Memorial for WWI train accident at Bere Ferrers

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

A World War I train accident in which 10 soldiers from New Zealand were killed is to be remembered in a service in a Devon village.

The men died on 24 September 1917 when they mistakenly got off their train at Bere Ferrers thinking they had arrived at their destination of Exeter. In fact the train had only stopped for signals and the men were hit by an express train on the other track.

The service is the result of a request by the New Zealand Army Museum. It contacted the Royal British Legion hoping to find out about New Zealand servicemen who are buried in Devon and Cornwall.

The volunteer soldiers had arrived in Plymouth from New Zealand and were en route to Salisbury Plain for training when the accident happened. Seven of them were killed outright, three others died later in hospital.

Peter Williams, from the Royal British Legion, said: "The men had been told their first stop would be Exeter. Several soldiers had been detailed to get off and go to the back of the train to get supplies to dish out to the troops."

He said they had been confused by an "unscheduled" stop at Bere Ferrers. "The men, not knowing the geography of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) at all, jumped off and the train ploughed into them."

As well as the memorial service, a plaque bearing the names of the men is due to be unveiled at Bere Ferrers station. Wreaths are due to be laid at the village's war memorial at 1534 BST, the exact moment the accident happened.

[chrisoates]

Worth a visit to the Railway Museum at Bere Ferrers which is where I saw the archived newspaper reports of the accident.

Some lovely pics of the Calstock viaduct wagon lift in operation too.

 

[Chris from Nailsea]

From this is Cornwall:

Poppy wreaths remember war train tragedy

A village has paid fresh tribute to the New Zealand soldiers killed on the tracks of their railway station during the First World War.

Ten men, most of them in their teens and early 20s, were on their way to the training barracks on Salisbury Plain when they died in the South Devon village of Bere Ferrers. The soldiers stepped on to the track from their train, travelling direct from Plymouth to Exeter, when it made an unscheduled stop at the village. Not knowing the platform was on a different side of the train to their homeland, the men were mown down by an express from Waterloo.

Wreaths were laid at the foot of a stone scroll bearing their names at the village war memorial yesterday, which marked 92 years since the tragedy on September 24, 1917.

The short ceremony was led by the Rev Nick Law, vicar of St Andrew's Church, in the presence of the Royal British Legion county chairman Brian Cumming, and the military adviser to the New Zealand high commissioner in London, Lt Ben Till, who attended with his son Carlos.

Wreaths were placed at 3.34pm, the time when the accident happened.

The service followed a request from the New Zealand Army Museum to identify servicemen who are buried in Devon and Cornwall.

Due to fight in the battlefields of France, the soldiers, members of the 28th Reinforcements, had just arrived in Plymouth having left New Zealand in July 1917.

The names of the 10 dead men are William Gillanders, William Greaves, John Jackson, John Judge, Chudleigh Kirton, Baron McBryde, Richard McKenna, William Trussell, John Warden and Sidney West.