Childs Fatal Fall Print E-mail
The Whitehaven News - Thursday, August 14, 1913

CHILD’S FATAL FALL FROM
MARYPORT PIER
____
 
THE INQUEST.

 On Wednesday, Mr. E. ATTER, coroner for West Cumberland, held an inquest in the Mission Room, Grasslot, touching on the death of Evelyn HIGGINS, nine years old and five months, daughter of George HIGGINS, coal miner, Maryport, living with her grandmother, Mrs. GILMOUR, Nelson-street, Maryport, who received fatal injuries due to a fall from the North Pier, Marport on Sunday.
 
 Mr. Isaac TODD was elected foreman of the jury.
 
 Margaret GILMOUR, grandmother of the deceased, said the child had always lived with her. She left the house on Sunday with Ronald GILMOUR about one o’clock. The first thing witness heard was a rumour in the street that two children had fallen over the pier, and then deceased was carried into the house. She was attended to by Dr. CRERAR’s assistant and then removed to the Cottage Hospital. The child had said previously that she was going to play on the pier. Witness had never known her to play on the pier before.
 
 Eleanor HILTON, eight years of age, said on Sunday last she was playing with Evelyn HIGGINS on the pier end. They were turning somersaults upon the bars at the pier end when the deceased lost her hold and fell over. There was no one about at the time.
 
 The Coroner complimented the witness upon the excellent manner in which she had given her evidence.
 
 George SCOTT, boatman, Grasslot Square, Maryport, said he was walking along the pier between one and two o’clock when he heard a man, who was on the south pier, shouting that a girl had fallen over the pier. Witness ran to the place and picked her up. She was lying face downwards and groaning. All her pinafore was covered with blood from her face. She was conveyed to her grandmother’s house. He never saw the child swinging on the bars at the pier.
 
 Jessie DUNNING, matron at the Cottage Hospital, stated that the child arrived at the Cottage Hospital about twenty minutes to three on the Sunday afternoon. She was rather dazed but conscious enough to ask for a drink of water. She was suffering from a compound fracture of the jaw and a fracture of the right thigh. She had been attended to and bandaged before going to the hospital. She died about one o’clock on Tuesday morning.
 
 Sergt. RITCHIE said he received information of the occurrence on Sunday evening. On the following day, Monday, when the tide was out the deceased’s playmate, Eleanor HILTON, showed the witness the place where deceased fell. The height of the pier would be about 35 feet, and where deceased fell there was a large number of boulders. A wooden bar projected a few feet out from the pier, and it was quite probable that the deceased fractured her jaw by striking this as she fell. It was the custom of the children to play at turning head over heels on the iron bars at the end of the pier.
 
 A verdict of death from accidental fall was returned.
 
 The Coroner intimated that the jurymen’s fees had now been increased from 6d to 1s while the police had also received an increased allowance. Before it did not seem reasonable to give the jurymen 6d and the witness 1s.
 
 
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