Violent Deaths: As taken from the headstone inscriptions and as reported in the newspapers of the time

By James O'Hanlon

Introduction

“There is nothing I desire more to be informed of, than of the death of men: that is to say, what words, what countenance, and what face they show at their death…Were I a composer of books, I would keep a register, commented of the diverse deaths, which in teaching men to die, should after teach them to live.” – Montaigne, Essays

A trawl through the Ulster Historical Foundation’s comprehensive database of graveyard inscriptions will unearth many colourful names: Nicholas de Lacherois Crommelin, Baptist Hogsett, Narcissus Batt, Pietro Nabucco, Espartero Jones, Ringham Bingham, Carberry O’Fey, Bartholomew Romanville, Patrick Coraboo. On the surface they would appear to be more at home in a Victorian melodrama than an Ulster graveyard, but delve a little deeper and you will find they lived their incident packed lives cheek by jowl with their more mundanely monikored contemporaries.

This website attempts to offer a window on the historical past by seeking out the more noteworthy, outlandish or bizarre stories gleaned from the final resting places of our forebears; and thereby encouraging everyone to value church graveyards and cemeteries as repositories of folklore and local history. Its aim is to convey the sense that every life has a story to tell, even if it is a life lived outside the spotlight of fame, notoriety or calamity.

Each graveyard inscription, be it lyrical or prosaic, gives only a brief snapshot of a life. All deaths have a

private or familial significance but some have a more public resonance. This essay deals with those benighted souls whose sudden and violent deaths were recorded by the newspapers of the time. The intention is not to awaken prurient or voyeuristic interest, rather to convey the truism that behind every graveyard inscription is a life lived to the full or as in these examples, brutally truncated.

These accounts offer an insight into the changing, and sometimes sadly unchanging, social climate of the country: the increasing industrialisation of Ulster that wrought its own havoc upon the working man and woman; the sporadic sectarianism that brutally and often haphazardly claimed new victims; the advent of the locomotive and the automobile that changed the landscape of the country, facilitated the movement of population and the increase in business, but in return extracted a heavy price in human life.

The newspapers reflected these developments with matter of fact and, occasionally, lurid or macabre descriptions of drownings, shootings and accidents.

The following stories have all been taken from contemporary accounts in The News Letter or Belfast Telegraph. They are framed in the occasionally arcane language or unusual sentence construction of the time. They flesh out the story behind individual graveyard inscriptions taken from our database. You will encounter a Portuguese sailor hanged at Carrickfergus, a man drowned attempting an heroic rescue on Christmas Eve, the death of a young man playing football, an unparalleled railway disaster, and the members of one Ulster family who fell at Waterloo, Ladysmith, Flanders and Burma.

Many more unusual stories are waiting to be uncovered from our database of graveyard inscriptions. Can you find the grave of an Ulsterman who died alongside Nelson on board the Victory at Trafalgar? Can you unravel the secret of Lufiaul Wisu, the beloved Congo boy of Rev Ross Phillips, who lies in Craigmore graveyard, County Antrim? Can you explain the enigma of Regimental Orderly, James Steen, buried in Antrim Unitarian churchyard, who served abroad for 21 years, surviving the Crimean war and the Indian campaign, only to die on the night he arrived back home in Antrim?

Why not do a spot of historical sleuthing yourself? Choose a graveyard, note down some arresting inscription, the name, date and manner of death, and check out the background in the newspaper sections at your local Library. A treasury of local history awaits you.

Drownings

“They’re all together this time, and the end is come. May the almighty God have mercy on Bartley’s soul, and on Michael’s soul, and on the souls of Seamus and Patch, and Stephen and Shawn; and may he have mercy on my soul, and on the soul of every one is left living in the world....Michael has a clean burial in the far north, by the grace of the Almighty God. Bartley will have a fine coffin out of the white boards, and a deep grave surely. What more can we want than that? No man at all can be living for ever, and we must be satisfied.”

J.M. Synge, Riders to the Sea – on an island off the West of Ireland, a mother mourns the sixth and last of her sons to be taken by the sea.

Erected by James Burns in memory of his brother Archibald Burns who was drowned 27th February 1866 aged 28 years Dear wife and parents do not repine Although I was cut off all in my prime For it was done by heaven's high decree The waters proved too strong for me Dry up your tears and do not weep My troubles ended in the deep For I have reached that happy shore.

The long coastline of Ulster has consigned many ships, sailors and passengers to a watery grave.

Many of the graveyards that lie within reach of the coast offer a sad reminder of the treacherous nature of the sea and the cold comfort it often offered those who laboured and travelled upon it. Graves with anchors or ships carved into the headstone are a commonplace sight; inscriptions detailing souls consigned to the depths a not infrequent occurrence.

The most famous of all maritime disasters, the sinking of the Titanic, had its origins in Belfast, but

locally, the worst single loss of life occurred when the Princess Victoria ferry capsized and foundered off Belfast Lough, with the loss of 133 passengers, in January 1953.

One of the dark ironies of the Princess Victoria catastrophe was the fact that all 44 survivors were male; the women and children who had sought safety in a lifeboat all perished when the waves flung their boat against the upturned hull of the ship. One of the female victims of the disaster lies in Connor graveyard and is remembered by the following inscription: In loving memory of Ann V E Jackson MBE, eldest daughter of Hugh and Jane Jackson, who lost her life as a result of the sinking of M V Princess Victoria, on 31st January 1953, and whose body was found at Whithorn Bay, Wigtownshire and interred in this family grave on 10th March 1953

The Belfast News Letter of July 16, 1912 attempted to resolve what it described as “The Belfast Lough Mystery”, concerning the disappearance of three friends who set sail in a small boat from Carrickfergus bound for Islandmagee. Their waterlogged boat was found abandoned at the entrance to the Lough, between Blackhead and Ballycormick Point. The newspaper speculated that the boat may have capsized in a squall or filled with water from the wash of a cross channel steamer. Two of the men could swim but the third was “not acquainted with the natatory art”, as the reporter somewhat pretentiously termed it. The men were Joseph Parks, a joiner aged 23; William Keyes, an ornamental plasterer aged 19; and the original object of the historical search, James McCracken, a joiner aged 30, from Landscape Terrace, Crumlin Road.

On July 17 1868 the Belfast News Letter covered another “Fatal Boat Accident In The Lough” which resulted in “A most melancholy accident…, resulting in the death of three men, and in consequences of a dangerous character to two others.” The dead included William Grant, a 35-year-old baker, who left behind a widow and three children. The inscription on William Grant’s tombstone in Clifton Street cemetery, Belfast, reads:

Erected by Agnes GRANT in memory of her father William Skillen, died Sept 17, 1845 aged 59 years Her mother Agnes Skillen died April 30, 1857 aged 62 years Her brother William died Aug 24, 1865 aged 40 years Her husband William Grant who was accidentally drowned in Belfast Lough, July 15, 1868 aged 37 years Her daughters: Elizabeth died Aug 3, 1864 aged 2 years Mary died Aug 11, 1864 in infancy, Wilhelmina Skillen, Nov 6, 1868 aged 7 months, and Agnes, June 6, 1886 aged 26 years The above named Agnes Grant died Feb 1, 1903 aged 73 years

The newspaper account of his death continued:

“This lamentable occurrence, at any time of a character to bring gloom with it, was doubly depressing, owing to the unhappy contrast in which it appeared with the animated sports of the preceding part of the evening. The approaching darkness and the strength of the breeze were the only causes that could account for the accident. We may mention that the occupants of the boat were perfectly sober.”

The newspapers of the time seemed fixated upon the alcoholic intake of drowning victims. When Roger Dewhurst, a “respectable and extensive Corn Merchant”, was drowned in the Newry Canal, the Belfast News Letter stated: “We conclude that the ill-fated gentleman (who was perfectly sober) had intended to cross the bridge; but that instead of diverging a little to the right as he ought, he had inadvertently walked forward, in a straight line, towards the canal, (the bank of which is unprovided with the slightest security to the unwary passenger) and thus fallen in.”

Roger Dewhurst is buried in St Patrick’s churchyard, Newry and his inscription reads:

Sacred to the memory of Roger Dewhurst, formerly of Preston but late of Newry, Corn Merchant, who was unfortunately [sic] drowned in the Newry canal on the night of the 29th November 1829 This stone is erected as a small tribute to his many virtues.

The Belfast News Letter of December 28, 1859 revealed the sad details behind the following inscription: in Armoy Presbyterian cemetery:

Here lieth the body of Alexander Neill, Surgeon Royal Navy Coleraine who died 22nd June 1857 aged 58 years, also the body of his son Hugh who was drowned at Coleraine 26th December 1859 aged 22 years, Alexander Neill 22nd June 1857 Hugh Neill 26th December 1859.

Melancholy Incident. – A telegram was received in Derry on Saturday, stating that a young gentleman named Neill, a solicitor’s apprentice in the town of Coleraine, was drowned when skating on the Brook Dam, in consequence of the breaking of the ice. After the above was in type, we received a communication from a correspondent in Coleraine, to the effect that Mr Neill lost his life in a praiseworthy attempt to save the lives of two young lads, named Russell and Clarke, who went down through the ice near to where he was standing at the time; and though Doctors Sharpe and Carson were prompt in their attendance, after they were taken out of the water, the three perished, all efforts to restore animation proving ineffectual. The sad occurrence has cast a gloom over the town of Coleraine.

William Bathurst, whose remains lie in Clifton Street cemetery in Belfast, fell victim to a similar fate. The inscription on his family headstone reads:

Erected by William Bathurst jun, in memory of his father Wm Bathurst, who departed this life at Consbrook, Co Down, 23rd November 1867 aged 68 years Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord Also two of his grandchildren who died in infancy.

His death was reported in the Belfast News Letter on Christmas Eve 1867 as follows:

About half-past three o’ clock yesterday afternoon a melancholy ice accident occurred at Kilroot, about two miles from Carrickfergus. It appears that two young gentlemen named Wm. Bathurst, aged about twenty-one years, son of the late William Bathurst, coachbuilder, Belfast, and William Taggart, son of the late Dr Taggart, of Carrickfergus, who were students under the Rev J. H. Bennett, Rector of Templecurran and Kilroot, and boarded in his house, went out to skate on a mill pond connected with what was formerly the Kilroot bleach green. When some distance from the bank the ice suddenly gave way and both were immersed. Some children observed the occurrence and raised an alarm, and a man named Dougal Percy, in the employment of Mr Bennett, proceeded to the place with ropes and succeeded in rescuing Taggart, who was in an exhausted condition, but poor Bathurst had disappeared. Head-Constable McDermott of Carrickfergus, having been made aware of the accident, proceeded to the pond with a number of his men, and a boat having been procured the body was grappled for and recovered, after being two hours in the water. The accident has cast quite a gloom over the neighbourhood.

Murder

Bosola: The manner of your death should much afflict you,

This cord should terrify you?

Duchess: Not a Whit:

What would it pleasure me to have my throat cut

With diamonds? Or to be smothered

With cassia? Or to be shot to death with pearls?

I know death hath ten thousand several doors

For men to take their exits

John Webster – The Duchess of Malfi

Northern Ireland has become synonymous with murder, shootings and general public disorder. The Troubles have left a dark legacy that the nascent peace process has difficulty expunging. The increased tourism still trades on the mayhem of recent times. It is de rigueur for visitors to be photographed at one of the many murals depicting our tribal grievances; a visit to the former war zones on the Falls or Shankill Roads is obligatory. However, as the following examples demonstrate, sectarian outrages have occurred regularly over the years, and the newspapers of the past carry headlines depressingly similar to their contemporary counterparts; paying eloquent testimony to our long held mutual disrespect.

Researching these newspapers can give one a bad case of deja vu. Headlines flagging up shootings, rioting and bomb attacks appear frequently. The Belfast News Letter, one of the world’s oldest newspapers, is a fascinating source of anecdotal accounts of historical events. The 1798 rebellion and the sectarian pogroms of the 1920s are brought colourfully, and agonisingly, to life.

A story from 1886 headlined “Desperate Rioting in Belfast – Firing on the people – Seven Killed” could be from 1972 so familiar is its content. The original search was for a William Matthews, who was mortally wounded in the violence, and is listed in the report as follows: “William James Matthews, aged 18, 47 Great Patrick Street, Carter, bullet wound through head (dying).”

The News Letter described the events which claimed the lives of Matthews and six other people as follows: “a scene took place last night which is unprecedented in the history even of Belfast Riots. The saying “I was under fire is often treated as a mere picturesque description. When applied to Belfast Riots it possesses a melancholy significance. As a result of last night’s work four deaths have already been recorded…the surgeons of the Royal Victoria Hospital have never had such a list of wounded since the riots of 1864.”

On January 16 1884 detailed coverage was given to the inquest into the death of 18 year old Samuel Giffin, who was bayoneted by a policeman during disturbances following an Orange Order parade in Dromore on New Year’s Day. He died on January 9 and his funeral was expected to be “the largest ever seen in the North of Ireland.”

He lies in Seagoe cemetery and his inscription reads: Sacred to the memory of Samuel James Giffin of Portadown, when while testifying his loyalty to his Queen and country at the Dromore Meeting, County Tyrone on 1st January 1884, received a bayonet wound from a policeman and of which he died on 8th January 1884 aged 18 years This tablet is erected by a few Tyrone loyalists Also his mother Ruth Giffin, who died 8th Nov 1894, aged 48 years Also his father James Giffin, who died 23rd April 1906 aged 70 years.

The account of the inquest offers a fascinating insight into the legal procedures of the time as well as the enduring nature of sectarian enmity and the conflicting views of controversial events. A witness, Robert Thompson, a farmer from Trillick, described, under questioning, the wounding of Giffin: “Did you see anything occur when the police were going across the ridge? The parties were going back towards the town, and the police were following slowly. Did you see any change of speed? One policeman went a few ridges further forward than the rest. Did you see anything taking place? I saw that policeman take his gun with a bayonet on it – they all had bayonets on – take his gun and strike or punch at a boy or man in the field. I did not know which at the time. What was the effect of that stroke? The boy fell into the furze then. Did he rise again? He made some struggles to get up, but he was not fit to get to this feet. I saw one man strive to lift him but he was not able to do so.

“The man who inflicted the wound must have used his full strength, for the weapon went through him, but that it did not come out at the other side. There is another matter – I don’t know whether I ought to mention it or not, that struck me as exceedingly strange, that there were two army medical men there, furnished with every appliance, they were never ordered to attend this unfortunate man. We had the greatest difficulty in getting him a glass of whisky. I know this much of the duties of army medical men, that when engaged in actual warfare, and that they are on the side of the victors after the battle has ended, it is their duty to attend to the enemy’s as well as their own wounded. That is the usual custom.”

Amidst the parochial slaughter, a killing with an international flavour is bound to stand out. A brutal stabbing in 1810, which led to a Portuguese sailor being hanged near Carrickfergus, became a sensation of the time. His name was Antonio de Silva, a sailor on board an American ship in Belfast harbour. He allegedly stabbed to death a ship’s carpenter called Robert Morrison, and was subsequently tried and convicted of the crime. The place of execution was a mile outside Carrickfergus, and the apparatus used for the execution consisted of three tall columns, with a cross-beam, to which the rope was attached. They were familiarly known as the Three Sisters, and stood directly on the seashore.

Public hangings were as much a spectator sport as a demonstration of justice in action, and such a large crowd attended De Silva’s execution, that it took an hour to make the short journey to the place of dispatch.

Robert Morrison is buried in Carrickfergus North cemetery and his headstone bears the following inscription: Erected by the shipwrights of --- in memory of Robert Morrison, shipwright, who was assassinated by a Portuguese sailor, 22nd of April 1810 aged 23 years Array'd in hope that fatal morn arose He knew no guilt and therefore felt no dread He little dream't that ere the evening's close He should be numbered with the silent dead Ye mourning friends suppress your cries Who like the early blessed flower he fell, If Truth and Virtue shall to Heaven arise There with his God, the youth is going to dwell.

The Belfast News Letter covered the inquest into the death of Robert Morrison, and offered, quite literally, a blow-by-blow account of his death. It was clear from the reporting that guilt had already been attributed to the Portuguese sailor.

“It appeared in evidence, that the Portuguese had a dispute with some person or persons unknown, and retiring to the ship, which lies at the Quay, had armed himself with a dagger, with which he sallied out to be revenged upon the person with whom he had previously quarrelled: with this weapon he first attacked a man of the name of Campbell, but finding this was not the man he wanted, he relinquished him, and afterwards met with the deceased in company with two other persons, at the door of a public house; one or two other Portuguese were in company, and an assault was commenced by them upon the deceased and his companions, one of whom received two or three stabs with the same weapon, and also a severe blow on the head with a stick. Just at this moment the deceased received the fatal blow, which entered a little below his left breast, and almost instantly expired. The other two Portuguese are also in custody, and were with the principal culprit, committed to Carrickfergus Jail. They have both given evidence before the Coroner against Silva who, it appears certain, was the actual murderer. It is not positively ascertained whether the deceased or any of his companions were any of the persons with whom the Portuguese had previously quarrelled, nor what was the occasion of the dispute. The verdict of the Jury was, “That the deceased came by his death in consequence of a stab he received in the left breast in a scuffle with Joseph Mores, Anthony Silva and Joaquin Ferrenadare”.

If, on occasion, foreigners visited these shores with minds set on murder, sometimes locals travelled to far flung shores to keep their appointment with their maker. A gravestone in Whitechurch graveyard, Ballywalter, was the starting point for an investigation that led to a murder of a local man in Morocco, at the hands of what the Belfast News Letter termed, “A Fanatical Mussulman.”

Gone to be with Jesus Erected by Alexander Cooper, Belfast, in loving memory of his son Alexander Cooper who died 19th January 1897 aged 17 years Also the above-named Alexander Cooper who died 11th December 1899 aged 44 years Also his son John H Cooper who died 9th Jan 1901 aged 12 years Also his son David J Cooper, missionary, who was shot in North America 17th Oct 1902 aged 29 years Also Margaret, widow of above Alexander Cooper, died 1st June 1923 Also Elizabeth, wife of Walter H Cooper, died 7th March 1961 aged 75 years Also the above Walter H Cooper, JP died 13th October 1964 aged 79 years.

The report of October 23 1902 read:

Our issue of yesterday contained the brief announcement that Mr Cooper, a Protestant missionary of British nationality had been assassinated at Fez, the capital of Morocco, by a fanatical Mussulman, who fired at him with fatal effect. It now transpires that the victim of the crime, which took place on the 17^th inst., was Mr David J Cooper, of Belfast, a young and zealous missionary, who was highly esteemed by a large circle of friends in the city, and whose untimely end will be sincerely regretted by all who knew him. The deceased was a member of the Albertbridge Congregational Church, of which the Rev. James Cregan is the pastor, and for some time he was employed in connection with the city YMCA as assistant secretary to Mr D A Black. He discharged the duties of this position with tact and skill, and was exceedingly popular with all who came into contact with him…He early showed an inclination for evangelistic work, and when he decided to enter the foreign missionary field, it was confidently anticipated by those best able to judge that he would prove a faithful and devoted labourer. Mr Cooper’s offer of service was accepted by the North Africa Mission…he was appointed to the charge of the mission station at Fez, and here he resided with his wife and two children…After the crime, the murderer sought refuge in a mosque, but he was followed and arrested, and subsequently shot by the order of the Sultan.

Railway Accidents

A momentary crash – a dense cloud, blacker than night, of suffocating vapour – an all-enwrapping, all-consuming flame of fire – and between thirty and forty human beings…all rejoicing but a minute before in life and its pleasures…were transformed into a heap of charred and indistinguishable remains.

Illustrated London News describing the Irish Mail disaster 1868

the papers day by day

Tell us how railroad screws have given way

Now bursts a boiler. O’er the embankments ridge

Rushes the hapless train; now falls a bridge;

Now sinks a viaduct; or wrapt in fire,

Or plunged in torrents, passengers expire

William Pickering, 1846

The first railway in Ireland was the Dublin and Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) line built in 1830. The network soon spread, facilitating the considerable traffic in seasonal harvest-time labour to England, and emigration after the Great Famine of 1846-7.

In London and the larger cities, the spread of the railway network seemed to offer a solution to the increasing problem of hygienically disposing of the dead, a concern brought to the forefront by the cholera outbreak of 1848-9. Plans were drawn up to construct cemeteries well away from built-up urban areas, served by railways that could transport the dead bodies and the mourners. The first such cemetery was opened on November 7 1854 and a daily train service was maintained until 1900.

Unfortunately, from the outset, trains were to make their own contribution to the cemetery population. William Huskisson, President of the Board of Trade, was killed at the inauguration of the Liverpool and Manchester line in 1815, and, henceforward, untold accidents would claim many lives.

The Armagh railway disaster of 1889

The terrible accident at Armagh in 1889, which was occasioned by a runaway train fitted with no continuous brakes, led to a radical overhaul of railway safety, culminating in a Regulation Act of 1889 that required every train carrying passengers to be fitted with a standardised braking system. All railway companies were compelled to adopt the interlocking of points and signals; as a result accidents fell dramatically.

In Tassagh graveyard the following inscription records the death of one of the disaster’s victims:

Erected by Richard and Mary Crozier in loving memory of their children: William M, who died 3rd December 1862 aged 8 years, Samuel who died 4th January 1866 aged 4 years Also their dearly beloved son William, killed in the Railway disaster 18th June 1889 aged 24 years.

A contemporary ballad by an unknown bard described the accident:

Twas on the twelfth day of June, in the year of eighty-nine,

The Sunday school excursion train set out on the southern line.

From Armagh town to Warrenpoint, nine hundred souls tool train,

But seventy-six brave Ulster folk would ne’er return again.

The Times of 13 June 1889 made the tragedy the subject of its editorial: The excursion season has opened with one of the most appalling disasters which have ever happened in the United Kingdom. An excursion train left Armagh yesterday morning crowded with school children. As it steamed up a steep incline, at a distance of two miles from the city, the couplings in the middle of the train parted. The rear half ran back down the incline, accumulating speed as it went, and dashed into the ordinary passenger train which was following the excursion at a short interval. The effect of the collision was to kill some sixty or seventy, or possibly even eighty, people.

The Belfast News Letter commented: …the most appalling catastrophe of the kind which has ever taken place in the north of Ireland. It has plunged a city into profound mourning for the appearance of some quarters of Armagh last night suggested the visitation of remote antiquity of which it is recorded that ‘there was not a house in which there was not one dead’. In the neighbourhood of those public buildings which have been used as temporary morgues and surgeries, the scene last night resembles such as one can imagine occurring when some form of deadly pestilence has been raging unchecked and has converted a prosperous city into a charnel house. As the ghastly burdens were borne along the road during the afternoon and evening the gloom that was overhanging the city became greater.

The following inscription in Carrickfergus North cemetery was the springboard for a search that revealed a local man’s death on the continent:

January 1876, aged 63 years, their son Andrew born 19th January 1811, killed in railway accident, 9th march 1907, also his wife Elizabeth born 10th July 1937, died 16th of April 1900, their son James who died 16th February 1914, aged 69 years, Thomas Johnston 16th January 1876-77, no will, Elizabeth Johnston 16/04/1900)

On the 11th March 1901 the Belfast News Letter reported that a Carrickfergus man, Andrew Johnston, was killed in a railway collision near Courtrai, Belgium:

Yesterday a telegram was received in Carrickfergus to the effect that Mr Andrew Johnston, principal flax buyer on the Continent for Messrs James Taylor & Sons limited, Carrickfergus, had been fatally injured in a railway accident near Courtrai in Belgium. The news caused much sorrow, the deceased gentleman being well known and universally esteemed. His son left Carrickfergus yesterday for Belgium. At this time of thee accident the train was proceeding from Bruges to Courtrai.

In St John’s cemetery Donegore, close to the hill from where Henry Joy McCracken marshalled the Antrim United Irishmen prior to their fateful engagement at Antrim town, is found the following inscription:

Erected by James Nutt, in affectionate remembrance of his son Thomas Nutt, who met with an accident on September 22nd 1880, and died September 25th 1880, aged 30 years, also of his beloved wife Margaret Beck, who died March 25th 1881, aged 60 years, also the above James Nutt, who died December 9th 1890, aged 73 years, also their sons, Robert Beck Nutt, died 12th August 1914, and James Nutt, died 23rd July 1918, also Mary Jane Kinkead, the beloved wife of Robert Nutt, died 2nd December 1919, Not lost but gone before, Nutt, [Small Sandstone Plaque] In memory of James Nutt, accidentally killed G N R, 10th June 1919.

On June 12 1919 the Belfast News Letter reported the results of an inquest into the death of James Nutt of 54 Rockview Street, Belfast:

The evidence of James (sic) Nutt, brother of the deceased, showed that the latter often went for long walks. It is supposed that on Tuesday he went off in the direction of Dunmurry and, with the object of taking a short cut, crossed the railway lines about two hundred yards on the city side of the Finaghy Halt. The engine driver of the train that left Antrim at 5.30 pm on Tuesday for Belfast stated that when the train was approaching this spot he saw Nutt crossing the lines. He at once applied the brakes, but the train passed over his body. Witness did all he could to avoid an accident, and was of the opinion that if the man had not halted he would have been able to cross the line safely…Dr S. Hunter of Dunmurry, said deceased’s skull had been fractured, while the left arm had been amputated and both legs broken. Mr Young expressed the regret of the Railway Company at the accident and emphasised that they were not to blame. Deceased had no right to the crossing. A verdict of accidental death was returned.

Flying Accidents

I know that I shall meet my fate

Somewhere among the clouds above

W.B.Yeats

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death

Ulster has carved its own niche in the history of aviation. Amelia Earhardt completed her solo Atlantic crossing when she touched down on the old racecourse in Londonderry. Lilian Bland from Carnmoney was another redoubtable female pioneer who flew into immortality when her bi-plane the ‘MayFly’ took wing at Randalstown. Shorts have dispatched Sky Vans and other notable aircraft to the four corners of the earth. But for every triumph there is the occasional counterbalancing tragedy.

The Belfast Telegraph of July 22 1930 provided widespread coverage of a plane crash that wiped out some of the leading lights of Ulster society. The Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, the Speaker of the Ulster Senate, was killed when a Junkers monoplane, making a regular taxi service between Berck-sur-Mer and Croydon crashed near Gravesend, in Kent.

The death of the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, the Speaker of the Ulster Senate, who was one of the victims of the air disaster in Kent yesterday, has occasioned much sorrow, and there is poignant grief in many circles.

The Marquis, who had been spending the week-end at Le Touquet, was returning to England in a large junkers monoplane when the machine crashed as it was passing over Meopham Green, near Gravesend, in Kent, resulting in the lives of six lives…

The family name of the Dufferins is Blackwood and a search on the Ulster Historical Foundation database reveals a fascinating account of lives dedicated to the service of the Crown, many of which ended violently on a foreign field. The ancestral home of the Dufferins is Clandeboye House, Co.Down, and many of the descendants, including the above mentioned Marquis, are interred in the family vault there.

The Dufferins appear to have had an uncanny knack of perishing during some of the most noteworthy battles in military history: Robert Temple Blackwood died at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18 1815; Archibald Earl of Ava fell mortally wounded at the siege of Ladysmith in 1900, during the Boer War; Basil Temple-Blackwood was killed in action at Flanders on July 4 1917; Basil, the 4^th Marquess, was killed near Fort Dufferin, Mandalay in March 1925, aged 35, while “liberating Burma, the country which his Grandfather annexed to the British Crown.”

General Accidents

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF

CAPTAIN JOHN WEDGWOOD

ACCIDENTALLY SHOT BY HIS GAMEKEEPER

WHILST OUT SHOOTING

“WELL DONE THOU GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT”

The epitaph of one obscure Wedgwood:

Barbara and Hensleigh Wedgwood,

The Wedgwood Circle 1730 – 1897

Industrial accidents claimed many lives. The News Letter of Friday 14^th to Tuesday 18^th 1786 reported an early example, and, in an era without the equivalent of our Health and Safety Executive, was not afraid to offer some sage advice regarding good practice in the workplace: On Friday morning last, the mill-stone of the corn mill of Ardmillan broke in the course of work, and one of the splinters unfortunately struck John Barry, of Ringneel, with such force, that he died on the spot. He was singing clerk of the Presbyterian congregation of Killinchy, and Sergeant of the 1^st United Killinchy Company. His corpse was interred with the usual military honours. He lived beloved and died lamented. – The above-mentioned shows the necessity of having the running stone of every mill well secured with an iron band of the strongest kind.

John Barry’s inscription reads: Here lieth the body of John Barry, late of Ringneal, who departed this life April ye 14th 1786 aged 36 years Also his son John Barry of Belfast who died 27th Sept 1826 aged 41 years And 3 of his children who died young Also his daughter Anna who died 13th Dec 1851 aged 31 years.

Belfast’s shipbuilding sector, the fulcrum of that city’s rapid industrial progress, took a heavy toll in lives over the years. The News Letter of Thursday July 1^st 1909 reported that: A sad accident resulting in the death of a man named Robert Lundie, who resides at Carrickfergus, occurred in Messrs Workman, Clark & Co’s Ltd, North Yard yesterday. It appears that Lundie, who was employed as a shipwright, was engaged at his work, when he fell a considerable distance, and alighted on his head. He was picked up in an unconscious condition, and removed with all possible haste to the Royal Victoria Hospital, but on arrival at the institution life was found to be extinct. The matter has been reported to the City Coroner (Dr James Graham), who will hold an inquest, possibly today.

The dangers facing the working man were not confined to the mill or factory. Even the recreational environment offered pitfalls to trap the unwary. In Trory Cemetery, Co Fermanagh, an inscription can be found relating to a young man who died aged 17 while playing football:

Erected by W C Davies of Enniskillen, In Loving Memory of His Sons William Charles Died 25th Feb 1908 Aged 4 years Albert Elliott Died 14th Jan 1911 Aged 1 year Geoffrey Austin, Killed at football l9th July 1929 Aged 17 years "Of Such is the Kingdom of God" MARK X 14.

The story of his death is told in The Belfast Telegraph of Saturday July 20 1929:

A very regrettable football fatality occurred in Enniskillen, on Friday evening, about 9.45, the victim being Geoffrey Davies, aged 17, of Gaol Square, Enniskillen, death occurring in a few minutes of his having collided with an opposing player.

Deceased was playing for the Caxtonians against the Builders in the local Trades Football Competition, when he, a goalkeeper, in trying to save the imposition of a corner kick, ran from the posts and came violently into contact with Jack Armstrong, one of the Builders’ forwards.

It was at once seen his injuries were of a serious nature and medical aid was summoned, three doctors responding within a short space of time. The youth, however, was beyond all human aid, death occurring within ten or fifteen minutes of the accident.

When the collision occurred there was only a few minutes play to go, and the score was then one goal each.

Deceased, who was an apprentice in the office of the “Fermanagh Times”, was a youth of outstanding ability, of fine athletic build, and was exceedingly popular with all who knew him.

However, all classes were susceptible to the fickle finger of fate, as the demise of a scion of one of Ulster’s most noteworthy families demonstrates. The vault of the noted Huguenot family, the Delacherois, commemorates lives of service and achievement:

This vault was enlarged by Daniel Delacherois, Esqr JP, of the Manor House, Donaghadee, AD 1868 Within rest the remains of Mary CROMMELIN, born -------died ----- unm aged 80 Daniel Delacherois Esq, JP, born 23 June 1735, died 15March 1790 Marcy Delacherois, his wife, born ------- 17--, born -------, died 9 Nov 1844 aged --- Daniel Delacherois, MA TCD, DL, JP, born 10th July 1825, died 8th April 1905 Daniel Delacherois, Esq, JP, DL, born 1 Dec 1783, died 1 Oct 1850, unmd Mary Delacherois, his sister, born 11 April 1790, died 10 March 1854, unmd Ellen, daughter of Geo LESLIE, Esq & wife of Daniel Delacherois, Esq, AM, DL, JP, born 7th Oct 1827, she died 4th Dec 1891 Edmund Bourjonval Delacherois, Esq MD, TCD, of Brighton, second son of Daniel Delacherois, Esq, MA, TCD, DL, JP, born 20th January 1861, married 7th January 1893 and died sp 1st June 1901 at Sandford near Bristol, from a carriage accident, aged 40 [The blank spaces were never filled in] In memory of the members of the family of Daniel Delacherois, Esq, DL, JP, who lie buried in the Manor House Vault under the west aisle of this church Daniel Louis De La Cherois, Col 3 Bat RI Rifles, formerly Lieut 4 Q0 Hussars, eldest son of D De La Cherois DL, born 7 June 1855, died 26 Nov 1909 Elizabeth Mary Angelica De La Cherois, eldest daughter of D De La Cherois, DL, born 3 Feb 1857, died 29 March 1910 Helen Vaughan HAMILTON, wife of Edwin, MA, daughter of Daniel De La Cherois, DL, born 2 Dec 1859, died Nov 6 1911 Catherine Charlotte De Lacherois, daughter of J McCance BLIZARD and dearly loved wife of Geo L De Lacherois, born 4 Aug 1888, died 17 May 1922 Charles Hutcheson De Lacherois, 4th son of Daniel De Lacherois DL, born 18th Dec 1867, died 28th Sept 1933, George Leslie De Lacherois, DL, JP, 3rd son of Daniel De Lacherois, DL, born 31st Oct 1865, died 12th May 1948 In memory of the members of the family of Daniel Delacherois, Esq, DL, JP, who lie buried in the Manor House vault under the west aisle of this church Edmund Normal LESLIE dearly loved husband of Mary De Lacherois, born 7th August 1859, died 16th July 1930 Mary Louise, third daughter of Daniel De Lacherois born 13th Feb 1863, devoted wife of E N Leslie, died 16th June 1949.

Edmund Bourjanval Delacherois’ death is reported as follows in the Belfast News Letter of Monday, June 3, 1901:

Much regret is felt in Donaghadee and neighbourhood at the sad intelligence of the lamented death of young Dr Delacherois, second son of Mr Daniel Delacherois, D.L., County Down, who died on the 1^st inst., from injuries received from being thrown from a trap while driving with his brother, whom he was visiting, at Sandford, Somerset, England. He had a promising career ahead of him in the medical profession, into which he carried all the gentleness and sympathy that distinguished him in private life.

From St Columb's Cathedral, Londonderry to Pere Lachaise cemetery, Paris,

by way of marauding United Irishmen, a Gothic pot boiler, and Oscar Wilde. How a commemorative tablet in a Derry City Cathedral unravelled a serpentine tale, from 1797 to 1900

The following case offers a very good example of how a simple inscription can uncover a network of interweaving stories. In St Columb’s Cathedral in Londonderry there is a memorial tablet that commemorates the life of the Reverend William Hamilton. He was a noted local naturalist, whose work A Guide to the Causeway was highly thought of. However, it was his involvement in the political turmoil of the time, and the grisly nature of his death, that led to his posthumous fame.

The inscribed tablet reads:“The tomb of John Hamilton of this City of merchants, who died on the 9^th August, 1780, aged 55 years. Likewise of his son, the Rev William Hamilton, D.D. Late Rector of Clondavadoch, in the County of Donegal, formerly fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. The cause of religion has to lament the loss of one of its ablest advocates; virtue one of its best supporters, and learning one of its brightest ornaments. He was assassinated at the house of Dr Waller, at Sharon, on the 2^nd March, 1797, where he fell victim to the brutal fury of an armed banditti in the 40^th year of his age. His acquirements as a scholar, equally solid and refined, are duly appreciated in the world of letters; whilst the sacred remembrance of his virtues is enshrined in the hearts of all who knew him”.

Hamilton was targeted for death while on duty in his capacity as Local Magistrate in County Donegal. Ulster in 1797, like much of Ireland, was in ferment. Insurrection was being planned. Supported by a troop of Manx Invincibles, he detained a number of Republican leaders in January 1797. In revenge 800 United Irishmen laid siege to Rev Hamilton’s Glebe House in an attempt to force the release of their detained comrades. The attempt failed when reinforcements arrived from Letterkenny. A number of weeks later, Hamilton was assassinated in a brutal and shocking manner. His successor as Rector, the Rev Henry Maturin, was the cousin of the Rev Charles Robert Maturin, a noted novelist. Maturin would later incorporate the details of Hamilton’s murder into his famous Gothic horror novel, Melmoth the Wanderer.

Excerpt from Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles Robert Maturin (1780-1824) Oxford University Press 1968 Vol 3, Chapter XII, pages 255–6

Relating to the murder of Rev William Hamilton in 1797

“Amid yells like those of a thousand tigers, the victim was seized and dragged forth, grasping in both hands fragments of the robes of those he had clung to in vain, and holding them up in the impotence of despair.

The cry was hushed for a moment, as they felt him in their talons, and gazed on him with thirsty eyes. Then it was renewed, and the work of the blood began. They dashed him to the earth – tore him up again – flung him into the air – tossed him from hand to hand, as a bull gores a howling mastiff with horns right and left

Bloody, defaced, blackened with earth, and battered with stones, he struggled and roared among them, till a loud cry announced the hope of a termination to a scene alike horrible to humanity, and disgraceful to civilization. The military, strongly reinforced, came galloping on, and all the ecclesiastics, with torn habits, and broken crucifixes, following fast in the rear, - all eager in the cause of human nature – all on fire to prevent this base and barbarous disgrace to the name of Christianity and of human nature.

‘Alas! This interference only hastened the horrible catastrophe. There was but a shorter space for the multitude to work their furious will. I saw, I felt, but I cannot describe, the last moments of this horrible scene. Dragged from the mud and stones, they dashed a mangled lump of flesh right against the door of the house where I was. With his tongue hanging from his lacerated mouth, like that of a baited bull; with, one eye torn from the socket, and dangling on his bloody cheek; with a fracture in every limb, and a wound for every pore, he still howled for life – life – life – mercy!’ till a stone, aimed by some pitying hand, struck him down. He fell, trodden in one moment into sanguine and discoloured mud by a thousand feet. The cavalry came on, charging with fury. The crowd, saturated with cruelty and blood, gave way in grim silence. But they had not left a joint of his little finger – a hair of his head – a slip of his skin. Had Spain mortgaged all her reliques from Madrid to Montserrat, from the Pyrenees to Gibraltar, she could not have recovered the paring of a nail to canonize. The officer who headed the troop dashed his horse’s hoofs into a bloody formless mass, and demanded, ‘ Where was the victim?’ He was answered, ‘ Beneath your horse’s feet*;’ and they departed*’

Author’s Note –This circumstance occurred in Ireland in 1797, after the murder of the unfortunate Dr Hamilton. The officer was answered, on inquiring what was that heap of mud at his horse’s feet, - ‘the man you came for.’

The novel, brimful of bizarre, satanic events became a huge success, and is still in print today, critically acclaimed as one of the greatest of the Gothic novels. It detailed the unavailing efforts of one Sebastian Melmoth to renege on a pact he had made with the Devil. It contained references to the legend of the Wandering Jew, and was clearly influenced by the deep suspicion members of the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland had for their disenfranchised and discontented Catholic neighbours. Doubtless, the fate that befell Rev Hamilton, brought home to Maturin the insecurity of his own position, as a member of a ruling minority surrounded by a disaffected majority. As a Church of Ireland Minister, Maturin had a deep antipathy towards Rome, and his narrative details all manner of indignities suffered in continental convents and cloisters, at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition or those feared shock troops of the Counter Reformation, the Jesuits.

The novel galvanised a generation of readers, and so affected the great French novelist, Honore de Balzac, that he was inspired to write a sequel, Melmoth Reconciled. Oscar Wilde, released from prison and embarking for Paris, used the name of Sebastian Melmoth as a pseudonym to evade the prurient interest of the press. A distant relative of Maturin, he clearly identified his own travails with those of Maturin’s anti-hero. Wilde died in Paris in 1900 and now lies buried under an elaborate Jacob Epstein carving in Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

It is sobering to think that readers who take such vicarious pleasure in the gruesome details of the fictitious slaying described above, are in fact reading an account of a real murder. Truth can indeed be stranger than fiction.

Case Studies