Body Vanished from Gasworks Lift Cage

By Angela Gooch on February 21st, 2008

WORKMATES DILEMMA DISCLOSED

WHEN HE RETURNED WITH HELP, BODY HAD VANISHED FROM THE LIFT-CAGE

JURY RETURNS VERDICT OF ACCIDENTAL DEATH

A three hours’ investigation on Thursday by the Deputy Coroner for the District, Mr. J. C. Walter, did little to solve the mystery underlying the death of John William Eilis, a 52-year-old stoker at the Skegness Gas- works, who died in Skegness hospital last Tuesday morning following an accident at the works at 4.45 a.m. same morning.

Searching questions were put by the Coroner to Walter Henry Green, a fellow stoker, who found the deceased lying unconscious in the cage of the coal lift, and was apparently faced with the dilemma of deciding whether to go to his mate’s aid, or immediately securing the assistance of the works superintendent and others.
Instantaneously he chose the latter course, and had assistance on the scene in a few minutes only; but in the meantime Ellis had vanished from the cage, and was found a few moments later lying fatally injured on the cross-bracing of the lift shaft.
After listening to witness Green, the Coroner said “you may feel that he did not quite do all he might have done at the time of finding deceased in the lift. The fact that he, instead of going to the deceased, went to fetch help, is not in my opinion itself in the way of criminal negligence, whatever you may think think he should have done and that it would, have been far better if he had gone to him.
There is no suggestion that he has done anything actually wrong, but he has omitted to do something he might.”

VIEWED SCENE OF THE ACCIDENT
At the outset, the Coroner nature of the enquiry, he had d said that, owing to the difficult arranged for the jury to view the scene of the accidient and the lift, and also to view the body. This was done.
Mr. C. E. R. J. Sayer represented the Royal Insurance Company, Mr. W. L. Wood, of Nottingham, represented the widow, and the Transport and General Workers Union, and Mr. A. T. Davidson, H. M. lnspector of Factories for the area, was also present.
TROUBLE WITH LIFT
Bramwell Ellis, brother of deceased, of 13 Sandbeck Avenue, also a stoker at the Gasworks, said he was working at the Gasworks on the Monday. He had occasion to use the lift, and it was working all right between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. Deceased came on at 10 p.m. and was in good health.
Replying to questions by the Coroner, witness said he had experienced no difficulty with the lift except in a high wind which affected the trailing cable. On a former occasion it had taken 5 minutes to liberate. Deceased had a good knowledge of the lift, having worked there for 30 years.
Walter Henry Green, of 31, Richmond Drive, Skegness, a stoker at the Gasworks, said he came on duty at 10 p.m. on the Monday, and deceased reported for duty at the same time and appeared to be in his normal health. The work during the night went according to schedule, and the plant worked all right.
Once or twice during the night they had trouble with the lift, but not serious. When the wind was from the sea they did get trouble with it. The lift was used for taking coke from the ground floor to the second storey.
About 4.30 a.m. the lift, which he was using, suddenly stopped when coming down. Witness said he knew that it was due to the wind causing tension on the rope. He overcame the difficulty and the lift went up. The same thing happened again when it descended and he could not remedy it and he went back to the original position to the platform and took the empty skip out.
He tried again, but it stopped within two or three feet of the producer platform, 20 feet from ground level. He left it and came down by the stairs. He would have to jump two or three feet to the producer platform and took no further steps to find out what the trouble was.
At the bottom of the steps he saw deceased and told him it had stuck, and deceased fetched a lamp to have a look at it and went up the stairs.
The Coroner: Is it difficult to do anything with the lift at night time ?
Witness: It depends. If it is anything serious, we should not attempt to do it and should call the foreman out.

HEARD SOMETHING DROP
Replying to further questions by the Coroner, witness said the lift was in constant use at night. He did not go to help deceased, as deceased only went to see what was the matter. He knew far more about the lift than witness. While he was away, witness was dealing with the coke, ready to put it into the skip, and was about 20 ft. from the lift at the bottom.
Witness added, “After I had been sweeping the coke for a short time, I heard something drop. It was the hand lamp deceased had taken up. It fell towards the left side, partly in the well.” He shouted out to deceased asking if he could see anything and got no reply, and shouted a second time and there was no reply. There was a strong wind blowing,
The Coroner: Could you see the lift shaft?—Yes, I went to investigate, and I saw Ellis lying on the floor of the lift, his head facing towards the yard and his feet near the producer platform.

DASHED ROUND WORKS
Did you go up to him?—I went close up to the lift and came straight down the stairs and went to the foreman’s house.
What was your reason not going to him?-I could see, as thought, that he was still, and seriously hurt and I went for assistance.

Was there any blood?—I could not see any.
You did not think of pulling him out of the lift?—No. Not at the time.
Why did you think he was seriously hurt? - Because he did not move. I got no answer and I thought he had hurt himself or was taken ill, and so I immediately went for the foreman.
Witness added that he woke the foreman up straight away and told him “Billy had had an accident and he must come a once, and he did.

How long did you have to wait? - I dashed round the work to see everything was all right for the safety of the works. I did not know how he had left it, and went straight back again to the foreman’s house.
What did you attend round the works?-There are two boilers I have to attend.

Could anything have happened to them?—Yes.
Is that the reason you did not go straight back to Ellis?—I went back and on my way up the plant — him lying in the same place, and then I went to the top and straight down, and he was in the same position when I was coming down. I then went round to my second boiler and the meter house, and the foreman came out of his house and went with me and we both went up. The foreman said he was not in the lift. When I left Ellis, the outside gate facing the yard was partly open. I had left it closed, but left it open when I fetched Mitchell.

The Coroner: Supposing in his concussion, he had gone to that opening, he could have fallen straight into the yard?
Witness: If he had got up and gone forward.
The Coroner: Did it occur to you to close the gates when you saw him in that condition?—No, Sir. Not at the time.

WERE YOU PANICKY ?
Were you a little panicky?—Maybe I was, maybe not. Under the circumstances, I was trying to do my best for the man, and looking after the safey of the works by dashing round. It put me in a very awkward position.
Witness said when they found deceased was not in the lift, they looked round. They were on the producer platform, and they found deceased under the carbonising platform.
He added, “He was hanging by his legs about half way, trapese fashion, his foot was hanging over the diagonal iron and his head hanging down in the lift shaft. Mr. Mitchell got a rope, and we got a ladder and we got him down.”

Replying to the Coroner, witness said it was not usual to climb out the lift and down the oars, and he did not think deceased was going to get underneath.
The Coroner: What space of time elapsed between your going to fetch Mitchell and your coming back With him?—About two minutes.

The Coroner detailed the things witness said he had done in the interval, and witness said he did those things in the time stated.

AN AWKWARD PREDICAMENT
Witness said he did not hear Ellis shout or groan. Ellis had not previously put the lift right. Witness had been employed there five years.
The Coroner. You thought he was seriousy ill or hurt, and you took the method you did, rather than seeing if you could do anything ? - I was in an awkward predicament, being single handed.
A juryman commented that as deceased got out of the lift during the absence of the witness, deceased could not have been unconscious.
Replying to Mr. Wood, who said witness seemed to have travelled a long distance and done some important jobs in the two minutes mentioned, witness again detailed his movements and said he came down three steps at a time.

Mr Sayer: What room would there be in the lift when the skip was in?—Witness: Two feet three inches.
Witness said deceased’s head and body were in the lift shaft, hanging.

gas retort house skegness gas works late 1950s

GATES OUT OF ORDER
Replying to the Factory Inspector, witness said there were two cables, one electric and another which operated the safety gear. The wind affected the safety cable.
The safety catches on the gates, intended to prevent the lift moving, had not been in order for some time. The device was not in operation.

Alexander Mitchell, Works Superintendent, said when the last witness called him he said, “Come quick, Bill is trapped in the lift” or “by the lift.” That was at 4.45 a.m. He got partly dressed and in two minutes was with Green. They went to the spot and witness could not see deceased in the lift, which was 2ft. bins. from the platform. They searched and Green saw him hanging underneath, as previously described.
They got him down and there was no sign of life, but witness later saw a movement of one hand. Witness said the cable then was not fast, and he could pull it up, and the lift had worked all right since. Nothing was found in the lift, but deceased’s false teeth were found in the well. Ellis was very capable with the lift.

CLIMBED OUTSIDE THEORY ?
When the Coroner remarked that it woud be a brave action on deceased’s part to get underneath to put it right, witness said, “It would be a foolhardy idea, I think, I would not do it.” He thought deceased might have been lying down with his hands underneath.

The Coroner: How could he have got in that position?—I have no idea unless he climbed outside. There is not enough space any other way. He must have climbed out. I have not known him do it but I have known it done.

Replying to the Inspector’ of Factories, witness said the distance between the bottom of the cage and the cross bracing where they found deceased was about 2ft.
Witness replying to the Coroner said he thought the last witness might have done the things he enumerated in the time stated. While the mechanical part was all right, the gates had been out of order some considerable period.
He did not know the position of the boilers, etc, at the time but they might have required looking after.

MEN HAD ORDERS
Leslie Benjamin Chapman, of 23, Glentworth Crescent, Manager of the Gasworks, explained the work of the night shift and how coke was taken on the lift, the latter being operated by a steam engine. He referred to a previous breakdown which was temporary, an entanglement of the electric cable.
It had been, in good working order recently. The “doors” were out of order, one of those things that had to be constantly maintained. They had been attended to in December. The men had their duties, and there had been written instructions they must not interfere with the interlocking system of the gates.
They would automatically put a small thing in order, but it was not part of their duty. The lift was examined officially twice a year by the Insurance Company engineer and was maintained. It was examined in June, 1949, and the report was that the hoist was in order.

CONSISTENT WITH FALL
Dr. G. N. Hamilton said at 5.3 0 a.m. he was called to deceased at the hospital and found him unconscious, and suffering from a marked degree of shock. He died at 6.30 a.m. without regaining consciousness. A post-mortem revealed that his injuries included fractures of the jaw, cheek bone, nasal bone and skull, with inward bleeding of the latter, lacerations of the right cheek and forehead and abrasions caused by a wire rope. He was a healthy man of good physique with no evidence of disease.
The injuries were consistent with a man falling and coming in contact with vertical girders. There was no evidence of crush injuries The injuries were from a fall or swinging and hitting a hard object.

Replying to a juryman, witness said a man might be stunned and injured and try to continue his work with a semi-conscious mind. Pc Joslin gave the measurements of the lift and said there was no blood on the girders and Ps. Baldam said there was blood in the water of the well. His idea was that deceased might have possibly been out of the lift to correct a fault and lost his balance. But it was all surmise.

HE MEANT HURT
The Coroner recalled the witness Green, and asked him fur they questions. He said, “You have heard the evidence of Mr. Mitchell that when you roused him you shouted to him, “Come quick. Bill’s trapped in, or by, the lift.”
Witness: I may have said that. If I did I have overlooked that.
The Coroner: Did you say that?—Something to that effect.
Why did you say trapped?—It is the usual thing to say if someone gets hurt.
Did you mean hurt or trapped?—I meant hurt, when I said trapped.

The Coroner commented that they did know that the injuries were consistent with the body coming in contact with the iron girders. It appeared to him that deceased was doing something, if, he was caught under the lift, that wasrather more than necessary, and a very daring thing to do during the night and without assistance.

ACCIDENTAL DEATH
But the jury must come to their own conclusion in arriving at their verdict, but the question of suicide was ruled out to his mind.
If they thought there was not sufficient evidence they could return an open verdict.
After a short retirement the jury returned a verdict of “Accidental Death,” and added a rider that the only thing that could be suggested was that the lift should be put in proper order.
The Coroner: I will see that goes forward.

The Coroner, Police Inspector Cottingham, H.M. Factory Inspector and Mr. Sayer all expressed sympathy with the widow in her loss, and Mr. W. L. Wood, on her behalf, thanked them for the expression.

1950 Skegness news story.

Photos: Top - Skegness Gas Works in 1909. Bottom - Skegness gas retort house late 1950s, the external lift caging and diagonal iron girders can be seen on the right of the photo