Hiram Page Bailey

Hiram Page Bailey attested at Nottingham and was posted to T2 Company, Royal Engineers.

He had only reported for service a few weeks before he was killed on the Great Northern Railway line between Daybrook and Basford, Nottingham, on 17 June 1916. The subsequent inquest returned a verdict of 'Suicide while of unsound mind.'

He was buried in Nottingham General Cemetery (grave ref. 06508).

Nottingham Journal, 19 June 1916: ‘Sherwood man’s shocking death. Severed body found on the Great Northern Railway. A shocking discovery was made on the Great Northern Railway near Hucknall-road, Nottingham, early on Saturday morning, the body of a man being found cut in two. The discovery was made shortly before half-past six, by a foreman platelayer named George James Bates, of Arnold-road, who obtained the assistance of a policeman and had the body removed to the Hyson Green mortuary. It was subsequently identified as that of Hiram Page Bailey, a cabinet-maker, of Crossley-street, Sherwood. How the deceased came to get on the line, which is one between Basford and Daybrook, is at present a mystery, but it is thought that he was killed by the 6.12 train from Basford. It is stated that just before that time the line was clear, whilst a few minutes later the body was found.’ (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)

Nottingham Daily Express, 20 June 1916: report of the inquest, 19 June 1916, on the death of Hiram Page Bailey, T2 Company, Royal Engineers, who was killed on the Great Northern Railway, Basford, on 17 June 1916.

'MUCH AGAINST FIGHTING. Sherwood Joiner's Fatal Aversion to Serving in the Army. THROWS HIMSELF UNDER TRAIN'

'A verdict of Suicide while of Unsound Mind was returned at the inquest held at Hyson Green yesterday [19th June 1916] on Hiram Page Bailey, a journeyman joiner, 37 years of age, who lived with his parents at 27, Crossley-street, Sherwood, and who was run over by a train and killed between Daybrook and Basford on the Great Northern Railway on Saturday morning. [17th June 1916]

'From the evidence of the father, it appeared that Bailey, who was an attested man and who had been notified to report for service last week, was 'very much against fighting.' He left home on Wednesday morning presumably to rejoin the colours, and on the following day his mother received a card from him bearing a York postmark and saying 'Arrived here all right,' and other words which, the message being written in pencil, were undecipherable. On Friday she received a second card posted at Mansfield on which he had written, 'Getting moved about. At Mansfield now. Will write you a letter as soon as possible.'

'On Saturday morning the driver of the 5.42 a.m. train from Nottingham to Basford saw the deceased on the railway. He sounded the whistle, but the man took no notice and fell headlong over the rails with the engine not more than ten yards away. The whole train passed over his body.'

Above courtesy of Jim Grundy facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918