The accidental explosion of an artillery shell at the Shoeburyness artillery ranges on 26 February 1885 killed seven Royal Artillery personnel.
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The 1885 explosion
On the 26 February 1885 there was an accidental explosion at the Royal Artillery experimental ranges at Shoeburyness, Essex. A squad under Captain Francis Goold Adams, the assistant superintendent of experiments, had been firing a breech-loading gun to test some fuses. Gunner Robert Allen had difficulty fitting one fuse into a shell and Sergeant-Major Sam Daykin took over. He was gently tapping the fuse into position when there was an explosion. Seven staff were killed outright or fatally injured: Gunners Robert Allen (aged 38) and James Underwood (aged 31 or 34); Sergeant-Major Sam Daykin (aged 34); Captain Francis Michael Goold Adams (aged 30); Colonel Walter Aston Fox Strangeways, the commandant at Shoeburyness (aged 52); Colonel Frank Lyon, the superintendent of the research laboratory at Woolwich Arsenal (aged 51); and Mr James Frederick Rance, a foreman examiner of fuses at Woolwich (aged 34).
When the funeral of four of the victims took place with full military honours on 2 March 1885 at St. Andrew’s church, Shoebury, ‘every shop and factory in the whole of Southend District closed’, The explosion, the funerals, and the inquest were reported in the local press. The funeral service for Captain Goold Adams was conducted by the rector of Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, that of Sergeant-Major Daykin by the chaplain to the forces, and that of Gunners Allen and Underwood by the rector of Prittlewell, Essex. There is a memorial tablet to all the victims in the garrison church at Shoeburyness; only the officer’s grave, close to the south door of St. Andrew’s church, is marked by a gravestone:
Monumental inscription: In beloved memory of / Francis Michael Goold Adams / Captain Royal Artillery / aged 30 Years / who was killed by the bursting of a shell at Shoeburyness / whilst in the execution of his duty
Three of the dead were buried elsewhere: Commandant Fox Strangeways at Exeter, Devon; Colonel Lyon at Warrington, Cheshire; and Mr Rance at Woolwich, Kent. In memory of the dead a memorial hospital for the families of officers and soldiers of the Shoeburyness garrison was opened by voluntary subscription. This was later taken over as a military hospital in 1909 and was in use throughout the First World War. Captain Goold Adams’ widow later remarried and died at Steyning district in Sussex, she too was buried in St. Andrew’s churchyard next to her late husband:
Monumental inscription: In loving memory of / Evaline Lucy Phillips / widow of / Captain Francis Michael Goold Adams R.A. and wife of / Harry S.F. Jebb of Tullich Lodge Ballater N.B. / born 8th May 1861 passed away 2nd March 1907 / whom God’s hand rests on / has God at his right hand
One fortunate escape from the 1885 explosion was that of Major John Bally, who was walking near to the smith’s shop at the time; ‘a splinter flying over the roof of the shop struck him, but was embedded in a book in his side-pocket and he was saved from serious injury’. Major Bally later became Major-General Commanding Artillery Gibraltar (1902-5). He died at Shoeburyness and is buried close to the south porch at St. Andrew’s church:
Monumental inscription: John Ford Bally C.V.O. / Major-General Royal Artillery / 22nd September 1911 aged 67 years
Commemoration of the 1885 explosion
On 26 February 1985, the hundredth anniversary of the explosion, a memorial cairn was dedicated at Shoeburyness to the men killed in the explosion.