Leighton Buzzard Observer 17th October 1939: "WARNING SHOUT SAVES MANY LIVES. Bletchley Station was the scene on Friday night of a terrible railway accident. The second portion of the Scotch express from Euston crashed into the first portion, which was standing on the “down” fast line, and four men—three of them Bletchley residents—were killed and forty injured. Six of the injured people are in hospital, and 34 others were treated for injuries. The dead men are Mr. Ernest (’‘Jack”) Clements, a porter, of 26, Albert Street, Bletchley, Mr. Irvin Butler (50), engine driver, of 4, Manor Road, Mr. Percy Cyril Geary, temporary postman, Western Road, and an R.A.F. aircraftsman, Robert Eckford Montgomery, stationed at Bicester. Mr. Haines’ engine and the light engine met head-on, and the light engine was hurled back and piled on the vans behind it. The engine and tender and some of the van's metal work swung round, churned through the platform stonework and crashed into the refreshment room and the adjoining waiting room on Platforms 2 and 3. There were travellers in both rooms, the engine tender coming to a standstill two-thirds of the way in the rooms. The injured .taken to Northampton Hospital included Miss Marjorie Negus, of Tyrrells End, Eversholt, refreshment buffet attendant, who was burned on the legs and back. Mr. Clements died in Northampton Hospital after being taken from the wreckage. He received a serious injury while working on the railway some time ago. Mr. Butler died on the footplate of his engine and his body was not recovered from the debris for 19 hours. Part of the steelwork had to be cut away with oxy-acetylene jets before it could be got out. Mr. Geary is thought to have been loading mail bags into the van when the crash happened. His body was found underneath the end of the engine tender close to a smashed G.P.O. trolley and mail bags. The body of the R.A.F. man, terribly mutilated, could not be removed for nearly 24 hours. Miss Negus, of Eversholt, one of the hospital cases, was working with Miss Sally Bower in the station buffet when the engine and tender crashed into the building. Luckily for them the counter was on the far side of the room. Her injuries were caused boiling water from an overturned tea urn. The impact lipped open the engine's steel boiler casing in front and jammed it tight against the leading express engine, the two engines rising into the air and forming a rough triangle with the track as its base. The front of the second engine was imbedded in the back of the first. The light engine tender was wedged under part of the platform roof and twisted metalwork and smashed woodwork reared up in the inky darkness. The platform was strewn with debris." |
The Scotsman 17th October 1939: "BLETCHLEY TRAIN DISASTER R . A . F . Victim a Glasgow Man The inquests on the four victims of the Bletchley train disaster on Friday night was adjourned yesterday until October 30 after evidence of identification had been given . The body of the R . A . F . man killed was identified from a pay book and a pass form . He was Aircraftman Robert Eckford Montgomery ( 31 ) , a native of Glasgow . He was married and his home -was in London . The other victims were Irvin Butler ( 50 ) , an engine driver , of Manor Road Bletchley , and Ernest Joseph Clements , railway porter ( 52 ) , of Albert Street , Bletchley." |