Now! Then! Eleven snowflake girls are burnt to death during a school entertainment at Upper Wortley (Leeds)

1 January 1891: Eleven snowflake girls are burnt to death during a school entertainment at Upper Wortley (Leeds)

Wortley Church School Fire Memorial lists the names of the children who died. (Anderson 2016/12/07).

Times. 1891/01/05. The Accident to Children at Leeds. London. Get it:

Excerpt

It has just been ascertained that the parents, at their own wish, provided the fleecy costumes in which the performers in the “Snowflakes” were to appear. The preparations for the entertainment in connection with the sale of work had been going on intermittently for two months, and only once a suggestion arose during that time of the danger which was incurred by the use of such material. One of the survivors, named Fanny Craven, aged 14, has made a statement to the effect that she was to play the pianoforte accompaniment to the entertainment, and with her sister Phoebe was about to open the programme with an overture as a duet. They wore ordinary dresses, and when they went into the classroom Auty, who was giving out the lamps to the children, asked them to wait and go on the platform with the others. Phoebe did not hear his request and went on the stage, and so Fanny followed her. There were then only a few people in the entertainment room. The two girls were sorting their music when they heard a shriek, and on looking towards the dressing-room door were horrified to see Sarah Ellen Kitchen in flames. The sleeve of one arm was burning, and with the other she tried to put out the fire, but this only had the effect of increasing the flame. Some of the other girls were so frightened that in trying to get out they rushed against her and so caught fire. On getting upon the stage some of the children ran towards Fanny Craven and her sister. Frightened lest they too should be set on fire, she and Phoebe jumped off the platform, ran through the school where the sale of work was going on, and out at the back door. There they were followed by Ethel Fieldhouse (now dead), who was a companion of theirs, and in their terror they jumped over the churchyard wall, and did not stop until they reached home.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

The inscription reads:

To the glory of god,
and in loving memory of eleven children,
who lost their lives through accident by fire,
In Wortley church school,
New Years Day 1891.

Emily Lister, aged 12 years
Harriet Riley, aged 11 years
Ada Whitteron, aged 11 years
Maggie Kitchen, aged 12 years
Emily Sanderson, aged 9 years
Elizabeth Tingle, aged 12 Years
Ethel Fieldhouse, aged 13 years
Clarissa Roberts, aged 11 years
Florrie Elwell Brookes, aged 9 years
Caroline Eveline Steel, aged 9 years
Julia Florence Anderson, aged 9 years

This memorial was erected by members of the congregation and other friends.

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Original

THE ACCIDENT TO CHILDREN AT LEEDS.
The funerals of four of the victims took place yesterday afternoon, as had been arranged, and drew into Upper Wortley several thousand of persons from more or less distant places. Dr. Talbot, the vicar of Leeds, had offered to perform the service, but Canon Brameld, in spite of ill-health, resolved to officiate himself. Two of the bodies were buried in St. John’s Churchyard – namely, those of Caroline Evelyn Steel, aged nine, and Maggie Kitchen, aged 12. The remains of Emily Lister, aged 13, and Ethel Fieldhouse, 14, were buried in the public cemetery in Oldfield-lane. The body of Ada Whitton, 11, awaits interment until to-day.

One of the survivors, named Fanny Craven, aged 14, has made a statement to the effect that she was to play the pianoforte accompaniment to the entertainment, and with her sister Phoebe was about to open the programme with an overture as a duet. They wore ordinary dresses, and when they went into the classroom Auty, who was giving out the lamps to the children, asked them to wait and go on the platform with the others. Phoebe did not hear his request and went on the stage, and so Fanny followed her. There were then only a few people in the entertainment room. The two girls were sorting their music when they heard a shriek, and on looking towards the dressing-room door were horrified to see Sarah Ellen Kitchen in flames. The sleeve of one arm was burning, and with the other she tried to put out the fire, but this only had the effect of increasing the flame. Some of the other girls were so frightened that in trying to get out they rushed against her and so caught fire. On getting upon the stage some of the children ran towards Fanny Craven and her sister. Frightened lest they too should be set on fire, she and Phoebe jumped off the platform, ran through the school where the sale of work was going on, and out at the back door. There they were followed by Ethel Fieldhouse (now dead), who was a companion of theirs, and in their terror they jumped over the churchyard wall, and did not stop until they reached home. Fanny Craven’s mother, who was in the entertainment room when the first alarm was given, fully bears out her daughter’s statement, adding that another daughter, Eleanor, was among those who went to the help of the children, and was slightly burnt on the arm. Mrs. Craven stated that a week ago at home they had spoken about the risk of using lighted lanterns, and said they thought it was a dangerous thing to do. The father of the girl Steel, who was buried yesterday, has narrated that his daughter, despairing of finding any help in the schoolroom, into which she rushed all aflame, ran off with her clothing on fire to the house of her grandmother, several hundred yards from the scene of the catastrophe. By the time she reached her grandparent’s house she was terribly burnt. The members of the fire brigade quickly discovered her whereabouts, and she was one of the first batch of children to be conveyed on the fire engine to the infirmary.

When the coroner’s inquest is resumed on Wednesday it is not unlikely that more information will be elicited as to the facilities there were for egress at the school where the entertainment took place.

Canon Brameld, the vicar of St. John’s, Upper Wortley, has been unremitting in his attendances in the wards of the infirmary occupied by the six children. About midnight on Friday, when he was paying one of these visits, he was found in a fainting condition by one of the night nurses. He was so very weak that the surgeon on duty insisted upon his going to bed at once, and there he remained until the following morning.

Mr. Auty, who is suffering from injuries received in trying to save the children on Thursday, is reported to have become a good deal worse. It is conjectured that he swallowed some of the smoke at the time, as he complains of a choking sensation in his throat, and it has been deemed advisable to remove him to the Leeds Infirmary.

The little sister of David Brook, the caretaker at the school, is at home in a precarious condition, having, in the opinion of the doctor who is attending her, inhaled some of the smoke with which the small class room was filled almost to suffocation.

Mr. A. Cooke, the Mayor of Leeds, has offered to make a liberal subscription towards the funeral expenses in case the relatives are in circumstances to make his doing so acceptable.
____

Last evening, about 6 o’clock, another death occurred, the latest victim being the seventh, and her name Florence Brooke, daughter of Helliwell Brooke, living at Dixon-lane, Upper Wortley. She was one of the girls treated by Dr. Scott at her parents’ house. Up to a late hour last night there were no further deaths among the six patients in the infirmary. One of the most experienced nurses connected with the infirmary informed our correspondent last night that all the children, and especially Alice Taylor and Harriet Riley, were in an extremely critical condition. All the little sufferers, she added, resembled mummies more than anything else. It was doubtful if, should they survive, several would ever regain their eyesight. The ears of some had been burnt off, and in every case the disfigurement would in all probability be so terrible that, said the nurse, in sympathetic tones, considering all circumstances, it would almost be a mercy if they died.

1037 words.