The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-08-09 00:00:00

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THE WIGAN RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

We take the f.illowing account of the terrible accident
M Wigan teat Saturday from The rillleS:—

WIGAN, Saturday.
This morning at an early hour, a terrible accident oc-
curred on the London and North-Western Railway at Wigan
to an express train—commonly kiiown as the tourist train
—travelling from London to Sootland. The train, willyh was
an unusually heavy one (consisting of two enginee, 22 car
riages, and three vans), lett Euston Station at 8.5 last
night, five minutes after the advertised time. When,
at 15 minuet past one am., the train, upwards of 15
minutes late, approached Wigan, the signals showed "All
right." Within a few yards of the down platform, and
opposite the south be, a pair of "facing" poiuts work in
connexion with the main down line and a single line tiding
which runs stone the back of the down platform for a dis-
tance of about lee yards, said again Into the down line at
the ex,reme end of the platform. The two engines (both
of which were at the hems) and 17 or 18 of the carriages
passed the Wing points in safety at a mud rate of from
35 to 38 miles an hour. Owing to some Melia, as yet un-
explained, the remaining all or seven carriages and • guard's
van were jerked from the body of the train and the main
line at the facing points, and rushed up the tiding. Having
bet their equilibrium, they veered over against that portion
of the platforni abuttleg on the shilng, and ploughed the
flags end earth up for a length of twenty or thirty yards.
The leading carriage, which was of a crimposite CoratrUe.
the, was overturned and broken to pieces, the al' eelis
and flooring being all that remained. Two other car-
riages sprang from the Metals to the platform, and tell over
upon th.lx sides. One or two others turned almost com-
pletely over a few yard. beyond, blocking the slang-and
also beconin g wrecks. One cyruer of the wall from
which fineries the roof of the station swam struck and
damaged, and knocked out if plumb foe several yards
to the ext, sit of at least six inchee One of the iron pillars
on the r of, which stood mid way ou the platf irm wes
dashed down hy the extraordinary leap of one of the car-
riages against it, and hp three or ft no of the eardrums run-
ning rieht on the top of each other. The Weer iph wires
were caught and dragged asunder. A long length of thick
briek wall adjoining, Wit between the railway Mel Queen'
street. which is tire or six yards below the level of the rail.
tap, wss partly knocked down. A wyman find a large frag-
ment of one of the carriages were hurled over the wail, arid
fell upon and through the slated roof of a porti n of Mr.
W ilker's foundry. nunitier of men workin; n "night'
turn " on the premises escaped injury, but tie w mean was
killed Inspector Grundy, of Southport (Lancashire and
Yorkshire Ityilway), and a liquifier of resistants, abut hap.
peeed to be In the town at the time, aud Inspectors Renoir
and Liptrop, with a staff of pollee-c andante., came up and
rendered essential service. Mr. Shaw, of Liverrmol,
disti tot superintendent, hal !mint of the accict at tele-
graphed to him, and arrived at Wigan about five o'clock.
fwo ir three fires were lit on the platform to ad in the
work of clearing the wreck, the light failing on mangled
corpes, and passengers with bleeding heads and broken limbs.
Beneath the carriage which was thrown wheels uppermost
on the platform the dead bodies of leer passengers, one
being thet of • woman, were found. Some of the bodies were
fearreny crushed a, d mangled. Two ladles were got out
ellve front other carriages, but died shortly after being taken
Into the first-oats refreehmelit rooms. There were several
miraculous escapes from death. A saloon oarriage, vrMal was
occupied by • son anti daughter of the Doe. S. W. Calmer,
with • lady's maid, wet driVen into the carriage tnimedlately
before it. The saloon carriage and its passengers fared little,
if any, the worse. Several members of out fatally were in
the next (a first-chin) carriage, and two of the children and
&domestic servant were kiLed. Tile father escaped uninjured,
but his wife Was seriously bort. Another ot their children
WU jammed at the b,ttom of the ceramics am..ng the wood-
work, but was got out alive. Tne passengers In three
of the carriages escaped lei' bout a farnity occurring among
them.

flog .aid who was on duty in the van at the erd of the
carriages which rtn on the siding hat a narrow escape. Ila
was stunned for several minutes, but came cut cimiparatively
uninjured. Some of the passengers, ithough rather
sevriely shaken, were not Incapacita•td from continuing
Ditto journey northwards at a later h otr in the morning.
About 30 of the pusengers who w,re more seriously hurt
were convey id co the Victoria. Clarence, and Royal Hotiels,
the Wheatenest lon, and the htiipemakrs Arms The load-
ing portion of the train which kept to the main line was
brought to a standstill at Turner's akin g. several hundred
yards from the scene of the accident. The Duke of
Sutherlaint's daughter, Lady Florence Gower, was one of the
pauengors With the exception of the conductor, Alexander
flamer, who received some brute., but wan able to con-
tinue the liurney, nobody In these carriages was injured,
but the Forth van, occupied by the conductor, which was
at the extreme and of those which kept on the main line,
Jumped from the metals when the separation occurred
at the Icing points, and ran, half in the four-feet and half
In the sin-tent, as fur as John Brown's post at the north bin,
where it was guided beck to the metals. The van was
much damaged, one ale being completely tern away. How
the conductor escaped as he did Is surprising. rho
footboard of • saloon carriage which ran next in order was
broken off and an axle-box damaged. The train to which the
accident occurred is one that usually arrives at Wigan
almost simultaneously with the Staleybridgs mall and about
half an hour before the do on night limited mail, and these
train, were delayed for about an hour and a half.

The following is • list of the dead :—Sir John Anson,
Bart., Mr, Portland-place, London, aged 59 ; Thomis C.
Week, aged ten years, son of Andrew Week, Oid.hsii, High-
gate, and the Stock. Exchange, Loudon ; Maggie R. C.
Wink, aged eight years, daughter of the same; Alice
Minette, aged about 23, nurse to the above (deceased hem
reletives hr Newington•causeway, Londou), John Phillips,
Lord Moray's chemherlaiii, of Aberdare, aged about
70 James Fagg, valet to Sir Jim Anson, aged IS ,
Martha Alen, aged 23, walting.maid to Mies Anson
(the father of the deceased lives In Gloricesterplace-
mew., London h Mr. Thomas WarldeL solicitor. 3, Welling.
ton-square, Ayr, aged 25 ; Mr. itrheris, echo slmaster at
Carlisle Industrial Schools, aged 30; Mary Roberts, II now of
Daniel Roberts, of Weymouth, and mother of the last-named,
pd U; I:omen-is:4.u,, ang
the l
Wark, and son, Andrew Alexander Wark, Old-hall, Highgate,
each • fractured thigh ; Robert ei rodman, commercial tr.
yeller for the firm of Messrs Walter Macfarlane and Co.,
Glasgow, compound fracture of the right leg E Vassilopule,
commercial agent Lod] shipper, 2, South-parade, Manchester,
fracture of collar bone, bruised head and leg, and severely
shaken ; Ilugh Ker Love, Bath, Ayrshire, injury it head
and Internally ; J. A Fraser, artist, 10, Boacobel-place,
Alpha road, London, fracture of collar bone and bruised head;
John Foster, merchant, High-street, Oxford, arm broken ;
Mrs. Poster, wife of the above, badly bruised and shaken;
Joseph Pawlett, ship carpenter, Aberdare, compound fracture
of the elbow joint, injury to hand, and severely se alien .• Mr
aad Mrs. Henry Shiedler. Palgrava house, LOP, Kent,
cut, shaken, and bruised; J. IL Wood, engineer, Bank
Top Foundry, Blackburn, shaken and bruised, and Injurips
to back and legs; Thomas Holt, Blackburn, similar
lijue-
rio.; John Reband, schoolmaster, ceun•y Wicklow, shaken,
arid back and head iejured ; Mrs Reband, wife of the
above, severe VMS on oils leg, foot bruised, and shaken ;
John Andrew, engineer for the National Steamehip U in.
parry, Liv, spool, bruised in various parts and severe:,
shaken ; Mrs. Ward, wife of Arther Ward, gel con, Christ
Chorch-street, liingweod, badly bruised about the head
and bock; Mrs. Phillits, wife of John Phillips—whose
name endears in the list of dead—if Aberdare, liruined
about the head, back, and face, and severely shaken ;
Ernest M'Maw, clerk, Brixton road, London. Mad and
arms injured, and bruised generally; John McKie, Church-
place, Kirkcudbrieht, Ole( enghteman of the Royer! Navy,
nail, cut about the head, back and Ig. tojurr el ; Mrs.
McKie, face, back, and legs bruised ; Mrs Hill, wire of Mr.
J. T. Bill, counry magistrate, Mounttleld, Millbury, near
Axmlnsrer, seem my remised about the face and khakis°, end
supposed to he suffering from concussion of the spine ;
Andrew Ho watami, engineer. 4, Beivoluelece, St Aerie,
road, Swansea. Cut hand, severe shaking, and luternal In.
; John Jones railway navvy, of no settled residence,
cut head, injury to breast, and general Asking ; John
son churchwareen, Liverpool, bruised anti abaken ; Alex
man. Heron, commercial traveller, NewtomStewerr, Sot-
lend, cut about the head and badly shako° ; Mr. Whitteker,
surgeon, Preston, contusion ; Mary Bell, Witton, Scotland,
c.rntrisione. One of the met wonderful escapes in the disaster
was that of Mire Louisa Elie .be th in Anson and Miss
El eabeih Georgirs oleuehres of the lii Wed Sir
Jelin Anson. By nil a severe fright, they dld not sustain
any harm. Sir John Arson, who bore DJ marks of Injure ex.
cept tome on the face arid head, by which he was dreadfuly
diseeured, was found jemmied beneath • carriage on the
platform and insensible. Sir John Anson's groom was fear-
fully injured, but Miss Arson's maid does not appeer to have
received a scratch. Ills thought that she was asleep in the
carriage when she met with her death. The old man Phillips
was alive when extricated from the wreck, but died eherily
afterwards. In the course of the afternocn a large number
of person. arrived, some from Scotland.

The following extract is from the letter of a Civrta•
pondent of The Tones, writing from Wigan on Sunday,
who obtained an account of the results of the accident
from a person who was on the platform immediately
after it occurrel

. . " At about this Unto yesterday morning f ter,
a. Xieg here, set am nowa-wasiu't I, iLla f I addres... g the
hornal I) waiting for what we Ci.ll the tourist ex,rese, from
London to the North, ahm, there caom a dre,lful crash
a- it the ehole station woe abut L, In, c I..sheil to pieces. I
meal out at once, and there sae at the o no time a senertl
rush on t g.e platform of the Mecham ti•. glut, aed of seve-
r.' persons who had I eon In IC.ltiog for a,cue telet,o wbom
they expected to arrive from other places, Until t
lights and lighted fa." vu '0 .15.,', well ace what 1,-
pent& except that some p ,rti.3:l of the tourist atm.., hodt
r.ecome disc .tmected le,n the main potion of the train
which had ran past almost aimultaoeously with the noise
which han an alarmed us, and that judging by the: toroam•
of women and children, something very &wird had (thou
place. We soon realised hilly one of the most ahocklng speo-
tacles I have over WitAMMid, and I have had a good deal
of experience of railway travelling and of railway accidents,
too, In my time. I can't tail you much of the general result;
501 1 know Is that we found the *embalm's but to the left

of the station no you enter from on—a SlrOhl lit k
end mood `milding completely swept away. Imph.),
there was normely In the but at the Hare. We found t
back pert Of that end of the etation almost swept aw p.
This part of the station, as you may see, has ii It
propped up, since, vs it was feared the whole thing leo ,d
fall to. We found the elding full of Nuesehed carrel+, v
But the cries of the unfortunate people who were Jamul
underneath and between the fr.gmeets f carriages, and v to
were strewn about in what appeared to me to be Ail
directions, were thelnost awful of all NVell, Sir, for Mem
we worked clearing away, and at length we got together •he I
dead bodies, which you have seen almost next door to whn to
we are silting; and the wouhded, poor things, were ellspo3td
as best we could. They all seemed very respectable peopie.
It was seer, from the beetnelog that It way all up with Sir
John Ansou, who was at once taken to the Royal, about one
of the best hotels we have. I suppose there will be an
extra noise about the affair as Sir John was among the
killed—a Government Inquiry or something that way.
don't know how many gentlemen calling themselves
doctors were present. There seemed quite a little crowd
..f them. Hut they seemed to be of little use. One poor
woman cried piteously to the electors to save her for
hi r children's sake, all of whom she did not know were
already de at. A flue-looking gentleman was helped in
here. There mild not seem to be much the matter with
him. Ile oltil not appear to be more than frightened. We
made him Ile down en the form, and he Conversed with the
barmaid mind with us all. He told us that he hail Jost
come from America and was now on the woe to the north
of England to his wife, whom he had not seen for some
years. hhe esp. cted him home that morning. Suddenly he
ceased fetich's, and said he felt an icy colduess in his sto-
, mach. Tee barmaid lifted the poor fellow, and t assisted in
giving hint some brandy and coffee. At last he milled ma
Pu docor, who lookro at him called lore stretcher, and
, announced that the gentleman wis dying. in • slier, time
alter tie was Ilead I mmld not find cut his nuns. Of course,
the Spins have been 11111111tig MOS 4 im regularly ever since. In-
deed, ev. rybody at the station seemed to have lost their
*mires in sorrow and prelonged excite meat and want of reA.
, As for me, I'll never forget ft—what I wltneismi this time
I ytaterdey "
•

The foil wing arc tint of the occident is sent by a passenger
to the Carlisle Daily Juitina, I wos Davething in a third-
claos carriage, sitting inch my face Int the illrecVon in wbili
e %ere going. I was wide awake, and Inc king out of die
wind, w I saw sparks Ilk lug from the whee's. I knew that
we had then left the metals, and prepared myself for Is
at ash. This came In two or three seconds, and when I came
to myself I found our carriage bad been co upletely broken
to pieces. The roof had come off and slipped down, and
when we get out beta... the room and the upper side there
were seven passengers In my compartment, and same of them
wire injured. OHO if them ha, his collar. bone Imo ken, and
some on his rib., When I looked around the scene of des-
truction was awful. Three carriages were completely broken
to pieces, and, so far as I could make out, the firsteclars
Passengers suffered met eeverely. I think seven carriages
left the met de. Tao carriages were doubled up one within
the other, telescope fashion."

The inquest touching the deaths of the deceased was
opened in toe Council Chamber at the Borough Courts,
Wig., before Mr. B. Daranat., solicitor, te..romth coroner,
on Saturday evening. Among those present were Mr. J.
Shaw, dietrict superintendent Mr Worthington, the com-
pany's engineer; and the Hon. and Rev. Canon Bridgeman,
rector of Wig. Toe Coroner expressed the regret of him.
self and townsmen at the I eartul calamity which had
occurred. The evidence of Identification would be heard at
that sitting, end au adjournment token in order that an
examination of the site of the accident might be made.
The Coroner added that he should w rite to the Board
of Trace to sell down one of the thruway Inspectors.
Eii. shells Roberts, of Morrell-hill, i. &Hide, identleel the
body of her husband and his mother. Louisa Elizabeth Ann
Anson, daughter of Sir John Anion, sold she, her father, her
sister, along o ith a valet and maid, were travelling by the
mimes. front Rugby to Edinburgh She and her sister and
the deceased occupied one compartment. She was asleep
when the accident happened. The first Mug she remem.
I ered Was getting up off the ground smut two yards from he
carriage. Her maid and the valet were killed on the spot.
Liz.heth Georgina Anson, sister of the last witness,
said she was also asleep whtn the accident ocnirred.
She WAS awakened by the carriage snaking mid
rocking from side to side. Ihe carriage hrr ke up,
aed she was thrown backwards and forwards until she
fell to the ground. Her father sat opposite to her in the
carriage, and was thrown towards her and then backwards.
She thought he must have been struck by some part of the
carriage. Ile lived for an hour after the accident. the
maidservant and the valet were in a tin-detests o,mpartment
the same carriage. Mr. Andrew Work, of Highgate unit th• 3
Stock Exchange, L radon, gave evidence touching the death of
his little boy ands/se. Heard Mrs. Work. with a goveruess and
another child, were In a first-class compartment ; the re-
maining three children and the nurses c ompled an end second-
cats corm artmesit in the seine carriage. A sahon carriage
immediately behind went right through the latter com-
partment, killing two of the children and one of the
nurses. The third child was got out 'Meg, with
both thighs broken. The surrounding timber haul to be 811W11
through to reach it. Witness complained that there were
no saws or exis about the station, and persons were conse-
quently kept imprisoned beneath the wrecked carriages for
more then an hour. The seat, occupied lay withea and ids
wife arid the governess were doubled up. Mrs. Work was
caught between them, anti hod her thighs hr dken. Wit-
ness and the governess escaped uninjured the second
nurse got off wish a few bruises. lief ore the train
reached Rugby witness noticed the carriage rock from
strip LO side. but not again until after the curiae. were
Vdetill On to the siding at Wigan. He could oiler 110 ex.
plaratem as to the cause of the acrid.- nt. Toe carriages left
Os line with. jerk, and .ppeared ti ju.s.p at the yob is.
On minim; up the siding the earringc's negon to jump RII.I
hump, and roll iuto the platform awl toppied over. At this
stage the inquest was adjourned till Thursday.

Late on Saturday evening Dr. Hunter, of London, the com-
pany's pidtietan, arrived in Wig., and visited the injured
paste:Nora. who are conined to various hotels In the
two. Excepting two, all of them, he sajs, are loin
well One of the two exeojdlons is Mr. It. Gomunan, coal.
menial traveller for Messrs. W. Macfarlane and Glam..,
who ir.t lined a bh clung compound ;mature of the right low.
lila wife arrived on Sunday, and amontatien was performed at
the Clarence !tote!. D... Gunter thouglt there was jutt
hare poesinility that Mr. Goodman might recover. The
other case which he coed Jere I v.ry imbue and in
✓ ich he held out no hopea of recovery was that of
lar. Andrew Wark's third sou, who had one thigh
fractured and suffered other severe injuries. This
child was an her or more beneath the wrecked
woodwork before the timber c mid ho sawn away.

O t Sunday the body of Mr. J Phillips, whose wife Iles
injured at the Ro)al Hotel, was identified by his sister,
Margaret Jane Cairns, of 13, Albany-street, ledinhurgh. Mr.
Phillips was chamberlain t, the Est' of Ilaray, end was a
Writer to the Signet. He was travelling to St tiolme House,
Bernd,land, Elinburgh. In Intuition to those named, t -o
or three more the Minted, Mr. Foster and Mrs. Hill
especially, are this evening reported as In a pm:Aeons state.

The melancholy tidings that Sir John Anson was among
the victims of the Wigan accident caused a painful and wide-
ea.l feeling of regret in the netghtourhood of Exatbeurne.
For two year. past Mr John had been reel dog with hit family
at 11 t.tton, the seat of the Thomus lentil, at Willlogdon .
and, by his affability and kindness to the poor, hod won the
esteem and affection at the whole village. The vicar of the
parish in his sermon on Senility morning, alluded in feeling
terms to the sad event, and the empty pew, where oily last
Sum ay Sir .1 ahn ad in his place at church, was painfully
socgestive of the calamity. As a no.gistrate, the .'tensed
baronet took an active part on the benc i at F. .Mbourne.
lie also repeatedly attended the meetings of the bard of
guardians, and, though his connection with trio neighbour-
hood llne only been of short duration, he will be much
missed in many ways.
Sir John William lismilton Anton, was the eldest son of
the late General Sir William Anson, G.C.B (uncle 01 the Mat
Earl of Lichfield), by Miss Louisa Frances Mary Dickenson,
only child and heiress of Mr John Dickenson, of Birchhall.
Lancashire. He was born in Loudon in December. 1810, and
was the ref tee only In his 38th year. Le was educated at
Eton and at the University of Cambridge, and held fir some
years a commission in the Royal I.l,rse Guards Blue. Sir
John Anson, who was a Deputy- Lieutenant for Lancashire,
matried In July, 1843, Ml.. Eliztheth Catherine Pack,
daughter of the late Major-General Sir Denis Pack, K CS.,
and grand-daughter maternally of the first Marquis of
, Waterford, by whom he had a family of Mx daughters and
four antis. Ile Is succeeds lin hit title by his el est eon, r.
William Reynell Anion, barrister-at-law who was born in the
year 1843.

The hells of the parish church of All Saints rung muffled
Peals all day on Sunday ; the rector or Wigan, the Hon and
Rev G. T. 0 Brldgeman, brother of Lae Bradford, preached.
there was a large attendance, arid many of the relatives of the
deceased and Injured were present. /he rector, who had at
tended the Inquest the previous evening, took as his text the
40th, 41s1, sad 42nd verses of the 24th chapter of Si. Matthew's
Onset!, " Tarn shall tiro be in the field; the one shall be
taken, and the other left. Two women shad be grinding at
the mat ; the one shall be taken, and the other Oft 14 etch,
thereto, ; for ye know ::ot what hour gone Lord doth come."
lie spose of the awfulness of ileatn, from which there
Is a natural shrinking on the part of all, and
especially the awfulness of sudden death, and con.
chided by saying, "Such a catastrophe as that which
occurred so lately Ins warning, not to the careless only, but
to all—to those who are not watching to watch more
diligently. You speak of that which happened yesterday as
awful, and you speak truly—let it awe you. Dispensations
of this kind, indeed, are not untrequent ; but they do not
often come so closely under our own observation, tier do we
often have such clear intinmtione that it Is not of our own
foresight or wisdom that one Is tAen and another left,
hut that God killt th and maketh alive of his own will.
There were a nuniber of peraons travelling in peace
towards their destlnatior 5, some quietly talking, others
sleeping, in happy ignorance of the danger that awaited
them, when suddenly the whole train of carriages arehrought
into violent collision, and a heartrending trance of desola-
tion le spread around. llutdu this God's hand is v
that where two are sitting together In one carriage, and ap-
parently in the same poeitlon of danger, tde one is taken,
and the other left. Sty brethren, God does not allow these eve.,ts
to occur for nought. Ile ehoweth not Ills power for nought.
the Father of the fatherless and the God of the widow,
does not, without some good at d wise purpose of the
own, suddenly make the children fatherless awl the wife
a widow, and by the same blow deprive the father of his
children. Stich visitations are to serve at a warning to us
all, and he teat profiteth not by them is rein 1h( them Into
Judgment forshiniselo. (iii has no crelered it, that the day
winch follows it should be ills own day of rest, and PO
gives is, the more time to consider how we ought to act,
while the ,c. an' of sorrow and 14 a, fleeing la yet fresh in our
mind.. God'. judgments are too apt to fade away quickly from
our 11111013 1111 eas they 000 1. ii up ft 8, 01100. LI Lou ,hIAI
calamitous vistration pan away in mere feelings of wonder
or sympathy, bus let us do something to prove that the
message has come home to our sold. ; and, while you pray
for tl.e injured and mittilated waterers that they stay
recover, and for the mourners that they may he aupported
and coutf-rted in their affliction, let me bid you also tutu, u
to Him yourself, and resolve to amend at once whatever you
may find to be amis.. Seek ye the Lord while He may be
forind ; call ye upon film while he Is rear, It the
wicked forsake his way, arid the untightione man his
though's, and let him return to the L rd. and Lie will have
mercy upon Mir, and to our God, for He will abundantly
pardon. Do something which otherwise you would nut have
done, and may Ile who sent out this warning teach us to
number our days, that we may apply our hearts to the only
true wisdom—how we mar be saved In the last great day :
and that, whither in this life we live out the full cumber or
our years or come early to our grave, we niay cur, rho Wand
a etching. 'eh esedois that servant whom his Lord, when lie
cometh, nhu.ill fled so doing; yea, I say ttnto you blessed Is
that servant