Killed At Work

[Del 80]

Hello, I have a death certificate for Andrew Calvert, which gives cause of death as, compound fracture of frontal bone, with injury to eye, there is a note in the RCE, which states that he was struck by a barrel, whilst unloading cargo from a ship, this is from the office of the Procurator Fiscal. Do any records exist of deaths at work from the early 1900s, or are there any records of Procurator Fiscal inquiries for the period ? Andrew was a dock labourer at Ardrossan and was 33 years old when killed, any help appreciated , Regards Del.

[momat]

Hi Del,
Try this site http://www.threetowners.com/

Ardrossan Shipyards. Struggle for Survival 1825-1983 by Catriona Levy & Ardrossan
Local History Workshop.
Author John Steele who lives locally has published three books relating to the town's maritime tragedies.
top

[Montrose Budie]

Hello, I have a death certificate for Andrew Calvert, which gives cause of death as, compound fracture of frontal bone, with injury to eye, there is a note in the RCE, which states that he was struck by a barrel, whilst unloading cargo from a ship, this is from the office of the Procurator Fiscal. Do any records exist of deaths at work from the early 1900s, or are there any records of Procurator Fiscal inquiries for the period ? Andrew was a dock labourer at Ardrossan and was 33 years old when killed, any help appreciated , Regards Del.

See http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/FAI.asp#records.

I'm near certain that Ardrossan would have been covered by Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, so if there was an FAI, then you may be in luck in terms of there being a surviving FAI record.

The all important sentence to determine if there was an FAI is "If a Fatal Accident Inquiry has taken place this is usually indicated by reference to a jury in the RCE."

Note, however, that it is very unlikely that the record of any investigation just by the PF has survived.

mb

[Currie]

Hello Del,

If you’re lucky there will be something useful in a newspaper. The closer to home or to the accident the newspaper is located the more detail there is likely to be. I had a look at the Scotsman but nothing jumped out of the search.

The only other Scottish newspaper online for the first half of the 20thC is the Glasgow Herald at Google News Archive. The search facility is usually pretty useless but you can browse if you know a date to go to. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=G ... de=2&hl=en

If you post the exact date of death and of the RCE I’ll have a look there if you wish.

All the best,
Alan

[Del 80]

Hello, and thanks to all who replied, Alan, the death cert. was written on the 22nd of january 1903, and this is confirmed by the RCE. It says on the RCE, injuries received by his being struck by a barrel which accidentally slipped during discharge of cargo, as per verdict of jury.It is stamped Procurator Fiscal's Office, and written underneath is Kilmarnock 24th Febuary 1903, and is signed by the Procurator Fiscal. Underneath is written, 1903 March 5th at Glasgow, and signed by the Registrar. Regards Del.

[Currie]

Hello Del,

Here’s the newspaper, The Glasgow Herald, January 23, 1903. You’ll see that the images are reasonable in parts and impossible in others. Yours is only just readable and is at the bottom of first column on page 7. Just drag to the page and zoom right in. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=G ... page&hl=en

This is what I think it says:

FATAL RESULT OF AN ACCIDENT.—Andrew Calvert, of Ardrossan, died in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow, yesterday as a result of the accident which occurred to him at Ardrossan harbour on New Years Day. He was assisting in discharging some barrels from the steamer Magpie, and when the barrels were being swung from the vessel by a crane one of them accidentally fell back into the hold, striking Calvert, and inflicting a wound above the eye. He subsequently went to the Eye Infirmary, and from there was removed to the Western for operation. Inflammation of the brain, unfortunately, set in this week, and caused his death. He leaves a widow and family.

From what’s on the RCE it looks like there was an FAI although there’s no sign of that in the NAS catalogue. I had a look in the Herald a couple of days around 24 February but didn’t see anything. It seems probable that the only FAIs that got any press coverage would have been the interesting ones as the accident would have been reported at the time it occurred.

Hope that helps,
Alan

[Del 80]

Thanks Alan, that is just what I was looking for, It gives a small but sad insight to life back then, Andrew was 33, married with 5 young children, he was my other half's Great Grandfather. Thanks again, Regards Del.

[Montrose Budie]

Hello, and thanks to all who replied, Alan, the death cert. was written on the 22nd of january 1903, and this is confirmed by the RCE. It says on the RCE, injuries received by his being struck by a barrel which accidentally slipped during discharge of cargo, as per verdict of jury.It is stamped Procurator Fiscal's Office, and written underneath is Kilmarnock 24th Febuary 1903, and is signed by the Procurator Fiscal. Underneath is written, 1903 March 5th at Glasgow, and signed by the Registrar. Regards Del.

.


The critical words here, of course, are "as per verdict of jury. In other words there was an FAI.

Surviving Kilmarnock Sherrif Court records, however, series SC7/19, don't start until 1907 so there's no point in persuing that route.

In any case, it's likely that the press report will contain more info than any FAI record which had survived. Very often, the court records of Scottish court processes only record the reason for the process, any accused (the panel), the jury, sometimes names of witnesses, the presiding judge, and the verdict but not a full report of all the evidence; this is where newspaper reports are very valuable. If there are associated precognitions (evidence statements) from prior to the actual day in court in existence then these can be very informative.

mb

[Del 80]

Thanks M.B., I think that is probably all we are going to find out about the incident, and I am very pleased with that,.....now if only I could find out what happened to Samuel Clarke......Regards, Del.