the George medal!  Both my grandparents were born in New Cumnock, so there were a lot of my relatives from both sides whose lives were lost, or they were seriously injured.

I have a video of a film that was made about the rescue "The Brave Don't Cry", sent to me by a relative, I also have a book that was written about the Disaster, "Black Avalanche"!

https://newcumnockhistory.com/2015/09/14/knockshinnoch-the-rescued-men/
My granddad William Bickerton was one of the rescued men,looks like your relative got him out!Again i have many relatives killed in the Ayrshire coalfields,so much that my Grandad and my mum wouldn't let me go down the pit.
  My wife's great aunt died as a young teenager after her nightie caught fire as she lent over the fire to hang up her Christmas stocking :(
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Mart 'n' Al on Sunday 29 July 18 17:49 BST (UK)
My probable great great grandfather was an engineer at a chemical works and had to investigate an accident where one of the workers fell into a vat of caustic chemicals.

Martin
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: StanleysChesterton on Sunday 29 July 18 19:33 BST (UK)


I would love to know who the poor man was to marry

It was a lady called Mrs Denne, who lived at Bournemouth.
He was due to take up a new job at the station there once he'd married.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jaybelnz on Sunday 29 July 18 23:30 BST (UK)
My grandfathers nephew, Gibb McAughtrie, and many other relatives of mine, were involved in the Knockshinnoch Mining Disaster in the 1950's. (New Cumnock).  Some of them did not survive, but  Gibb was the first person to be brought to the surface during the rescue mission. Several miners died, including a number of my relatives who were involved in the drawn out rescue procedure.  One of them, Andrew Houston, lead the rescue team.  Another relative got the George medal!  Both my grandparents were born in New Cumnock, so there were a lot of my relatives from both sides whose lives were lost, or they were seriously injured.

I have a video of a film that was made about the rescue "The Brave Don't Cry", sent to me by a relative, I also have a book that was written about the Disaster, "Black Avalanche"!

https://newcumnockhistory.com/2015/09/14/knockshinnoch-the-rescued-men/
My granddad William Bickerton was one of the rescued men,looks like your relative got him out!Again i have many relatives killed in the Ayrshire coalfields,so much that my Grandad and my mum wouldn't let me go down the pit.
  My wife's great aunt died as a young teenager after her nightie caught fire as she lent over the fire to hang up her Christmas stocking :(

That's really sad about your Great Aunt Pogo!

 I must be related to just about everyone in New Cumnock, including many who rest in the Afton Road Cemetery, so it's very likely I'm related to you as well!!  ;D ;D
 
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: barryd on Monday 30 July 18 04:17 BST (UK)
1908: 3 April 1908. Thomas Benson Routledge appointed 2nd  Lieutenant  The Monmouthshire Regiment. London Gazette 25 August 1908, page 6230
1908:  Certificate of Competency of Manager of Mines given to Routledge, Thomas Benson. Certificate Number   3,263  granted 1st  25  Sep  1908
1908: Death. Newspaper article. Manager of Crumlin Pit. On Wednesday morning a young man was found dead on the banks of a canal at Newport, Mon (Monmouthshire), shot through the head and holding a revolver in his right hand. He was identified as T.B. Routledge, manager of Crumlin New Pits and son of a prominent colliery manager. He was twenty-five years of age, unmarried and had only recently obtained his first-class colliery manager's certificate. North Devon Journal Thursday 31st December 1908 (in British Newspaper Archive). There is a possibility that the revolver was purchased by Thomas for his activities in the Monmouthshire Regiment.


He was doing a lot for a 25 year old. Was he overloaded? Or was it an affair of the heart?
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Johnf04 on Monday 30 July 18 06:03 BST (UK)
A 2nd great uncle of mine was run down by a train, while walking along the track between Saltcoats and Stevenston, in Ayrshire. His widow drowned herself, a few years later. Another 2nd great uncle died in a railway shunting accident, falling from the buffers and under the train, which decapitated him.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Nanna52 on Monday 30 July 18 06:43 BST (UK)
A cousins wife died in August 1942 when they were travelling on a night train.  It was blacked out and it was believed that she mistook the outer door for the one for the toilet and fell from the train.  After she failed to return my cousin started a search for her, but her body was found on the line by an early train travelling in the other direction.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jaybelnz on Monday 30 July 18 08:29 BST (UK)
That's so sad Nanna! 😥🌺🌺
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Nanna52 on Monday 30 July 18 08:41 BST (UK)
Yes JB it was.  They lived in Hull and he was in the merchant navy.  They were going for a holiday in Cornwall, where he was born.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jaybelnz on Tuesday 07 August 18 04:13 BST (UK)
When sorting through some old papers, (a death cert)  I discovered that my Great Aunt Polly (Mary) suffered an unpleasant death in 1985, aged 90.  She had always locked herself in the bathroom when taking a bath, as she had untreated advanced breast cancer, (had refused to have treatment)  in both breasts, which was unknown to her family, except for my grandmother, (her sister - who was sworn to secrecy) and she had wanted to keep it from her hubby, my Uncle John.  She had very large breasts, and always wore a big bra, so I guess he had never seen them since she got the cancer, so didn't have a clue about it! She only had a bath when there was no-one else in the house except maybe my grandmother.

One day, while home alone and taking a bath, she forgot to lock the door, and when her husband got home and went into the bathroom, she was lying unconscious in the bath, with her bra on, the water cold, and he thought she had drowned. He called the ambulance, who took her to the hospital!   On her death certificate, the cause of death is noted as Bronchopneumonia - 3 days!  So sad!  If only she had told my uncle, their grown daughter, or allowed my Nan to tell him about the cancer earlier and get treatment for that, maybe then she wouldn't have died this way!  Very sad!  🙏🙏🌺🌺
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: groom on Tuesday 07 August 18 08:38 BST (UK)
It is sad, Jaybeinz, but perhaps at the age of 90 she’d decided that she didn’t want to go through all the trauma involved with treatment. I think if I was that age I might make the same decision.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jaybelnz on Tuesday 07 August 18 08:57 BST (UK)
I actually agree with you Jan, I'm sure that treatment would have been pretty scary at 90 years old, and also probably not as advanced as it would be these days!  I don't actually know how long she'd had it, as it was all so hush hush, but a cousin of my Mum's , who was her lawyer, (he gave me the Death Cert) told me that she had apparently had it for years! 
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Chilternbirder on Saturday 11 August 18 12:28 BST (UK)
One of my female ancestors was attended by her doctor at, a presumably difficult, childbirth. The doctor so badly botched things that he was actually prosecuted for manslaughter although aquitted.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: coombs on Saturday 11 August 18 12:45 BST (UK)
One ancestor died in November 1886 in Holborn. She had pericarditis, erysipelas and chronic bronchitis. She was 46 years old. God, I cannot imagine how much pain she was in.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jbml on Friday 04 September 20 18:39 BST (UK)
This incident had a profound effect on me and my school friends:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_British_Airways_Sikorsky_S-61_crash

The survivor Howard Goddard, mentioned in the article, had an older brother called Nick, who was in my class. He didn't survive.

I have a cousin who is a Fleet Air Arm helicopter pilot and has done several casualty evacuation tours in Afghanistan ... but there is NO WAY that you would EVER get me to fly in a helicopter!
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: YorkshireBorn on Friday 04 September 20 19:17 BST (UK)
I recently found a coroner report for the wife of a 2x great uncle. She was visiting relatives in Sheffield in 1875 but never returned home. Two days later, she was found drowned but no explanation could be given. The saddest part of it was that she was about 20 years old and had a seven month old son and a young husband  :(
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: louisa maud on Friday 04 September 20 19:26 BST (UK)
This is a very old post,  some very gruesome accidents graphically recorded.  Thank God in these days we stand a much better chance of recovery, thank goidness for the NHS

A friend of mine we discovered her gt grandmother had been murdered in her bed, she lived around  there Jack the Ripper was active,   it was thought originally he was the murderer , he wasn't, it was a neighbour and all for a silver 6d ( sixpence),

Louisa Maud
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: jim234j on Friday 04 September 20 21:30 BST (UK)
One of my ancestors who was a cowkeeper and milk seller in London died in 1875 and when I got the death cert it said the cause was fungus on the thigh.   I have been told by a few people that this was likely Anthrax.
Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Palladium on Friday 04 September 20 22:36 BST (UK)
A distant relative had a strange complaint - 'LETHARGIC ENCEPHALITIS' - there are some notes here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalitis_lethargica

Title: Re: Unpleasant Deaths
Post by: Greenvale on Saturday 05 September 20 10:53 BST (UK)
What a fascinating thread and some of the deaths were really gruesome. My own G.G.Grandfather had a nasty end.