A Bath Boating Tragedy

So rarely do we see into the lives of our ancestors, especially our female forebears, that it was, for me, fascinating to find one episode in my families’ history that is documented fairly fully in the newspapers of the times. Sadly it is a tragic story, and must have been a shattering experience for the members of this particular family.

My great great grandmother, Phoebe Ann Gait was born in Midsomer Norton in 1822, moving to London at some point in the late 1830s. Her first husband was my gg grandfather, Stephen Bumstead, and following his death in 1846 she married George Rogers, who I think was her first cousin once removed, although this cannot be proved owing to a missing parish register in Midsomer Norton. Both were living in London with very young sons and both recently widowed. At some point around 1850 they returned to Somerset, settling in Stanton Drew. George and Phoebe had seven daughters (one dying in childhood) and one son. Their youngest child was Phoebe Isabella, born in 1868, known as Bella.

By 1881 all the children had moved away, most of them married with families. Bella was the only one at home with George and Phoebe in the census of that year. Two years later, aged about 15 she found employment at the drapery store of Gardiner’s in Stall Street, Bath and lived above the premises as was common for assistants of the larger shops in those days. Despite the long hours working in the store, Bella was given time to socialise, in the evenings and presumably on Sundays as well. Besides her workmates she had two male friends of a similar age who were connected with neighbouring businesses in Stall Street; the father of William (Willie) Isaacs, an assistant jeweller working at Rostleys in Bridge Street was a hatter there and George Mundy’s brother ran an ironmongers in Stall Street. George himself worked in a bookshop in Bridge Street and he had known Bella for around three years; Willie had known her even longer.

On the evening of Friday July 6th 1888 George and Willie, together with a friend, William Morris hired a boat from Maynard’s Boat Station on the river Avon around 8.25pm. It was a fine evening although there had been rain earlier which meant the river was running fairly high; this didn’t worry George and Willie who were both competent boatsmen and were members of the Bath Rowing Club. The boat was a double sculling outrigger, normally suitable for four people. Willie had arranged to row downriver to the slip on Grove Street where they were to pick up Bella and a work colleague, Annie Watts who had joined Gardiner’s five months previously. The girls did not finish work until 8.00pm. Willie and Bella had arranged this by letter and had, in fact made the same trip the previous Monday evening, along with George and Annie.

The George Inn, Bathampton

The party of five then set off upriver, heading for Bathampton, Morris lying in the bow of the boat, Willie and George rowing, and the ladies seated in the stern, one of them steering. At Bathampton they landed the boat and retired to the George Inn. William Morris ordered bread and cheese and drank two glasses of beer. The other men also had bread and cheese but drank cider. The ladies had sherry and lemonade, mixed, and also had two glasses. It was around 10 o’clock and getting quite dark when the party set off again back to Bath. This time George Mundy and William Morris rowed whilst Willie knelt in the stern in order to steer. The river being high, they made good time and were nearing the Boat Station around 10.15. Just as they passed Cleveland Baths, Willie Isaacs exclaimed that his knees were getting wet and almost immediately stood up. This caused the boat to fill with water from the stern and it went down almost at once, throwing the whole party into the water. Although close to the Station, they were in the middle of the river still and there was no immediate help from anyone on the bank or at the Station itself and no-one was on the Station’s raft in the river.

The site of the accident, from the Boating Station

From the accounts of the two survivors, Mundy and Morris, the girls screamed once and were then not heard again; Mundy attempted to help Annie, but after a while could no longer hold on to her, despite being a good swimmer; he was later pulled out by a rescue boat party, at his reckoning about seven or eight minutes after the sinking. Willie and Bella were seen together in the water by Mundy but only briefly as it was quite dark by then. Morris managed to hold onto the boat after being thrown into the water and was rescued a little later.

Bella’s body was the first to be found; one of the Boating Company’s employees, the first to be out in a boat found a lady’s hat and cushion floating near the upturned boat and then saw what he thought was another hat, but turned out to be Bella’s hair floating on the surface; she was upright in the water. She was quickly landed and artificial resuscitation attempted to no avail, ‘as the foam at the mouth and the half open eyes of the deceased showed she was dead.’ This was around 11.15pm. The rescue searches continued and Annie’s body was discovered at four o’clock on Saturday morning; Willie’s body was not discovered until Tuesday night although quite close to where the accident occurred.

The details of the accident were recounted in full at the inquest, widely reported in Bath newspapers. Much examination and discussion took place there, especially on the responsibility of the Boating Station and its employees and regulations. It was also questioned as to whether or not water had entered the boat either before the party set off or during the trip. The coroner found, however that in the main the accident was caused by the party themselves, overloading the boat and ignoring the state of the river; he excused the two ladies from censure however. Annie’s body was taken to Swindon for burial by her family and Willie was buried at St James on the Friday following.

Willie Isaacs

Bella’s body had been identified by her elder brother John, who had a grocery shop in Bath. On Tuesday 10th her coffin left Bath by road around 10.00 am arriving at Stanton Drew church at 12.30. Following the service she was buried in the churchyard near the graves of her Rogers grandparents and that of an infant sister who had died twenty years previously. Tragedy continued to haunt the family as John Gait Rogers, Bella’s brother died of peritonitis in March the following year, and George Rogers in May just ten weeks later. Phoebe Ann raised a family monument to her husband, son and daughter with plaques commemorating each one, but no doubt felt the burden of grief which caused her to move away from Stanton. The 1891 census finds her living with George’s sister, Ann Bush as a visitor, but at some point in the next ten years she decamped to Lancashire to live near her daughter Alice in Horwich, near Bolton. By 1911 she had moved in with Alice and died in April 1914 aged 90.

The Rogers family memorial at Stanton Drew