Dorothy Edith Grace Tidbury

CHILD BURNT TO DEATH

NECESSITY OF A FIRE GUARD

DANGER OF FLANNELETTE

The sad story of a child’s death by burning was told yesterday (Wednesday) evening at the Borough Coroner’s Court, in which the necessity of providing a fire-guard in homes where young children are about, and also the danger of flannelette clothing, were lamentably demonstrated. The child was Dorothy Edith Grace, daughter of Sidney Tidbury, of Connaught-road. She had been sent from her parents’ house to her grandmother at Wash Common, while removals were being made to another house. The grandmother left the child in a small greenhouse attached to the house, and went down the garden to feed the fowl. She was returning, when she heard screams inside the house. Rushing into the room, she found the child covered in flames. With difficulty, she put them out, burning her own arm in doing so. It is supposed that the child ran into the room after the kitten with which she had been playing. Following the kitten near the fire, the child stumbled over the kerb and so ignited her clothes. She was wearing that very treacherous fabric, flannelette at the time, and was burnt from head to foot.

As the Coroner pointed out; mothers and others having the charge of children, would do well to take a warning from this case. The grandmother of the little girl, struck a very pathetic figure, and the father also broke down while giving his evidence. The inquest was held at St. John’s Schoolroom by Dr. Heywood, the Borough Coroner, before a jury, of whom Mr. A. C. Bishop was foreman.

Sidney Tidbury, living at 27, Connaught-road, gave evidence of identification. On Sunday, he and his wife took the child up to her grandmother’s, Mrs. Maccabee.  Elizabeth Maccabee, living at Roseleigh House, Wash Common, said she left the child in the greenhouse, while she went down the garden. The time was about quarter to nine, and coming back, she heard screams from inside the house. She found the child lying on the floor screaming and she rolled her in a thick cloth, burning her own arm in doing so. Mrs. Purton, a neighbour, came in. The child had been playing with the kitten, and there were no fires except the one in the front room; neither were there any matches lying about.

A juror: Was there a guard around the fire? – Witness: No.

Kate Purton said she was out of doors, and heard the screams. She ran into the house, and found that the child had been burnt. The flames were then out. She ran out and called Mrs. Collins, and then sent a boy for a doctor Mrs. Collins, of Hill-view, Wash Common, said she put oils on the child’s burns, and sent for Dr. Thompson. She noticed burns on the arm, and one side of its body and face, and it was screaming the whole of the time. The house was a double-fronted one, and instead of going out of doors when they passed through the scullery, they went into the greenhouse. The fireplace was just the ordinary sitting-room one, and the fire was burning low. In answer to the Coroner, she didn’t know the nature of the child’s clothing.

The father was again called, and he said the child was wearing a blue cotton dress over a flannelette petticoat and other flannelette clothing.

Dr. Arthur Thompson said about 20 minutes’ past nine on Tuesday morning he received an urgent telephone message to go to a child that had been burnt. He went at once, and found the child lying in its grandmother’s arms, wrapped in a blanket. Examining superficially, he found the child had been badly burnt. He wrapped it in more blankets, and took the child to the hospital. There he found the child had been burnt all over the body, from head to foot. Its clothing had been nearly all destroyed. The child died about 11 o’clock. The cause of death was shock to the system from severe burns.

The Foreman said that he did not see that there had been any neglect on the part of the grandmother.

The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, that death was from shock, and directed the attention of all those in charge of children to the necessity of providing a fire guard for their safety.