“When the 28th Reinforcements were on their way from Plymouth to Salisbury Plain, last week, a distressing. accident occurred at the small station of Bere Ferrers, not far from Tavistock. The train had stopped at the station to allow an express to pass, and a number of soldiers, not knowing that the express was due, jumped out of the carriages on the wrong side, on to the permanent way. At that moment the express came along and dashed into them, killing nine outright and injuring three, of whom one (Pte. Trussell) died a few hours later in Tavistock Hospital.” [Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 128, 27 November 1917, Page 3]
A slightly different account of the incident, with some lurid details, was given in the Ashburton Guardian:
“It appears that when a train, which left Plymouth at 3 o'clock, stopped at Bere Ferrers, some soldiers alighted under the impression that refreshments were obtainable. The train was a long one, the end extending beyond the platform. Men in the rear, coaches left by the doors on either side of the compartments, and some proceeded to cross the rails of the down line.
At that moment the express from Waterloo, came swinging round the curve at the rate of 40 miles an hour and dashed into the unsuspecting soldiers, transforming in a few seconds a peaceful scene into one of tragedy and horror. The express hurtled on for some distance, leaving behind a trail of mangled remains, before it could be pulled up. No good purpose was to be served by delaying the train, however, and its journey to Plymouth was resumed.
It seems quite clear that the driver of the express was unable to see the men leaving the train owing to the pronounced curve at that point of the line. For the same reason the men did not notice the approach of the express. “We never thought of expresses travelling at 40 miles an hour." said a New Zealander to our representative. "They don't travel at that rate in New Zealand. It was a wonder more of us were not killed. I myself was on the footboard and about to step down when the express flashed by, I saw the coat tails of the man in front of me fly up, and I picked his body up, afterwards some yards down the line.”” [Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 9157, 29 November 1917, Page 2]
“The funeral took place at the Corporation Cemetery at Egg Buckland, near the Stoke Military Hospital, at Plymouth, and was one of the most impressive scenes witnessed there during the war. Thousands of persons gathered in the vicinity, and at the cemetery the crowd was so dense that the gates had to be closed.[Evening Post, ibid]
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