Coroner's report for William Henry Ball, 1892-1941

Following the tragic death of William Henry Ball at the Ealing Broadway Train Station, a coroner's inquest was held. These are the details from that inquest conducted by Mr. H.G. Broadbridge, coroner for West Middlesex, on 18 June 1941 at Ealing Town Hall.

This is an image of the Ealing Town Hall:

By P.g.champion (Own work) [CC-BY-2.0-uk (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons





William died as a result of being hit by a train at Ealing Broadway station, an east-west National Rail and London Underground station in Ealing in west London, located here:


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William was 48 years old. He had lived at 34 Stanley Crescent, Southall, with his wife, Kate Matilda Ball (her name appears as 'Matilda Kate' in other records), and had been a carpenter's labourer for the Great Western Railway.

Francis Paynter, who had known William for 12 years and lived at the same address, described him as a 'temperate man' in his testimony.

Kate Ball noted that William had suffered from asthma and bronchitis and took medication for these conditions. He did not gamble, had no financial worries and had been a teetotaler since the previous October. She noted that he been worried when she was ill recently.

On the morning of Saturday 14 June 1941, William went through his normal morning routine and showed no signs of distress or upset. He usually travelled by trolleybus to Acton, where he worked, but often stopped at Ealing, due to his illness, which had been aggravated in the last two years of his life. However, he never turned up at work that day.

The report notes that William bought a ticket for Ealing Station late that afternoon. At 6pm, James Matthew, a railway porter, heard on man on Platform 4 shouting that a body was on the main line. Unable to stop, the express train to Paddington hit William with such force that his body was left in pieces. The train had been travelling at 60mph and the driver's view was obscured by engine steam. Although the brakes were applied, the driver was unable to stop the train in time.

The pathologist reported that death was due to multiple injuries and the coroner was unable to determine why William fell onto the tracks, so an open verdict was recorded. William's wife, it was noted, felt that it had been an accident and had to be helped away.

Had William jumped or fell onto the tracks? Given his failure to turn up at work, I am tempted to say that this was indeed a suicide, but there may have been other circumstances at play, including his health. It is such a tragic end to William's life. I also can't help but feel sad for the poor train driver who had been unable to stop in time.

Many thanks to the Ealing Library Local Studies Centre and Dr. Oates for their assistance in tracking down this information. I have ordered additional news reports of the accident and will update details upon their receipt.

Cheers, K.

Closure for my mystery man, William Henry Ball

In my previous post, I had mentioned that I had obtained a death certificate for a William Henry Ball, who had died in 1941 in Ealing in a horrific railway related incident, but could not confirm if this was my William Henry. Sadly, I can now say that it was indeed my William, who died so tragically at the Ealing Broadway train station the afternoon of 14 June 1941.

To learn more details about the event and victim, I contacted the Ealing Library Local Studies Centre about obtaining a copy of the obituary for William Henry Ball, noted in the death certificate. Dr. Jonathan Oates, Borough archivist and local studies librarian, kindly provided me with a synopsis of the coroner's report which confirmed the identity of William. The inquest, held on 18 June 1941, at Ealing Town Hall, recorded an open verdict, which means that a determination on whether it was an accident or suicide could not made, based on the evidence heard and presented.

Many thanks to go Dr. Oates and the Ealing Library for providing this information for it has solved the mystery of William's death.

I'll post more details from the inquest in the days to come. Stay tuned!

Cheers, K.

Seeking closure for William Henry Ball

Image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

William Henry Ball has been my man of mystery for sometime now. Recently, I've been scouring UK death registrations in the hopes of finding him sometime between 1932 and 1947, when his wife, Matilda Kate Bowcher, remarried. This is, of course, assuming that he did, in fact, die before her 1947 marriage to Bertram Cox.

Based on what I have learned from a family member, William may have met a tragic end involving a jump from a railway bridge, at an early age. However, finding evidence of that tragedy has been difficult. Initially, I had thought that his demise may have tied to some involvement in the Great War or military service, but I could not find any evidence showing his enrollment, discharge or death. After learning that he was married in 1921 and still alive in December 1931 when his father died, I decided to throw the net a bit wider and further. Could William have died tragically outside of Penarth or Cardiff?

Searching several death registration indexes for the UK, I did find one that matched his birth year and age. The certificate was indexed with the name "William H. Ball", so I was not sure if I would find a William Herbert or Horace listed. With some trepidation, I ordered the certificate in late November. It arrived this past Friday.

Much to my delight, the full name on he certificate shows "William Henry Ball". Of great interest, the place of death is listed as Ealing Broadway railway station. Sadly, the cause of death are injuries sustained due to a fall in front of a train - confirmed by a coroner's inquest. Is this my William Henry? What was he doing in Ealing in 1941? Could this have been a suicide? An accident? I cannot say at this point. I've started the process of tracking down an obituary and news stories of the event and will post once I have more information.

Stay tuned...

Cheers, K.

Wedding of William James Ball and Mary Shepherd - 1879-1880

One of the best things about writing this blog is that I get to meet (in the virtual sense) many kind and generous people. One such person is Vivienne. She had seen my posts about William James Ball and his stay in the Glamorgan Asylum. As a former Reynoldston resident, she contacted me and shared her childhoood memories of seeing William and Mary's former home on St. George's Terrace and the Ball burial plot in the local cemetery.

Vivienne also sent me a reference to a blog entitled "Dear George" written by Frances Bevan, which examines the correspondence between George Bevan, who left home at age 15 to begin an apprenticeship in his uncle’s ironmonger’s shop in Llandudno, and his family in Gower. Their correspondence carried on for over 50 years.

Vivienne pointed out that the marriage of William James Ball and Mary Shepherd was mentioned in the letters of late 1879 and early 1880. The first reference to the couple can be found in a letter dated 15 Dec 1879 The second reference to William and Mary's wedding is found in a letter dated 26 Oct 1880.

I was really excited to see the references and want thank Vivienne for all of her insight and memories of Reynoldston and Gower.

Cheers, K.

John and Ruth (Thomas) Ball - Headstone

I've been caught up the past few weeks doing some research on my Dad's baseball and university career and have regrettably have been away from the blog, but I hope to remedy that by getting back into the swing of things.

I wanted to update the burial information for John and Ruth (Thomas) Ball at St. Andrew's in Dinas Powys. John was an older brother to my great-grandfather, Thomas Huxtable Ball.

John is buried with wife, Ruth Thomas, and their children, Nelson and Gwendoline. The headstone at St. Andrews Major Church reads as follows:

In loving memory of JOHN BALL died May 4th 1928 aged 68 years
And his dear wife RUTH BALL died December 28th 1959 in her hundredth year.
Also their son NELSON BALL, beloved husband of Linda, died June 2nd 1963 aged 60 years.
Also their daughter GWENDOLINE CHARLOTTE died September 19th 1986 aged 85 years, beloved wife of Captain BOBS THOMAS.

The blog post about their final resting place can be found here.

Cheers, K.

Advice from the National Archives (UK) on those census-shy relatives

I saw this National Archives blog post today about ancestors missing from the census and it really has given me thought and bit of chuckle.

I searched high and low for the William Huxtable Ball family in the 1871 Wales Census and even went back to the England Census, thinking that they may have returned to Devon. It wasn't until I read the source notes to the census file in Ancestry that I learned that some of the 1871 census returns for Glamorgan were missing. It means that I'll need to follow up to check their residency in some other record - like a directory, church register or tax record.

BC Vital Event information - Update

Back in 2011, I mentioned that the BC Archives vital event indexes were a great resource to use for researching British Columbia ancestors. Well, this resource has recently been updated in September 2012 and now features digitized microfilm for many (but not yet all) of its vital event registrations. I've been happily rediscovering entries for my Ball, McPhee, and Turner family lines in the vital event indexes. What a treat to see a digitized image of birth, marriage or death registration with a click of the mouse!

Cheers, K.