31 Days of Graves Day 22 Accident

Deaths in childbirth, deaths of babies and infants are high up there on the emotional chart, as are people who died in accidents.

1956 doesn’t seem all that long ago … The burial place of Joseph William Birkle, who died in a flying accident is in the old cemetery on Leicester Road. The inscription states the bare facts:

In

Loving memory of

Joeph William Birkle

who was killed in an air crash

September 28th 1956.

Aged 34 years.

R.I.P.

Joseph William’s birth on 1st December 1921 was registered in Loughborough. Joseph, who lived at 34 Wallace Road, married Pamela E. Adams on 30 May 1956 at the Church of Our Lady Queen of Peace, Richmond. Joseph was a Ministry of Supply experimental officer in aircraft research development in Felixstowe.

We know Joseph died in an air crash on 28th September 1956, just 4 months after his marriage. He left £2,873 19s. 3d.. Is there any more we can find out about the air crash? Indeed there is. Joseph had gained his pilot’s licence on 30th November 1950, and had probably trained in mechanical engineering. The accident was widely reported in the newspapers, which state that the twin-jet bomber named Canberra crashed and set on fire near the RAF Station at Martlesham Heath, close to Ipswich. The weather was apparently stormy, which probably had an effect on the voyage, in which Joseph was the passenger.

Over in the churchyard of the parish church is a memorial stone commemorating a drowning in the River Soar in 1767. Well, actually, three drownings. I haven’t been able to find a newspaper report for the sad occurrence, but the memorial stone is quite descriptive:

Here lie

in the same Grave

the Bodies of

THOMAS BOMBROFFE Aged 46

WILLIAM PECK Aged 20

WILLIAM SMITH Aged 18

all of the Parish

who were unfortunately drowned together

in the River Soar on the ninth day of July 1767

It is presumed that T. Bombroffe lost his Life by endeavouring

to save his two companions for he only was ¬found in his Clothes/Some of the principal Inhabitants of this Parish

tenderly concerned for the sudden Fate of these their

Fellow Christians and for a perpetual Warning to all others

cause this Stone to be erected by voluntary Subscription

READER

be thou constantly prepared for Death

to which thou art exposed every Hour

by Accident

by Carelessness ...    

Back in the old cemetery on Leicester Road is a memorial headstone to Harry Hollingsworth Beck, who died on 1 st April 1889, at the age of only 18.

In

loving memory of

Harry

Holingsworth Beck

only son of Frederick

and Sarah Beck,

who after a short but

painful illness caused

by accident died

April 1st 1889,

aged 18 years

Also of Sarah

the beloved wife of

Frederick Beck,

who died December 22nd 1926

aged 80 years

Also of Frederick,

beloved husband of the above

who died December 15th 1927

aged 80 years

 

A report which appeared around the time of Harry’s death is most illuminating:

It’s always sad to read about lives that were cut short, however short, but especially as the result of an accident.

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

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