Death in the playground

Recent criticism of changes in the working practices of our local doctors should not allow us lose sight of the advances that have been made in modern medicine and the protection their professional training gives us today from the more extremes of ill health. With their help, we are able to maintain a healthy body free from some of the most pernicious ailments known to mankind and although consumption, scarlet fever, meningitis and diphtheria and many others were killers in my childhood, they are largely unknown today.

In past centuries, consumption, now known as tuberculosis, was a constant threat, particularly to the working classes where poor living conditions and under-nourishment were breeding grounds for this virulent illness that claimed many lives, particularly among the young. Joseph Davies, headmaster of the elementary school for boys in Star Lane, now the Bourne Abbey CofE Primary Academy, kept a daily log of activities and he wrote a particularly poignant entry on 21st July 1904:

"It is with deep sorrow that I have to record today the sudden death during school hours of Arthur Young, aged 13, a seventh standard scholar. He was an inmate at the Union [workhouse] and of a delicate constitution. A fortnight ago he left the Union with his mother who took him on a tramp about the country for ten days. They returned to the Union famished and exhausted. The strain had clearly been too much for the poor lad. But though very delicate, he was able to attend school and appeared about as usual.

"This morning, as the boys were filing in from play, I noticed he looked pale and asked him how he felt. "I feel very poorly, sir", he said. I asked him if he would like anything from the house but he said "No, thank you." He thought he would like to walk quietly home and I agreed, considering it the best thing, as he did not seem inclined to rest. About five minutes afterwards, I heard a peculiar coughing sound and going instantly out to the playground, found the poor boy vomiting blood. Blood was also pouring from his nose.

"I at once went to his help, asking for assistance from my staff who came immediately. We carried him carefully into the porch. But he was unconscious and had probably expired almost immediately after the attack. I had sent urgently for the three town doctors, and for the nurse, the messenger fortunately met Dr [John] Galletly, who kindly came at once, but pronounced life extinct. Death was due to the bursting of a blood vessel in the lungs. The poor lad's father died from a similar case.

"Nurse Bellamy came and the body was removed home. Mr [Alfred] Yates, the Union Master, informed me that [Dr James Watson] Burdwood had been attending the boy this week but he had not seemed unwell today, having been hearty at breakfast. I am deeply touched with the sympathetic spirit shown by teachers and boys alike."

The headmaster said that pupils and staff had subscribed for a beautiful wreath which was placed on the boy's grave at Deeping after his funeral the following Saturday.

The regime of a strict and unbending discipline in the schools of Victorian and Edwardian England is generally regarded as harsh and uncaring but these entries by Mr Davies tell another story, one of devotion towards his pupils, and although powerless to help them all individually, the compassion is clearly felt. He also had faith in the medical profession, sending for all of the town’s three doctors in an emergency with the knowledge that one or all of them would come, although that may be an unlikely eventuality today when his urgent plea for help would most likely be answered by the fire brigade.

WRITTEN OCTOBER 2004

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