Swindon Coroner’s Court heard how a freak road accident caused the death of a young child.

A trailer became detached from an army lorry mounting the pavement and causing the draw bar to swing round breaking shop windows. The swinging bar struck a child who was sitting in a pushchair outside a shop.

The driver told the court he had not felt the trailer detach itself and witnesses confirmed that the lorry was travelling very slowly.

On examination both before and after the accident the driver told that he had found the shackle and safety catch to the coupling to be quite in order. He said he had used this particular coupling for sometime and had never previously known it to come apart.

There was a wire hawser that could have been used as an additional safety measure but he could find no means of fastening it and he had never used it before, he told the coroner.

Addressing the jury the coroner, Mr Harold Dale, said that it was difficult to apportion blame in this case.

The jury recorded a verdict of accidental death.

The foreman asked that the attention of the authorities might be drawn to this coupling device to prevent the possibility of another accident of this kind.

QUEEN HONOURS WAR WEAPONS WEEK

Malmesbury War Weapons Week opened with a parade at which Queen Mary took the salute.

The Queen was presented with a bouquet by June Puttman, a child from the National Children’s Orphanage in Malmesbury.

Members of the town and rural councils watched a procession of tanks as planes circled overhead. In the town hall there was an exhibition of war weapons by the RAF. With a target of £50,000 to be reached by the end of the week, it was announced that £20,000 had been raised on the very first day.

“A gift of war savings certificates is being made to each baby born and each couple married in the borough and rural district during the week,” reported the Advertiser. Profits made during War Weapons Week would be invested in Government securities on behalf of the Malmesbury and District Hospital, National Children’s Home and Orphanage and the Royal Agricultural benevolent Fund.

SHIP SANK WITHIN MINUTES

Edward Richard Neale, Supply Assistant on board the HMS Hood was one of 1,415 men lost when the battle cruiser was sunk in the Denmark Strait.

Hood, with the battleship HMS Prince of Wales, had been sent to intercept German ships before they could break into the Atlantic and attack Allied convoys.

Theories varied as to the exact cause of the sinking of Hood but it was believed that shells fired from the Bismarck had caused an explosion on the ship.

The ship sank within minutes and all but three members of the crew were lost.

Edward Neale, of 37 Ashford Road, had worked as a sales representative at Newspaper House before joining the navy.

Following the disastrous loss of Hood the Navy made it their business to put Germany’s newest battleship the Bismarck, out of action.

“Interception of the Bismarck by the British forces was the result of a brilliant strategical movement,” reported the Advertiser. “At about midnight we learned that the Bismarck had been struck by two torpedoes, one amidships and the other astern.”

She was then attacked by a British flotilla and hit by two more torpedoes, bringing her to a virtual standstill.

“Although there is shade as well as light in this picture I feel that we have every reason to be satisfied with the outcome of this fierce and memorable naval encounter,” Mr Churchill told the House of Commons, relaying the news of the naval battle in the Denmark Straits.

DOG WAS A DANGER

Doris May Townsend, of 70 Collett Avenue, appeared before Swindon magistrates charged with keeping a dog with a funny shaped nose and a propensity to bite.

Seven-year-old Michael Tetley said he was walking along Collett Avenue with his mother when a dog ‘covered with fur and a funny shaped nose’ ran after him and bit him in the thigh.

Reginald Nelson Walker, of 74 Collett Avenue, also said that the dog had tried to bite his leg while he was riding along on his bicycle. When he complained to Mrs Townsend she laughed and sneered, he told the court.

“Mrs Townsend said the dog knew Mr Walker and that he threw stones at him. “Boys had also thrown stones at the dog,” the Advertiser reported. “She had seen the Tetley boy throw stones at him. “It was not her dog that bit the boy.”

Swindon magistrates ordered Mrs Townsend to keep a dangerous dog under control and fined her 26s 2d costs. She was then fined a further 7s 6d for keeping a dog without a licence.

THIS WEEK IN 1941

  • Swindon Gas Company was fined £10 by Swindon borough magistrates for failing to properly safeguard dangerous machinery. Reginald Charles Dunford lost almost half his hand when he tried to release his coat that had become caught in the gear wheels of a coke screening plant. The Gas Company argued that the safety guard had been off for just a few days for repairs to take place, but Mr Dunford said the guard had been missing for about a fortnight. Mr Dale, acting as defence for the Gas Company, said it was unfortunate that Mr Dunford had switched on the machine before he began oiling the wheels.
  • “Dear Sir – At 9 pm I shall be in the vicinity of Old Town station, so, if you want me, send someone along,” Edward Roy Culley wrote on a postcard addressed to Deputy Chief Constable WT Brooks. Following a series of thefts in Swindon, 23-year-old Culley was eventually arrested in Chippenham. Culley, of 53 Pitcroft Road, North End, Portsmouth, was committed to the Wilts Quarter Sessions charged with stealing a wallet, three sums of money totalling £28 and a wristlet watch.
  • Swindon borough magistrates announced that in future there would be heavier penalties in cases of chimney fires and garden bonfires that occurred during darkness. First to be on the receiving end of the new measures was Richard Charles Goodall who was fined 7s 6d instead of the usual 4s for allowing a chimney fire at his home, 57 Linden Avenue. “There was no doubt that a chimney fire could be a good target for enemy planes, and the same remarks applied to allotment fires, about which there has been a good many complaints,” reported the Advertiser.
  • Francis John Gosling, of Artis Farm, Wroughton, was fined 7s 6d at Swindon Borough Police Court for delivering milk too early. When Mr Gosling was stopped for delivering milk before the prescribed hour of 7.30am he said: “I had a lot of work to do on the farm owing to the difficulty in getting labour, and I had to commence milk delivery early to get done.”
  • David Beard, youngest son of Swindon builder EW Beard, was married at Christ Church, Swindon, to Edna May Richardson. The bride wore an Elizabethan- style gown of brocaded satin and carried a shower bouquet of cream roses. Christ Church was also the setting for the wedding of Flt Sgt John Saunders, of 41 Pembroke Street, who married Nina Mabberley of 28 Ponting Street.
  • A vehicle caused quite a stir when the driver pulled up outside the Victoria Road Post Office displaying a somewhat unusual car mascot. “Twined around the radiator cap was a rather vicious looking grass snake, which when stretched to its full length measure 2.5ft,” reported the Advertiser. “Fortunately, these snakes are quite harmless, and, in any case, this one was dead.”
  • FW Hawksworth assistant to the Chief Mechanical Engineer, was appointed Chief Mechanical Engineer at the Great Western Railway following the retirement of his predecessor, CB Collett, in July.