The Late Mr. Broomhead Colton-Fox

THE SHEFFIELD AND ROTHERHAM INDEPENDENT, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1893 

The adjourned inquiry into the circumstances attending the death of Mr. Broomhead Colton-Fox, who was killed at the Victoria Station on Friday night, was held yesterday afternoon. Frederick Walker, 62, Nottingham Street, Sheffield, chief inspector at the Victoria Station, who had known the deceased for 20 years as a passenger on the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railway. He was on duty on Friday night when this unfortunate accident occurred. He saw the deceased at 17 minutes past seven o’ clock. He was standing about 10 yards from the bookstall, and he saw the deceased walk towards the bookstall and pass it by. He then was going towards the level crossing after which John Wheatman Taylor called out that “There is a man killed”. The witness found the body jammed between the platform and the outer down-line rail and the train which killed the deceased had passed there and apparently all gone over him.

The inquest continued for a long time. According to the Jury, he heard no cry when he was going down the slope as the engine passed over the crossing. “The body was found about nine yards from the crossing; the head was jammed down into the ground, and the feet were towards the station” he said. Finally, the coroner was grieved to say it though; he did not think anybody was to blame but Mr. Broomhead Colton-Fox himself. They had got in evidence that he had been remonstrated with for using this crossing, where an ordinary person would not have been allowed to cross at all; and it was quite possible that the railway servants did not insist in his case on the regulations being observed as they would in an ordinary case. He did not think that the jury could make anything but an accident of the occurrence. The jury then proceeded to consider their verdict, and the Coroner, in reference to some remarks made, repeated that these crossings at the Victoria Station were a long way from the bridge, and very few people used them.

After some further conversation on this point, the jury resolved to make no recommendation, but returned a verdict of accidental death, and expressed their sympathy with the relatives and friends of the deceased.

An Introduction to Mr Broomhead