Signalman Fatality

Postcard view of Ewell West Station
Image courtesy of Bourne Hall Museum

The Illustrated Police News – 16 November 1889

While a signalman was crossing the line near Ewell Station, on the London and South-Western Railway, on Saturday, he was overtaken by a train and knocked across the metal. One the officials of the company running forward to his help it was found the train had cut off both his legs. He was placed in a train and conveyed to Waterloo Station, and subsequently to St. Thomas’s Hospital, by Constable 125 L and S.W.R., where he was examined by the house surgeon. He was identified as James Chaffey, aged thirty-five, signalman in the employ of the above company, residing with his wife Charlotte at Ewell, near Epsom, Surrey.