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Anglican Division
A, Row 2, plot 15
Photo credit Cathy
Currie
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A group of children, including William had climbed up onto the cart holding the water tank (despite being forbidden to go near it). It seems as though the tip pin which secured the tank to the cart had been played with, and its removal had caused the cart to tip up and the tank to topple over.
William was pinned to the earth by the heavy tank and died almost instantly from severely fractured skull.
His little sister and the children behind William narrowly escaped.
William’s body was carried to the grandstand and a Doctor telegraphed for,although he could do nothing for the boy except declare life extinct.
The rest of the children were sent home by tram cars and a local Reverend was called upon to meet the little boy’s parents who were on their way to pick up their children from the picnic.
The boy’s body was returned to the family at their Clarence St Ponsonby home later that evening.
An inquest was held at the family’s home where a number of witnesses gave their accounts, including the carter who was adamant he had firmly and safely secured the tank to the cart with a tip/lynch pin and iron bar and suggested that one of the children had interfered with the pin, removing it and causing the tank to topple over.
A verdict of accidental death was returned.
Incidentally William was the son of Walter Bruce, a reporter on the staff of The NZ Herald.
Anglican Division A, Row 2,
Plot 15: William Bruce (10) 1893 – died 1893 – h/s down & broken
John Wakefield (36) 1896
In
Loving Memory
of
JOHN WAKEFIELD
who departed this life
January 14th 1896,
aged 35 years
Also
WILLIAM BRUCE
who was accidentally killed at
Potter's Paddock January 2nd 1894
aged 10 years.
“Thy will be done”
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18930103.2.18
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18930104.2.16
Image: Cathy Currie
Presented by Susan Reid - Discover Waikumete
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