Unpleasant Deaths

[DavidG02]

Death can be fatal!

Skoosh.

Its life changing

[jbml]

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.

[Genegirl]

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.

[a-l]

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.

[Braindead]

The Lincolnshire Chronicle of the 24th April 1903:

[andrewalston]

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.

[Jebber]

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.

[Jomot]

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 

[Jebber]

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 😁😁😁😁