Harry Endicott-Davies

Abt 1880 - 1909  (~ 29 years)

• Name	Harry Endicott-Davies
  Born	Abt 1880	Wales
  Gender	Male
  Died	06 Mar 1909	Birkenhead, Cheshire, England
  	Harry died aged 29 in the Birkenhead Dock Disaster of 1909 (see notes below.)
  Notes	Endicott-Davies Endicott-Davies is from the family Endicott of Bampton Devon. In 1849 Henry Endicott a Blacksmith, and Emma, nee Humphries, married then moved to Wales. Where they took up the name Davies as their last name but gave their children the middle name Endicott. All were Baptized Endicott. There was only one surviving son, William Richard, and it was he who carried the Endicott-Davies name through to this day. The surviving females of Henry and Emma later married as Endicott, Emma died as Emma Endicott 1907 Cardiff Wales. William's son Harry married a Lottie Applegate. Harry died aged 29 in the Birkenhead Dock Disaster of 1909. Lottie immigrated with their 5 children to Dunedin New Zealand. (Source Ivor Martin Endicott-Davies) Harry was a Navy Diver. Birkenhead Dock Disaster From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Birkenhead Dock Disaster was a tragedy that happened when a temporary dam collapsed during construction of the Vittoria Dock in Birkenhead, Wirral Peninsula, England, on March 6, 1909. It left 14 workers (or "navvies") dead and three injured. The disaster led to a huge public outpouring of sympathy and grief in the local area. However, the Government refused to hold a public inquiry and the cause of the disaster was never definitively established. Very little evidence or documentation surrounding the event now exists. Building the Vittoria Dock The £206,000 contract to build a dock on the Vittoria Wharf area of Birkenhead was awarded by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board in 1905 to John Scott of Darlington. Scott was the son of Sir Walter Scott (1826-1910), one of the greatest regional civil engineering contractors of his era, and had recently built an extension to the docks in Middlesbrough. The Vittoria Dock - sited at the northern end of Vittoria Street - was to serve as an accessible, organised berthing facility for vessels, which were increasing in size. Work began in 1905 and was due to be finished by the end of 1909. However, by March 1909 it was nine months ahead of schedule. The whole project was merely a few hours from completion when the disaster occurred. Disaster Strikes Just after midnight on March 6 1909, during a blinding snowstorm, disaster struck. A gang of navvies were working in a 45ft deep pit which formed the entrance channel to the new dock. They were clearing away rubble and timber, which was hauled up to the dockside by a crane which straddled the excavation. The waters of the neighbouring East Float were held back from the entrance channel by a 200ft long temporary coffer dam, formed from pilings rammed with mud and cement, which had been built in 1907. There was only a small amount of work left to do and the whole four-year dock project would be finished by the following evening. At around 12.20am - just after high tide - the dam collapsed without warning, sending millions of gallons of water and hundreds of tons of timber and mud crashing down on to the men working in the pit. Fourteen were killed, but one survived by being shot to the surface. Two men working on the crane were injured as it collapsed into the flooded pit, one losing a leg. The disaster widowed seven women and left 13 children fatherless. It took a month for divers to recover all the bodies, and the victims were buried in three mass graves in Flaybrick Hill Cemetery, Birkenhead, now known as Flaybrick Memorial Gardens. At the ensuing inquest, John Scott's chief engineer claimed that the disaster was probably caused when the base of the coffer dam shifted after pilings from the old dock wall were removed, and this event could not have been foreseen. However, this explanation was never independently tested or verified. One man - John Jones, the operator of the piledriving machine used to build the dam - bravely spoke out at the inquest, claiming there had been shoddy workmanship and rotten building materials had been used on the project. But his evidence was disregarded and the jury, heavily influenced by the coroner's summing-up, returned a verdict was that no one was to blame. The Vittoria Dock opened for business four months after the disaster and is still in operation today. Casualty List DEAD 1. Harry Endicott Davies, 29, foreman, married with four children, of 37 Albion Street, Birkenhead. 2. William Rogerson, 50, married with no children, of 1 Club Row, Pool Street, Birkenhead. 3. Thomas Alexander 'Jockey' Gouldson, 22, single, of 9 Seabank Cottages. Birkenhead. 4. Albert Edward Bethelll (alias Albert Walker), 20, single, of 19 Blackpool Street, Birkenhead. 5. Thomas McNicholas, 32, single, of 106 St Paul's Road, Tranmere. 6. James O'Keefe, 26, married with two children, of School Place, Birkenhead. 7. William Saunders, 26, married with two children, of Eldon Place, Birkenhead. 8. William Reed, 45, of the Church Army Home, 92 Bridge Street, Birkenhead. 9. John Brown Leighton, alias 'Derby' Brown, single, of 13 Everton Crescent, Liverpool. 10. Robert Shaw, 27, married with two children, of 77 Thomas Street, Birkenhead. 11. John Matthews, 35, married with four children, of 2 Hope Street, Birkenhead. 12. Thomas Shaw, 35, single, lodged at 75 Market Street (thought to have relations in Manchester). 13. Thomas Lloyd, 52, married with no children, of 94 Watson Street, Birkenhead. 14. Charles James Johnson, 22, single, of 248 Beaufort Street, Liverpool. INJURED 1. Thomas Devine, 17, of 21 Oakfield View, Birkenhead. 2. George Crichton, 24, of 61 Flamank Street, Birkenhead. 3. David Jones, of 27 Newling Street, Birkenhead. ESCAPED George Purnell, Liverpool Henry Holden, of 10 Leicester Street, Birkenhead. Edward Higginson, of 20 St Mary's Avenue, Birkenhead. James McCann, 27 Chester Street, Birkenhead. Robert Lloyd, a boy, of 264 Price Street, Birkenhead. Thomas Dutton, of 98 Beresford Road, Birkenhead. Thomas Jones, a youth, of 13 Brill Street, Birkenhead (Source Tom McCarthy)http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.britisles.england.chs.general/4228/mb.ashx Further Reading Damburst, by Tom McCarthy (Countyvise, 2006).
  Person ID	I13458	Frost Family
  Last Modified	22 Sep 2009

  
  

  Family	Lottie Applegate,   b. Wales
  Married	Wales
  Children	1. Prina Endicott-Davies,   b. Wales   2. Harry Endicott-Davies,   b. 02 Jan 1903, Wales ,   d. 05 Oct 1974, 27 Broughton St, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand  (Age 71 years)   3. George Endicott-Davies,   b. 31 Mar 1906, Wales ,   d. Abt 1972, New Zealand  (Age 65 years)   4. William Endicott-Davies,   b. 18 Mar 1908, Wales ,   d. 06 Aug 1989, Wakari Hospital, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand  (Age 81 years) + 5. Samuel Aimos Endicott-Davies,   b. 03 Oct 1909, Wales ,   d. Abt 1989, New Zealand  (Age 79 years)
  Last Modified	22 Sep 2009
  Family ID	F13510	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart