Cpl D.W. King 4th Yorkshire Reg. Killed in "Rail Accident".

[ALDAWSON77]

KING, D W

Rank: Corporal Service No: 3882 Date of Death: 14/02/1917 Regiment/Service: 4th Bn Yorkshire Regiment. Grave Reference: O. V. E. 5. Cemetery: ST. SEVER CEMETERY EXTENSION, ROUEN

Family folklore has it that Corporal David William King was killed in a "rail accident". Could anyone help with verifying this.

Edited 1 June , 2015 by MacTyke

[kenf48]

He was admitted to the 8th General Hospital Rouen 'contusion pelvis and abdominal organs', there is a note 'ADMITTED DEAD 14 th February ' There are four other soldiers admitted dead in the same group but all suffering trauma injuries.

SDGW has 'Died' which implies accidental death.

A fragment of his service record has survived but no information as to death.

The incident has been discussed on roots chat http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=386408.0

esp reply 5 & 7

It seems family folklore is correct.

Ken

[IPT]

I pinched this from here - http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=386408.0

Major G.Thornton was in command of the leave train that left havre at 6.30am on 13th feb 1917,the train was at the level crossing at epinay when it was hit by trucks from supply train W25,a coupling broke and 36 trucks crashed into the leave train behind it,two first class carriages and one third class were completly destroyed,one officer[2/Lt e.f greenfield]and 26 men were killed,54 men were badly injured,most of the injured were put aboard a hospital train that had been standing nearby,personel from the 7th+15th hospital trains that arrived shortly after,helped in the rescue of men trapped in the wreckage,three men pinned under the debris were released after 5hrs,major e.s smith the railway transport officer at nearby serqueux took command of the scene,billeting arrangements for most of the 23 officers and 1151 men on board,were found in the nearby villages.
the bodies of the dead were taken by road at 1800hrs,to the 8th general hospital at rouen.

[ALDAWSON77]

Thanks very much to you both. That pretty much solves the mystery.

Alan

[corisande]

There is actually a bit more to that quotation above which adds, and explains the 13 - 4 Feb dates

38 injured men were admitted to the 8th gen hospital at Rouen on 13th Feb, 3 others were admitted to the 10th gen hospital Rouen on the same day. The following day the bodies of 27 men who died in the accident were admitted to the 8th gen hospital. The bodies of these men were not removed from the wreckage until the morning of 14th Feb,16 injured men were taken to one of the casualty clearing stations at Rouen. The hospital would not have known the exact time of their death so it was probably recorded for official purposes as 14th February for some of the Soldiers.
These are all buried in the cemetery in Plot II

See this link

An closer to home there is a lot more about it on this thread - click - including a French local newspaper report

[Coldstreamer]

[quote

SDGW has 'Died' which implies accidental death.

Wouldn't agree with that, in this context maybe but died is frequently noted because cause of death was unknown

[kenf48]

[quote

SDGW has 'Died' which implies accidental death.

Wouldn't agree with that, in this context maybe but died is frequently noted because cause of death was unknown

Thank you for a valuable contribution to this thread, although I'm somewhat at a loss as to what context, other than this thread and the topic under discussion that this soldier was killed in a rail accident, should be mentioned.

His cause of death was not unknown but the result of crushing injuries likely to have been caused by a traumatic event, e.g. a rail crash

Ken

[Guest david17th]

My name is David King and Cpl D W King was my Grandfathers brother. Given that I know quite a lot about David Wm.King and have a photograph of him in WW1 uniform, I was interested in other peoples interest in him.

Can MacTyke please let me know what relation he is to the above. Many thanks

[ALDAWSON77]

David, sorry for the delay in replying to your request. My father's brother is married to Pte D W King's grandaughter. I have done some research on her behalf. She would love anything you have on him as she knows very little. My email address-aldawson77@hotmail.com

Edited 12 June , 2016 by MacTyke

[clk]

Hi Alan,

david17th only made one post and hasn't been on the forum since January 2016 - a short time after he joined. It might be worth sending him a PM. If he still has the same email address, it will send a message to that address, and alert him to your PM.

I suspect that you will have already seen them, but just in case FMP has two records where he is listed - the first two in this search result. Both record that he suffered pelvic and abdominal contusions. One refers though to the 8th General Hospital, Rouen, and the other to the 10th.

If you were so inclined you should be able to get a copy of his death certificate from the GRO using the reference contained by "drilling down" into the first result to this search - the certificate may confirm the precise place of his death.

He also appears to have a surviving soldier's will (£10) - it may well not contain much info. that you are not already aware of though..

Regards

Chris

[Guest]

On 29/12/2015 at 17:11, Guest david17th said:

My name is David King and Cpl D W King was my Grandfathers brother. Given that I know quite a lot about David Wm.King and have a photograph of him in WW1 uniform, I was interested in other peoples interest in him.

Can MacTyke please let me know what relation he is to the above. Many thanks

 

On 12/06/2016 at 20:15, ALDAWSON77 said:

David, sorry for the delay in replying to your request. My father's brother is married to Pte D W King's grandaughter. I have done some research on her behalf. She would love anything you have on him as she knows very little. My email address-aldawson77@hotmail.com

 

Cpl D W King was my Grandmother Annie’s Brother. I will ask my 91 year old Mum (his niece if she knows). Regards Ann

[ALDAWSON77]

Ann, that would be wonderful.

My Aunty Mavis' mother was Emily Draper née King. I remember her well and fondly. She would babysit my sister and I when we visited. An absolutely wonderful woman. Her mother was Sarah King née Thompson who was David's first wife and who sadly died in 1913 when Emily was only 4 y/o. I'm not sure of where she was after that as David would have been at war from 1914 and 3 years later she was orphaned. It would be good to find out who brought her up from that point. My Aunty knows very little of her mother and I'd like ro find out as much as I can for her. 

 

Regards Al.