Recently I discovered that my wife's paternal Grandfather died following an accident at work in 1927, he worked for Birmingham Corporation at the time. His Widow, was left with 8 children, 7 of those under 16 including my wife's Father who was 5yrs old at the time. When I sent details of the inquest to my Son he asked whether any compensation would have been paid to the family by his employers and if so how much might they have received. Does anyone know whether this would have been the case back then or would it have been written off as one of those things?
-
Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.
We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team -
HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
we are now using a backup solution
Compensation 1920s
- Thread starter Reddi
- Start date
Morturn, thanks for getting back. There was a post mortem, the results of which found that he had fractured the base of his skull and lacerated part of his brain. The only enquiry that I have found was an inquest carried out by the Coroners office, in addition to his wife, 3 others were called as witnesses, the Manager of the Salvage Depot that he worked at, his supervisor and a work colleague. The 3 gave evidence as to what work was being undertaken at the time of the accident and what happened immediately after. It would appear that whilst cleaning a machine of animal parts (muscular tissue) by pulling it clear (normal practice at the time), a piece snapped causing him to lose his balance and fall through a "well" at the top of a flight of stairs, falling to the floor below. The verdict at the inquest was accidental death due to the injuries sustained from the fall. No blame appears to have been att. to either him or Birmingham Corporation. Whether this would have a bearing on any claim I do not know.
Eric Gibson
master brummie
My father told me of a young boy working at his 'firm' , he cut off most of his hand cleaning a sheet metal cutting machine that should have been guarded, leaving only half his palm and his thumb, nobody was prosecuted for the incident but the company gave the lad a 'job for life' in the wages office where he became quite a senior member of staff in later life,
Dad said "You should how fast he can flick through a pile of banknotes with that thumb."
Dad said "You should how fast he can flick through a pile of banknotes with that thumb."
Eric Gibson
master brummie
The link here ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers'_compensation ), if you scroll down to uk, states that local authorities were not obliged to take out insurance. Presumably they were obliged to give compensation, but this is not made clear here.
Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
Assuming the Coroner's verdict was accidental death it may be that his family would have been entitled to compensation under the current Workman's Compensation Act.
There are figures published for 1925...
Total cases 476,085
Amount paid £6,662,930
Proportion paid for fatalities was 13% (number being 3,030)
Roughly this would come to £288 per person.
Being 1927 I am not sure the Corporation would have had any provision of their own, but we may be able to find some conditions of service.
There are figures published for 1925...
Total cases 476,085
Amount paid £6,662,930
Proportion paid for fatalities was 13% (number being 3,030)
Roughly this would come to £288 per person.
Being 1927 I am not sure the Corporation would have had any provision of their own, but we may be able to find some conditions of service.
Many thanks to everyone who has responded to my post re. compensation. I think that I may try contacting Birmingham Council to see whether they hold records on either my wife's Grandfather, although this is very doubtful given the time scale, or information on the conditions of service at the time of the accident as suggested by Pedro.
Reddi
Reddi
The Library of Birmingham have been very helpful in my research into the accident, particularly the Archives & Collection Section. It was here in the Wolfson Centre that I found the original inquest report, at the time the subject of compensation for my wife's Grandmother never even entered my head, perhaps I do need to contact them again and enquire as to whether they hold conditions of service details for Birmingham Corporation. With regards to newspaper reports at the time, so far I have had no luck but will continue to look.
Reddi
Reddi
