Skegness Magazine

Hundred years on, we reveal the name of a servant girl who died after her clothing caught fire  as she was working at the Skegness Pier View Hotel (right) in 1909.
The fatal accident was covered in a local newspaper, and astoninshingly, the poor servant-girl’s name was not even mentioned! She was merely refered to as the proprietors’ servant, the report seemingly commanding much sympathy for the proprietors.

Let’s look at the story:

The sad burning accident which occured on Saturday, 30th January, at Mr Charles Leighton’s Pier View, Skegness, terminated fatally on Wednesday morning. The servant whilst performing her household duties early in the morning had her clothing ignited.
She rushed upstairs in flames calling for help. Mr and Mrs Leighton succeeded in extinguishing the flames, the latter being also much burned in the operation.

Dr Allan was immediately summoned, and it was found that the poor girl had sustained severe burns on her body. She lingered until early Wednesday morning when she succumbed to the effects of her injuries.

An inquest was held at Mr Leighton’s house shortly after the incident, by Coroner for the Spilsby District, Dr Walker.

Charles Leighton was the first witness called. He revealed that the deceased was their servant, who had come to them on 20th June, 1908, from Belper, Derbyshire. She was almost 16 years of age. On the fatal morning, at 7.30am, Mr Leighton heard the deceased scream. He got up and saw the girl coming upstairs in flames. He rushed back to the bedroom, seized some blankets and wrapped them around the girl, extinguishing the flames. Mr Leighton then called the doctor.

It was considered that there might have been paraffin in the kitchen where the girl was working, but there was no evidence of this. Neither were there any books around to suggest the servant had been reading when the accident occurred.
A verdict of Accidental Death was returned.

We hunted for the dead girl in the Births, Marriage and Deaths Indexes and succeeded in finding the entry.

The servant-girl’s name was Ada Lowe, who was born near Matlock, Derbyshire early in 1894. We found her on the 1901 census, aged 8, living with her grandmother in Whatstandwell, in the rural district of Belper.

Click the image left for the 1901 census.