A SAD memory of a sudden fatality is one we touch upon today.

It involves a watercress seller, aged in his fifties, who was killed instantly when he collided with a train at Grimstone Station hear Dorchester.

The seller, named Mr Carter, lodged at a pub in Dorchester and made it his usual practice to collect watercress from Sydling Water and sell it in the town.

He arrived at the station at 4.40pm on Saturday, May 16, 1914, apparently intending to return to Dorchester on the 5.12pm train

Mr Carter left his empty baskets on the down platform and crossed to the up platform using the footbridge. Then as the 4:38pm express from Weymouth passed through at 4:57pm he walked onto the line and was killed instantly. The driver of the express, Albert Clifton Webb, had sounded warning whistles as the train approached the station. The express resumed its journey after an 11 minute delay.

An inquest was held on Monday, May 18, 1914 at which it emerged that Mr Carter had not gathered watercress that day. He had not forwarded any to Dorchester as he had apparently earlier claimed. The jury recorded a verdict that he was accidentally knocked down. Mr Carter’s first name was not known although a postcard was found bearing the initial F. It was thought that he had a sister in Ealing, London. Mr Carter was buried in Stratton churchyard on Tuesday, May 19, 1914. The Parish Register records the event F. Carter, 50, killed at Grimstone Station.

Thanks to the website strattondorset.com for this sad story