Fatal accident at Cannon Farm (1918)

Post date: Apr 29, 2014 3:49:39 PM

Extract from Kent Messenger of 2nd March 1918

The inquest on Herbert Chapman, 50, of Maidia Place, Ditton, who died from injuries sustained while driving an engine on Cannon Farm, Wateringbury, where vegetables are being dried for the Government, was resumed at the West Kent Hospital, Maidstone, on Wednesday evening, before the Borough

Coroner (Mr. Walter Day). The Factory Inspector for the district (Mr. P. Heath) and Mr. E. P. Lickfold (solicitor to the Ministry of Food) were now present, while Mr H. J. Bracher represented the widow.

-Alfred Thos. Martin, a fresh witness, living at Offham, said he had been employed on Cannon Farm as a stoker. The engine which deceased drove was indoors. There was a board underneath the belting

which protected the belting from the fan, but there was a space between the engine and the board which was not protected. While he was in the engine room on the morning of the 15th February the deceased called out: “The belting has hit me”.

-The Coroner: Mrs. Chapman said he told her at the hospital that the belting had “knocked him flat,” Did you see him on the ground?

-No, sir.

-What had he been doing when he called out to you?

-l don’t know whether he had been doing anything to the pump or not.

-The Coroner: some further protection has been put up since the accident?

-Witness: Yes,sir.

-By the Factory Inspector: Witness anticipated no danger prior to the accident, and deceased had made no complaint to him on the subject

-Dr. Zachariab, house surgeon at the hospital, stated that deceased was admitted on the day of the accident suffering from a wound on the left side of the head, and expired on the 19th February. Witness had made a post mortem examination and found that death was due to haemorrhage of the brain. A blow on the head from the nut on the belting could have caused the injury.

-Mr. Arthur Hoare, a civil engineer, attached to the Ministry of Food, who had examined the engine, expressed the opinion that it would not have been necessary for deceased to get under the belting to attend to the pump.

The Coroner then briefly summed up, and the jury returned a verdict of “Accidental Death.”

Both the Coroner and Mr. Lickfold, on behalf of Lord Rhondda, expressed sympathy with the widow and family.

Mrs Chapman is left with five children, the eldest, of whom, Herbert, is serving with the forces in Egypt. The deceased had lived at Ditton for many years. He was a very steady, hard-working man, and was devoted to his wife and family.