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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 7 (December 1, 1930)

[section]

The celebration of the centenary of the official opening of the Liverpool-Manchester Railway was held in Liverpool from 13th to 20th September, 1930. It will recall incidentally the first railway fatality. To comprehend the sensation it caused one must bear in mind that though the victim, Mr. William Hus-kisson, was only a private Member of Parliament at the time, he had been Treasurer of the Navy, President of the Board of Trade, and Leader of the House of Commons, and, as a “Tory with a Liberal Jaw” he had been responsible for important changes in the fiscal system. When he made a little speech at the Liverpool Exchange two days before his death every word was reported (says the London Daily Express).

At 10.40 a.m. on September 15, 1830, eight locomotives drawing carriages designed after the fashion of stage coaches, and containing 732 people, left the mouth of the Great Tunnel at Liverpool to go to Manchester, the thirty miles route being lined with fully half a million people. On the north line was a gorgeous, circus-like carriage whose principal occupant was the Duke of Wellington. In front of it was a carriage containing a band. The other seven trains were on the south line. At Eccles, seventeen miles from Liverpool, it was planned that the procession should stop for the engines to take in water, and the printed programme specially requested that guests should not leave their carriages.

Eccles was reached at 11.35. It is not unreasonable to suppose that Mr. Huskis-son, who had been largely responsible, as a Liverpool M.P., for getting the railway company's Bill through Parliament, thought that the restriction was not intended to apply to him. Perhaps he forgot it. And certain it is that he had special reason for wishing to greet the Duke of Wellington. Two years previously the Duke had misinterpreted a remark Huskisson had made that it was only after securing “guarantees” that he had entered the Duke's Ministry, and the Duke, being wholly in the wrong, had not been ready to heal the quarrel that had ensued. Huskisson was anxious, on this great public occasion, to be civil.

Accordingly, with the other Liverpool M.P., Mr. Holmes, he dismounted, and after talking with others who had done the same, went over to the State carriage and extended his hand to the Duke, who shook it cordially.

At that moment the Rocket locomotive was seen approaching, and it appeared afterwards that the driver shut off steam when he saw people on the line. Mr. Holmes, Prince Esterhazy, and the others jumped into the Duke's carriage. Mr. Huskisson dashed forward in order to go in front of the carriages on the south line, only to find his way barred by a steep bank. “Get in, get in,” shouted the Duke. Huskisson opened a carriage door just as the Rocket came along and struck it. He was knocked down and very seriously injured.

Mrs. Huskisson was a witness. The injured man, who retained his composure remarkably well, was placed in a carriage with Dr. Brandreth, who had been fetched from the rear of the procession, his wife, and others, and taken by rail to Eccles. There, after increasing spasms of pain, he died at 9 p.m.