Thanks to information provided to me by a correspondent, I'm able to place on record another fragment of Kynoch's history.
On Friday, 16th January 1948, a new employee, Sidney Batty, was working alone in the cap priming department, part of the ammunition side of Kynoch's business, and was engaged in powder weighing. He had only been employed for a few weeks and had just, a few days previously, completed his special training. Despite being a newcomer, he had had extensive experience of handling explosives. After demob from Army service with the rank of Staff Sergeant, he had worked for a while in Birmingham on the buses. But this profession was perhaps too tame for him and he returned to Germany to work for the Control Commission where he was involved in demolition work, including the detonation of stores of ammunition. A member of the family, Mr. A. J. Williams, was quoted as saying: "We knew he had a dangerous job in Germany and we were worried about it". Sidney returned home safely and joined Kynoch. By this time he was 25 and was living at 356 Wheeler Street in Lozells, the home of his sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. L. Lane; he had been recently married and was due to become a father in a couple of months time.
On that day, there was a violent explosion. Sydney was the one casualty and he was fatally wounded. His only word before he died was "styphnate" - which was one of the most delicate substances known in the industry, according to an expert witness at the inquest.
Dr. D. R. Doyle, Assistant Research Manager at Kynoch, told the inquest that there were only two possible causes of detonation: friction or static electricity. It seemed that it was impossible to establish just how or why the explosion occurred. The Company was exonerated from blame as it was acknowledged that it had taken every reasonable precaution to avoid such a disaster. But the real cause remained a mystery and the Coroner recommended that further research be undertaken into methods of weighing powder.
Tragic as it was, this accident was not regarded as sufficiently significant to be included in either of the Company's official histories. It must have been devastating at the time, however, to family, friends and colleagues. Kynoch had a good reputation as a benign employer, thanks perhaps to its ICI connection which went back over twenty years at that time, and we can hope that the family received generous treatment.
But now at least we can remember Sidney Batty, more than 70 years after his untimely death. And here he is, probably photographed in Cairo during his 8th Army days.
Chris
(Source of this information to whom grateful acknowledgement is made: Dawn Rawson, Sidney's niece).
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