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MOTHER AND DAUGHTER GIVE THEIR LIVES IN FRUITLESS ATTEMPT TO RESCUE SEVEN-YEAR SON
MOST TRAGIC INQUIRY, SAYS CORONER
STORIES OF HEROISM BY RELATIVES AND NEIGHBOURS WHEN THE ICE BROKE

“This inquiry is into the cause of the deaths of three members of one family, living at Skegness which all occurred on Sunday afternoon last at a field at the rear of Lincoln Road on the brickpits there, when the ice gave way and the three were drowned.”
The above comment was made by the Deputy Skegness Coroner, Mr. J. C. Walter, who conducted the inquest at Skegness yesterday, into the deaths of Mrs. Annie Simpkin Key, aged 40, her daughter Beryl Rebecca, aged18, and her son, Raymond Phillip, aged 7.
The boy had fallen through the ice and his mother and sister lost their lives in trying to save him.
The father, Bert Coulsey Key, who with difficulty restrained his tears, said they lived at 9, St. Clements Road, Skegness, and he was a transport supervisor.
He added, “About 3 p.m. on Sunday, I was with my family listening in to the wireless, when a small boy came to the door and said Raymond was in the water.

ALL RUSHED OUT
“We all rushed out, my wife following on, and when I got there I saw my son’s head above the water. Margaret and Beryl, his sisters, both rushed on to ice and as they got towards him I saw the ice give way and they went in the water.
“They dashed on without hesitating and never stopped in any way. Mr. Collinson, a lodger, was with me and he rushed forward with my wife.
“l was also in the water, but almost collapsed at what was happening and was helped out. I shouted for help. The ice was thicker at the sides than further in.”
Witness continued, ” I saw Beryl get hold of the boy and I think that he must have dragged her down with him. By that time other people had arrived.”
Witness said his small son had been playing snowballing with another boy and were making a snowman in the yard. “We did not know that they had gone off to the pond.” Witness said he had since identified the bodies.

REGARDLESS OF SAFETY
The Coroner: From what you say, neighbours did everything possible to get the boy out ?-I am sure they did.
The Coroner: Quite regardless of their own safety?—Yes.

Harry Hillard, a bus driver, of Lincoln Road, said his wife told him that a man had passed with a prop towards the pond and he at once ran there.
He noticed that there were several people in the water and a dog there. A man named Hayes and he both attempted to go on the ice and one of Mrs. Key’s daughters ran on the ice, but it collapsed, and they pulled Mr. Collinson to the side.
Someone then brought a rope and it was flung to the daughter, Margaret Key. Witness said that he was sticking in the mud and when they got a prop he and another man pulled one of the girls to the bank.
He added, “We were all trying our best to get them out. We tried artificial respiration, on the mother, and Margaret was still alive”. The bodies were later recovered with a clothes prop and Margaret was also brought to the bank.
Hector Ernest Andrews, joiner’s labourer, said he rushed to the pond with a clothes line. He saw Margaret go down in the water and the others in it, but did not see the boy.
When he arrived the mother was doing all she could in rescue work on the edge of the thick ice. The next girl was in the water. Beryl had gone down as he arrived.
CONGRATULATED BY CORONER
There was a space between the two girls. “I threw the clothes line to the youngest girl and it landed across her shoulder and she got hold of it. It was a lucky shot and I was able to pull her in with the assistance of Hayes and Hilliard. We got Mrs. Key out with the prop and we were all trying to get them out as quickly as we could.
The Coroner: I think you are to be congratulated for thinking of bringing the clothes line.
Witness: I don’t take any credit. We were all doing our best.
The Coroner: I feel the clothes line was a great help in saving a life.
FIELD WAS FENCED
P.c. Owen said he informed the fire service and ambulance and went to the pit where there was a crowd round and artificial respiration was being applied to the mother. He was told that there was still a boy and the girl Beryl, in the water, and he made arrangements for dragging operations to begin.
He got Margaret and Collin-son off to hospital in the ambulance.
The brickpit belong to Mr. W. Tagg, in a field used as a camping ground. It was large and very deep and the ice at the edge was three inches deep, but became thinner.
There had been no skating on it. The field was properly fenced. The girl was first recovered and later the boy.
Dr. M. B. Fox said Mrs. Key was dead upon arrival at hospital. Upon examination, he found that all three had died from drowning.

1955 Skegness News article

EXPLOSION -LIKE A BOMB
CARAVAN WRECKED IN MIDNIGHT DRAMA AT SKEGNESS

GIRL HOLIDAY-MAKERS’ PLIGHT
It was approaching midnight on Sunday as three girls made their way to the caravan in Walsh’s Camping Site, Skegness, which was to be their home for the next week. There was a slight mist, but that was forgotten, for they were on holiday, and everything was bound to turn out fine.

They had just seen a variety show at the Derbyshire Miners’ Theatre, and, as the lights from other caravans winked out all around them, their plans for the immediate future were to make themselves a cup of tea and go to bed.

A few minutes later, their frantic screams brought other caravanners leaping from their beds as two explosions resounded through the camp, shattering the caravan side and one end. Flames burned the girls’ legs and singed their hair.

HUMAN CHAIN
Activity around the caravan reached fever pitch as pyjama-clad holidaymakers formed a human chain, passing along buckets of water to quench the flames in the caravan, sleep completely forgotten.
Soon the fire tender and ambulance arrived, first aid was rendered to the girls and the flames extinguished.

A little later they found accommodation for the night with friendly holiday-makers, and a householder.
The drama started as Evelyn Haywood (18), of 353, Mary Street, Langworth, near Mansfield, struck a match to light the gas in the caravan. Her sister Doreen (19), and their friend Barbara Collier, of 22, Bevin Estate, Cresswell, near Worksop, stood in the doorway ready to step inside when the light gleamed.

But they were not to get inside, at least for some time. The lamp lit, Evelyn moved the match towards the stove. There was a roar and flames leaped out.
Evelyn leaped for the door, as a second explosion shook the caravan.
Inside, flames quickly took a hold on anything and everything, destroying the girls, clothing, much of which was new.

1955 Skegness Standard news story

SKEGNESS COUPLE’S ESCAPE
CAR CRASHES INTO BUNGALOW LIVING-ROOM

MR. AND MRS. B. B. JAMES, of ” Sealands,” Burgh Road, Skegness, sitting quietly in the living room of their bungalow, received a very unexpected visitor just as they were contemplating going to bed at approximately 9.30 p.m. on Friday evening.

The car was being driven by Warrant Officer J. L. Roberts, U.S.A.F.—the only occupant—who was returning from the American Air Base at East Kirkby to his home at 352 Drummond Road. It had skidded on the grass verge on the opposite side of the road approximately forty yards from the house. It then careered across the road again, plunged through a wire mesh fence, over some fifteen yards of garden before striking the wall of the house.

Fortunately, neither Mr. and Mrs. James nor Warrant Officer Roberts were injured in any way, although Mrs. James was partly buried beneath a large kitchen table behind which she had been seated.

THOUGHT IT WAS ‘PLANE
Mr. James said that when the car crashed into the wall he and his wife thought that it was a ‘plane that had crashed.
They were just thinking of going to bed, and were sitting, one each side of the fireplace. Luckily they were some distance from the bay window, which took the full force of the crash.
When the car came to rest, Warrant Officer Roberts climbed out, apparently shaken but otherwise unhurt, and asked if they were all right.
The car remained half-in and half-out of the wall for the night, but was removed in the morning by a break-down gang.

The hole in the bungalow, which measured approximately ten feet long and eight high, was covered by a tarpaulin.
Damage to the house and furniture was estimated by the tenant to be somewhere in the region of £300.
Damage to the car included broken front suspension, extensive damage to the radiator grill, smashed headlamps and a splintered windscreen.

1955 Skegness news article

SINCE it was introduced on Wednesday this beach train has been proving popular with the holidaymakers on the central beach. Run by the District Council and a Peterborough firm on a sharing basis, the purpose-built diesel-powered engine has been trundling along the new sea walk and the South Bracing at a steady 6 mph every day, drawing an open carriage filled with passengers.

The circular-trip from the Tower Esplanade and back — including the time taken to unluck and lock the gate on the boating compound esplanade — lasts nearly 20 minutes. A bell and a motor horn can be used to give warning of approach by drivers Mr Dick Revill and Mr Jarvis Taylor.

Skegness news article 1975/76

JAYNE Brealey was the toast of Skegness at the weekend when she appeared live on national television -in a bikini.
Brave Jayne jumped at the chance to enter the “Number Cruncher” challenge on Saturday night when BBC’s Noel’s House Party called at the resort.
When show host Noel Edmonds an nounced that the strict dress code was a swimming costume, Jayne gave no thought to the bracing weather.
She ransacked her room to find a pink bikini and ran down to the seafront with her brother, Sebastian.
Hundreds of well wrapped House Party “guests” turned up to cheer on the challenge, as well
as a dozen or so who braved the elements in swimsuits.
From the warmth of his studio in London, Edmonds telephoned Jayne at a specially erected call box on the foreshore.
“It looks like it might be just a -little bit chilly there” the observant host said.
Freezing
“It’s freezing!” was Jayne’s response.
Edmonds congratulated Jayne for being a sport in her swimsuit and the biggest cheer of the night came when Jayne unravelled the number code in record time.
“That was incredible. Nobody has ever done it that quickly before,” said Edmonds.
For a bonus, Jayne won £64 and escaped being “gunged”, a
fate suffered by those who fail to solve the problem within the time limit.
The Brealey telephone at the home in Scarbrough Avenue, Skegness, was busy throughout Saturday night, with relatives ringing to congratulate Skegness’s latest star.
Recognised
Jayne was instantly recognised while out that night, having become something of an instant celebrity on her television debut.
Jayne now plans to send Noel Edmonds a personals d Jolly Fisherman to say thankyou for she and her mum, Diane, operating as Martins Fine Art Miniatures, produce a smaller version of Skegness’s famous colourful character.

1994 local newspaper story