RootsChat.Com

Further to previous posts on this topic. Firstly I must congratulate ‘noytd’ on the thoroughness of the research undertaken at the PRO Kew. I am rather perplexed at the lack of any formal reference to this fatality. A fireman’s duties involved a fair amount of clambering over the locomotive, for example in pulling coal forward from the tender, filling the water tank from lineside water columns, and altering the locomotive’s lampcode carried either at the front or rear of the locomotive depending on the direction of travel. All these duties involved working at some height above the rail level. In addition, depending on local circumstances, it was the fireman’s responsibility to couple and uncouple the locomotive from its train and where necessary at the driver’s direction he would leave the locomotive in order to notify the signalman of the train’s presence when waiting at a signal on a running line beyond the time stipulated in the rules. All these duties involved the fireman having to climb up into and out of the locomotive’s cab and were in addition to his principal duty of maintaining steam for the driver and helping him watch for line side signals. Most of the additional duties referred to were undertaken when the locomotive was stationary. But all were tinged with danger, a moment’s lack of concentration or a slip could result in death or serious injury. 
I have looked at the accident archive mentioned in a previous post and would respectfully point out that it does not include the Assistant Inspecting Officers’ reports on staff injuries mentioned in my earlier post. It only details the accidents subject to detailed Railway Inspectorate inquiries which by the early 1900s were only a very small proportion of the accidents that actually happened. By this time Railway Companies like the LNWR generally carried out an internal investigation into each accident the report of which was forwarded to the Railway Inspectorate who then decided whether the circumstances of the accident dictated an independent investigation by the Railway Inspectorate. The reports of these formal investigations generally into major collisions or derailments were published and these are the ones listed in the accident archive mentioned above.
I had assumed that the accident at Warrington was the subject of an internal investigation by the LNWR and that a report was forwarded to the Railway Inspectorate. In this case it appears that no report was forwarded by the LNWR to the Railway Inspectorate. But it is known that the death was the subject of a Coroner’s inquiry. In this event because the death occurred on a railway the Coroner was legally obliged to notify the Board of Trade of the fatality. This duty had been introduced because in the early days of railways not all fatalities were reported by the companies to the Board of Trade. The legal requirement placed on the Coroner to notify the Board of Trade of all railway fatalities was therefore introduced to act as a safeguard. The Coroners’ returns of Railway Fatalities to the Board of Trade may still survive in the PRO Kew and do not appear to have been investigated by the researcher.
The other possibility is that the fatality at Warrington was recorded in the LNWR’s Register of Accidents. Warrington was located in the Company’s Northern Division and this Register may still exist. When I visited the PRO several years ago I inspected the Accident Register kept by one of the small Railway Companies taken over by the GWR in 1922. I was required to give an undertaking that any information contained in the Register would not be published but I found the information I was searching for.
Finally I would reiterate that the online Railway Accident Archive, though useful, is certainly not a complete record and that much more information is available in the Railway Inspectorate Quarterly and Annual Reports. For example between the years 1874 & 1876 lists giving the names of all employee fatalities and latterly injuries were published. After this date presumably to reduce the physical length of the Returns only statistical information was published. Publication of this continued until the onset of the Assistant Inspecting Officers Reports in about 1900 when investigations were undertaken into employee injuries and fatalities. But it would seem that the Assistant Inspecting Officers only concentrated on certain categories of accident and the incident at Warrington did not fall into one of these. I can only suggest that the locomotive was stationary and that the fireman simply slipped and fell while climbing up into or leaving the cab and that it was just a tragic accident.

John(Helen’s husband)

Louisa Nathan/Foley of 17, Grand Parade, Brighton, Sussex, widow who died on the 8 August 1918. In her Will she states as follows:- ‘I give devise and bequeath to the Treasurer or Secretary for the time being of the Female Home Stepney Green the sum of five pounds five shillings for the general purposes of such Institution and I request that my name be placed in the usual place in the said Home as Donor thereto…….’
Can anyone with a knowledge of this part of London clarify whether the Female Home Stepney Green was part of the Stepney Union Workhouse or as I suspect a private charity offering help to women who wished to avoid the harsh regime of the Workhouse or otherwise fell outside its remit?  I would also be interested to know whether the Charity was aimed at women in general or any specific group ie. the destitute, ‘the fallen,’ or the abused (‘battered wives’ and their children).


Helen

It is not unusual to hit brick walls in ancestral research but in my case a whole generation has so far defeated us.
Two sisters can be identified in the 1851 Census and a sister and sister in law appear in the 1861 Census but prior to that I can find no trace of any of them and there is possibly a brother serving in the army who died prior to 1861.
The first of the sisters, my husband’s direct maternal ancestor, is Sarah Olivia Rogers, who also used the name Campbell, born c. 1820 (if the census is to be believed). She is listed in the 1851 Census living in Upper Albany Street, St. Pancras (near Regents Park) with her two children and a younger sister (Dorcas)Jane. Both are using the name Campbell and give their birth place as Scotland.
Judging from one or two surviving letters Sarah Olivia Rogers/Campbell was a woman of some education. She became the mistress/companion of Sir Henry Knight Storks, a prominent Army Officer and later Government official following the death of his wife in 1848. Sarah Olivia Rogers was the mother of Sir Henry’s daughter known successively as Sophia Henrietta Campbell/Rogers/Storks who was christened in London but may have been born in Milan.
Sarah died in London on 01 November 1864. In her Will she describes herself as a spinster formerly of Molesworth Street, Dublin. This is a prestigious address but a search of the Dublin Street Directories failed to disclose either a Rogers or Campbell family resident in the street during the early 1840s when family tradition suggests she may have been present. There was a ladies seminary in the street which she may have attended as a pupil or governess.
Dorcas Jane Rogers/Campbell born in about 1834 also lived at the same address in Upper Albany Street as her sister Sarah Olivia. Sadly she died of cholera in London in 1860 She is described on her death certificate as a gentlewoman. Nothing else is known about her.
An older sister Mary Ann Leyland, a widow, appears on the 1861 Census living at 314 Argyll Road, Kensington with her sister in law Elizabeth Rogers also a widow. Mary Ann gives her place of birth as Scotland.
The 1871 Census records Mary Ann Leyland living with Sarah Rogers’ married son Charles Campbell/Rogers and his young wife Rose at 62 Oxford Terrace, Paddington. Mary Ann Leyland is described as an aunt and gives her birth place as Edinburgh.
A possible candidate for Mary Ann’s husband is a Francis Alexander Leyland, a card manufacturer and bank shareholder of Halifax, Yorkshire who also had various insurance and railway company interests in the locality. Francis Leyland’s wife Susanna died in 1853 and I have been unable to trace a subsequent marriage between Francis Leyland and a Mary Ann if one ever took place. Furthermore Francis Leyland died in March 1959 but his Will makes no mention of a Mary Ann.
The Elizabeth Rogers who lived with Mary Ann Leyland at 314 Argyll Road, Kensington is described as a widow born in Meath, Ireland c. 1829. She died in London in 1901 aged 72 the death certificate describes her as the widow of ? Rogers an officer in the Army who was presumably a brother to Mary Ann, Sarah Olivia and Dorcas Jane. A search by professional researcher at the PRO Kew failed to identify any army officer named Rogers married to an Elizabeth who died prior to 1861. The possibility is that he may have been a non commissioned officer.
Any help in solving this mystery would be more than appreciated. 
   
Helen

1869 March third 6hr 55 mins PM

Helen