William Huskisson

[GhostSearch]

Good info there

[SteH]

There's a marble tablet at the spot where the accident occured near Newton le Willows, although anyone going to take a look would be dicing with death themselves.

http://www.carlscam.com/people/huskisson.htm

[ChrisGeorge]

There's a marble tablet at the spot where the accident occured near Newton le Willows, although anyone going to take a look would be dicing with death themselves.

http://www.carlscam.com/people/huskisson.htm

Thanks for this, SteH. I will take your advice and not seek out a look at the plaque in person. That also has to be one of the longest and most labourious sentences I have ever read, filled as it is with the somewhat overblown sentiments of the day!

Chris

[Cadfael]

The actual cause of the accident isn't actually well known. People think that he tripped on the line and fell over and couldn't get up in time.

The actual event occured when he had to get out of the way of a train quickly, ran and jumped up on a train carriage door which swung out, bounced off the coachwork and then threw him off on to the floor.

Don't forget sLemon says that the Cemetary is haunted by Huskinsson!

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Cadfael

Yes the contemporary newscutting on the site SteH directed us to gives me an entirely different view of the accident to the impression I had. I did know the Rocket ran over Huskisson's leg. I had been under the impression that he was standing on the line or crossing the line and unable to get out of the way. The account says he was trapped in a crowded carriage which was hit by the Rocket and thrown out then run over. I was also under the impression until recently that the accident took place at Edge Hill which is not so either!

Chris

[SteH]

Hi Cadfael

Yes the contemporary newscutting on the site SteH directed us to gives me an entirely different view of the accident to the impression I had. I did know the Rocket ran over Huskisson's leg. I had been under the impression that he was standing on the line or crossing the line and unable to get out of the way. The account says he was trapped in a crowded carriage which was hit by the Rocket and thrown out then run over. I was also under the impression until recently that the accident took place at Edge Hill which is not so either!

Chris

I havent read that link yet but I did know the accident did take place halfway through the journey. I had always tought that they had to stop the train to let the engines cool down or something and many passengers got off.Huskisson then saw the Duke of Wellington and decided to go and have a chat, but got run over as he did so.

[ChrisGeorge]

Oh, okay I see now, he seems to have taken cover between the carriages but the door of one carriage that he had caught hold of and the Rocket collided, throwing him down onto the track and under the locomotive.

Chris

[Cadfael]

Hi Cadfael

Yes the contemporary newscutting on the site SteH directed us to gives me an entirely different view of the accident to the impression I had. I did know the Rocket ran over Huskisson's leg. I had been under the impression that he was standing on the line or crossing the line and unable to get out of the way. The account says he was trapped in a crowded carriage which was hit by the Rocket and thrown out then run over. I was also under the impression until recently that the accident took place at Edge Hill which is not so either!

Chris

I didn't even notice that link either It was info I had sourced elsewhere years ago hehe.

[adventurehiker]

Apparently the train stopped to take on more water. There had been a disagreement between William Huskisson and the Duke of Wellington. Huskisson had approached Wellington's carriage in a gesture of reconciliation.
Somehow or other he did find himself in the path of the oncoming Rocket.
I have read several conflicting eyewitness accounts with contridictions as to the speed of the train and the circumstances causing him to fall into the path of the locomotive.

Holding the door to the carriage, which could have been clipped by the passing train seems plausible enough.

Ironically the Rocket, the vessel that maimed him, transported Huskisson for further medical attention.

[Kev Keegan]

A warm welcome, excellent first post

[ChrisGeorge]

I wrote this poem for the Liverpool 800 poems site:

Unlucky Husky

To be known as the first man
to be killed by a train
-- what awful luck!

You were our plucky MP,
in your prime when
you were struck,

as Stephenson’s “Rocket”
knocked you down;
now God’s got you
in his pocket.

Christopher T. George