Skegness Magazine

SCHOOLBOY DIES FROM INJURIES (1944)

An extraordinary story of how a small boy entered a mine field, prised up a mine and threw it over a wire fence, and then threw stones at the detonator which he had removed from the mine, was told to Mr. W. C. Howard when he resumed the inquest yesterday into the death of Walter Stanley Taylor, aged 13 years, the son of a widow, whose death occurred on June 10th at Skegness in hospital.
The inquest had been adjourned until the recovery of the other boy who has since been in hospital.
Mr. R. E. Frearson represented the War Department.
Rex Edward Blades, aged 7 years, who was not sworn, gave his story very clearly after being reassured by the Coroner. He said that just after dinner on June 10th, he called for his pal, the deceased boy. They both went up the road and to the grounds of a house near a local golf club and then on to some sands. After going through an opening they came to a minefield and deceased went into it. He stayed outside.

CRAWLED THROUGH WIRE
He added: ” Stanley crawled through the wire and was groping about and found a mine. He lifted it up and threw it over the wire. I-le then got out of the minefield and went and picked it up and carried it to a stone pillbox. He took something off from round the bottom. I was beside him when he was doing it. He took the detonator out and threw it outside. He threw stones at it and hit it and it made a great noise and went off with a loud bang. We both got hurt and went to the golf house.”
Witness added that he did not touch it. The other boy did everything to it. Asked by the Coroner how far he was away he indicated about a yard. They had been down there before.
The Coroner: Did the other boy know there was anything marked up saying it was a minefield?
Witness: Yes. He told me he knew how to take a mine to pieces.

TERRIBLE INJURIES
Dr. William Brownlie said he saw the deceased the same day when he was suffering from severe shock, a deep pentrated wound on one side, laceration of the the face and the loss of the left hand above the wrist.
He was given a transfusion and the left arm was amputated and although his condition was satisfactory after the operation he then rapidly became worse and died from heart failure clue to shock on June 11th.

Helene Watt, a married woman residing at the Golf Club, said she was looking out of a bedroom window when she heard an explosion from the direction of the beach, but could not see anything. A short time after she heard a noise in the hall and then saw the two small boys standing there. They were covered with blood and injured. When she asked them where they had been, deceased said they had been walking and he stood on something and off it went. She at once sent for an ambulance and they were taken to hospital.

BLUNT INSTRUMENT USED
P.c. Welch spoke to examining the scene shortly after and finding a blood splash near the pillbox entrance. He recovered portions of a large mine and found it had been damaged with a blunt instrument. Some casing was inside the pillbox and other portions outside.
When he examined the minefield he saw the sand had been freshly stirred and there were footprints. The wire was intact.
The wire fencing was perfectly in order. The part of the beach was not open to the public and was a prohibited area.
A lieutenant of Engineers gave evidence that the minefield was properly constituted and protected with wire fencing and clearly marked with notice boards. It was enclosed by a double apron barbed wire fence which should prove an adequate deterrent to the inquisitive.
Commenting that it was clear that the minefield was properly protected, the Coroner returned a verdict of  “Death by Misadventure.”