The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-11 00:00:00

THE FATAL OCCURRENCE AT DOVELR.

DOVER, FitIDAY-
,We are to-day enabled to furnish more .cletaitei
particulars of the frightful accident at baser, of '
which a brief notice has already appeared.
The Archcliff Fort battery, the scene of the ma. •
lancholy occurrence, has boon regularly used by the
Artillery Volunteers since their organisation for the
purpose of gun drill. It lies to the westward of the
town, and is the nearest battery to Shaksperc?s
Cliff, which is on its right, the viaduct of the Sow la
Eastern Railway running from one point to V 1,13
other. The fort is bounded on three of its sides I )y
a broad parapet., that ou its right overlooking a (lit. !..11
or foss which cuts off the line of fortifications fro m
the adjacent country, the road to Shakspere's if
crossing it by means of a drawbridge. At the tim4e
of the accident the members of the corps in attend',
ance were engaged at target practice, which had
just commenced. Three guns were mounted along.
the front of the battery, and were pointed at the:
target, which was placed the necessary distance out
in the Channel. The elms were the ordinary 32.-
pounders used by the Royal Artillery, who had re-
peatedly fired the whole of them, and it is believ• sit
they had all undergone the necessary tests, althouwki
there appears to be little doubt that they have beet n
a considerable time in use. It was the centre oneo f
the three that exploded; and from all that can be:a t
present ascertained there appears to be no dou'b t
that the explosion was owing to a flaw in the gu o .
This point, however will be more fully cleared u;u
by the evidence of' professional men at the inquii]
which will take place. As has been already stated.,
there would seem no ground for believing that the
gun was imperfectly loaded, as, if' the charge ho.d
not been properly rammed home, the projectile
would not have reached so near the target as it did .
The direction of the ball is well known, several of
those who had ranged themselves along the parapet
at different parts to see the effect of the discharge
being unaware of the occident until they
had made their observations. All agree that
it was a very good. shot. Lieutenant Thomp-
son, Sergeant Monger, Sergeant Matthews (in-
structing sergeant of the Royal Artillery), Gunner
Pell, and several other members of the corps were
upon the righthand parapet overlooking the ditch
before mentioned, which is between 20 and 30 feet
deep, and on the explosion taking place six of their
number were hurled over—viz., Lieut. Thompson,
Sergeant Monger, Corporal Austen, Gunner Bould-
ing, and Bugler Tucker, and a young gentleman
named Harris, the nephew of Captain Wollaston,
who commands the corps. Five out of the six were
carried over into the ditch, but the sixth, Mr. Aus-
ten, fortunately caught hold of some long grass
which was growing on the outer edge of the pa-
rapet, and was thus saved from sharing the fate
of his unfortunate companions ; indeed, he escaped
without any injury whatever. Mr. Tucker also
escaped injury in a most miraculous and extraor-
dinary manner, being able to get up from the
ground soon after alighting, and to walk away. It
was at once seen, however, that the injuries sus-
tained by at least three of the remaining Volunteers
were serious. Lieut. Thompson, it is said, got upon
his legs for a moment, and, with that kindness of
heart for which he was always remarkable, said to
those near him, "I am not hurt ; let us see about
the others!" but on turning round in the endeavour
to carry out this benevolent design he fell back-
wards and expired without uttering another word.
Mr. Monger and Mr. Harris were conveyed to the
military hospital, which is about a quarter of a
mile distant from the fort; but in the case of Mr.
Monger death took place immediately after his
arrival. Mr. Harris was found to be suffering from
concussion of the brain. He still lies in a very
critical state, but the medical men give hopes of
his recovery‘ Boulding was not seriously hurt, and
was taken to his own home in a fly.
The gunner who applied the match, Mr. Had-
low, jun., was wounded in the head, but not very
severely. He behaved with great courage and
coolness, beseeching those who were about him, as
soon as a bandage. had been applied to his head, to
give their sole attention to those who were more
seriously injured. Mr. Gilfillan, who was standing
near was struck upon the arm by a splinter from the
exploded gun, whereby the limb was rather badly
fractured. We are happy to state, however, that
he is going on favourably, and that at present the
only fatal casualties are those already alludel to.
Dr. Astley, who is one of the lieutenants of the
corps, was present at the time of the occurrence,
and Mr. Ottaway, Mr. H. Coleman, Mr. Walter,
and other medical men were on the spot in a short
time aster.
From what we can ascertain, the gun parted just
below the trunnion, the muzzle dropping to the
ground, and the breach being blown about 30 yards
to the rear. The remaining portion was split into
fragments, which were sent in all directions. Two
of the pieces were blown over the left side of the
battery into the goods station of the South Eastern
Railway, and it is said that one of these bears un-
mistakeable tokens of the defective character of the
gun. The other piece, which is three or four feet
in length, was deeply imbedded in the ground by
the violence of the concussion. •
Mr. Monger, who carried on the business of a
tobacconist in Snargate-street, leaves a wife and
two children. Mr. Thompson was a solicitor and
the coroner for the borough. He also held the
offices of registrar of Dover Harbour and clerk to
the county magistrates. He was universally
esteemed for his kind and amiable demeanour, and
his loss will be deeply regretted by all degrees of
his fellow-townsmen. The authorities of the bo-
rough are placed in some difficulty as to the opening
of the inquiry upon the bodies ; but Mr. E. Knocker,
the town-clerk, has telegraphed to the recorder,
Mr. W. H. Bodkin, who, it was thought, would
apply to the Lord Chief Justice, in whom rests the
power of appointing a person to conduct the usual
coroner's investigation in eases of this nature. It
is thought the inquiry will be opened to-morrow
(Saturday).
We have obtained the following narrative from
the lips of Mr. J. D. Squier, who was No. 1 man at
the gun which exploded. He says,—" I was stand-
ing at the rear of the gun at the right, imme-
into
diately behind the group who were hurled
the ditch. They were standing upon the em-
bankment on the right of the battery, and about a
dozen yards in advance of the muzzle of the gun.
On the discharge of the gun, and as soon as the
smoke cleared away, the
volunteer who hadhis fired,
Hadlow, came runnina• towards me with hand.
to his head, from which' bind was trickling
immediately a cry was raised that two men were., and
in the ditch. I ran round, and on getting ft
I found that Mr. Thompson, Mr. Monger, 34r.
James Tucker, Mr. Boulding, and Mr. Harris% the
nephew of the captain, had been blown into the
in his from
trench. Mr. Thompson vas lying on his bank,
breatbina• hard, and his life 1,72 S fast ebbing. He
t-ry freely. Monger
wairclatredblotoodh3wvaes bilconwia ,
presented no appearance of injury, but was in-
sensible."
Mr. Squier adds, with respect to the cause of the
accident, that after the charge bad been rammed
home, and as the gun was being run along the
platform previous
to its discharge, it was a good
deal shaken by the uneven state of the platform.
Military men will be able to judge whether it was
possible for the charge to have been shaken out of
its position by this means. The Volunteers who
rammed the charge were gunners Pell and Penn,
both muscular men, and well adapted for the dis-
charge of their duty.
The greatest gloom prevails in the town, and a
large number of the shoPe *TM partially elosca