The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-14 00:00:00

DONATION FROM THE QUEEN.

The following letter was received on Tuesday morn-
ing at the Mansion House :

"Buckingham Palace, September 10, 1878.

"General Sir T. W. Biddulph is commanded to forward to
the treasurer the enclosed cheque for ICO guineas, as a con-
tribution from her Majesty the Queen to the fund for the
sufferers by the loss of the Princess Alice."

Among the other contributions received on Tuesday were
—from sir Richard Wallace, £100; the Rev. E. It. Joddrell,
£100; the Duke of Leeds, £25; and from the officers and men
of the Ist Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, stationed at Wool-
wich, £6O. The amount received at the Mansion House down
to Tuesday was near upon £5,000.—A contribution of 100
guineas to the fund will be recommended at the next
Quarterly Court of the Incorporated Society of Licensed Vic-
tuallers.

Mr. Carttar, in opening the proceedings at the
adjourned inquest on Tuesday, strongly urged upon
the public the desirability of all who had been saved
sending in their names and addresses to the coroner,
with a view of ascertaining the real number on board.
Identification of bodies was then proceeded with.
Amongst the bodies identified was that of Charlotte Sophia
Nares, aged 25, wife of George Nares, son of the Arctic
explorer, residing at 12, thaude-villas, East Dulwich. She
was identified by Thomas Thomas, surgeon, of East Dulwich.
The husband, a tall, powerful young man, one of the saved,
endeavoured to give evidence also, but his emotion com-
pletely overcame him, and he had to be carried out of the
court. A gentleman stated that the whole of the jewelry on
the body of the deceased was missing, and a packet of things
left which did not belong to her. Several members of the
Jury suggested that, possibly, the packet of jewelry belong-
ing to Mrs. Nares had been accidentally transferred to
another body. The Coroner directed an inquiry to be made
in the matter

One of the cases was that of an entire family being swept
away except the father. Annie Wool, aged 42, wife of
Edmund Wool, of the "Granby Arms," Hampstead (mother);
Annie Bird Wool, aged 14; Lyda Mary Wool, aged 13;
Minnie Sarah Wool, aged ii; Emily Rose Wool, aged 5;
Kate Wiunifred Wool, aged 16 months (daughters) ; and
Annie Grlstwood, aged 37, a Eervant. Identified by henry
Robert Spencer, cab proprietor, Hampstead. Another ser-
vant is still missing. The father, who is now left alone, was
not on board the steamer. The bodies of Emily Rose Wool
and Annie Gristwood had been buried as unknown, but wit-
ness was enabled to identify them by their clothing.

Identification by means of the clothes and trinkets has
been made each day. On Tuesday Harriet Wayman, of 2
Brewery-road, Caledonian-road, who was buried on Friday
a girl of i,3, in service, was thus recognized by her brother,
who had also lost another sister, Drinsillo. Wayman, aged
16. The searching shed to which those in quest of the
articles of wearing apparel most lately discovered
made their way was a busy scene. Hither •in the
course of Tuesday came a blind man to recognize by the
touch, or to claim by oral description, the property of his
missing wife. Another body identified at the last moment
by the dress, after the corpse itself had been placed in the
ambulance to be buried among the unidentified dead, was
that of Ann Gristwood, barmaid at the Granby Arms,
Hampstead_ She had gone out for a day's pleasure with
Mrs. A. Wool, the landlady, five children, and a nursemaid.
Every one of the party was lost. Miss Elizabeth Gristwood,
her niece, first identified the remains.

A list of the property found on the wreck has been taken
by the Thames Police, and it will be handed over to the
Superintendent of the London Steamboat Company to be
placed with other property recovered from the wreck.
Besides the steward's money bag and the three finger rings,
two purses with money and two reticuleS were found In the
wreck of the after part. What is left of her by the relic-
hunters will be sold by the Thames Conservancy to defray the
expenses of raising her. At four o'clock on Tuesday morning
two young men searched in the thick mud which had col-
lected in the cabin. The first body found was that of a man
who had been washed by the water into the ladies' cabin.
.Next came the body of a woman which the searchers dis-
covered under a broken table. Another woman was below the
cabin oilcloth, which had risen up and covered her. The
bodies were sent with others found by hoa.ts to Woolvrlch
Dockyard. One of those sent inwas recognized as the body
of Mrs Elizabeth Bird, of 104, Huntley-street, Tottenham-
court-road, whose husband's interesting narrative of the
collision has been published.

Down to Tuesday evening the Mansion-house Fund
amounted in the aggregate to £6,600, of which £5,000 was
paid in during the aay. In the box outside the Lord Mayor's
residence the sum of £162 9e 2d., in notes, gold, silver, and
copper, was deposited in the course of business hours, being
the largest sum ever collected in that particular way. A
number of donations were also announced. Major Schreiber, of
D Battery, Ist Brigade, Roy al Artillery, states that it is the
custom for officers and men to give one day's pay In each
year to some charitable purpose, and sent £lO 10s. as a first
instalment of the amount thus collected. Mr. W. Wrench
Towse, the Superintendent of the London Steamboat Com-
pany, who lost his wife, four children, and mother-in-law in
the disaster, sent £5 55., with other sums from his rela-
tives, and expresses a hope that the fund will enable a good
provision to be made for the widows and orphans who have
lost the support of their bread-winners.

Mr. George Hayes, of Lillingtomatreet, Pimlico, writes to
mention the circumstances in which three young people
became survivors from the wreck. Mr. Thorpe, aged 17, his
brother, aged 9, and his sister, aged 18, resident in the Old
Kent-road,lwere in the boat at the time of the disaster. The
two brothers, having learnt swimming, kept themselves
afloat till picked up by a boat, while their sister, who had
also been taught, courageously swam to the opposite bank.
Mr. Hayes hence urges the importance of swimming to girls
as well as youths, and says that British mothers ought to
overcome the general prejadice among them against their
daughters learning to swim.

The following touching letter is from a little boy, who
states that it is "the first he has written," saved from the
wreck ;—" I, John A. Everist, aged ten years, wish to state
that I am well and with my aunt. I was picked up by a boat-
man, and was taken to the Yacht Tavern, Erich, where I was
fetched by my aunt. My brother George. aged eight years, is
saved, and is with an aunt at Stratford. But where is my
poor father, Mr. Robert Everist, of 3, Croydon-road, Barking-
road, and my poor mother, Mrs. R. Everist, my eldest
brother, Robert, aged twelve years, and Willie, aged four
years, and baby Alice, aged two years? lam thankful lam
saved, and for the kindness I received at the Yacht Tavern,
Erith.—JOHN A. EVERIST, 49, Fort-road, Bermondsey, S.E.

Mr. W. H. Hughes, of 126, Aldersgate-street, writes :
"Having recovered from the indisposition caused by the
lamentable calamity on the Thames on Tuesday, the 3rd
inst., when I was providentially rescued from an untimely
end, I thought it might be interesting, especially to
those who had friends and relatives on board, to state
what I saw of the accident and its results. I was
at the extreme stern of the vessel, having just
left my friend Pillevant in the saloon, when all
at once I felt a slight shock, and instantly afterwards a
severe crash, which shook our boat violently, knocking off
my hat, but on the moment I could not realise our awful posi-
tion; I held on by the ironwork (I think that which holds the
flag at the stern or else supports the awning), and was
about to jump into the water as I saw the portion of
our boat in front of me appeared to be going down, and
the stern was rising so high out of the water that I
thought I could scarcely jump far enough to clear what
appeared to me to be the rudder. The huge dark hull of the
By well Castle I distinctly saw, as it were, embedded in the
side of our comparatively small craft, ario I cannot but think
that, had she pressed forward instead of receding, it would
have tended to have prevented the inflow of water so
rapidly, and also acted as a support to the side of our Vessel,
the same as a keystone to an arch, and at the same time
efte.red greater facility of rescue from the bows of the
By well Castle. This, of course, is an afterthought, for I had
scarcely made up my mind to jump when the boat was almost
entirely submerged, and I found myself stiß standing in the
stern with one man with me, who had his coat off, and hold-
ing a wooden form in his arms, with which we were both
preparing to jump off, but in doing so my coat caught in the
ironwork and I lost him and the form. I tore away my coat,
and itt the same time the boat appeared to sink under me. lam
unable to swim, and I can scarcely remember exactly how
many times I came to the surface, but the last time I did so
a piece of woodwork, apparently a shutter or door, floated
close by me, which I clutched at, and a young tidy, whom
I afterwards found to be Miss Towse, and also her brother,
came close by me, and struggled in a mariner that I can
scarcely describe towards our trail raft, and both succeeded
in reaching it, unit we were afterwards rescued by a boatman
by the name of Handley and his mate."