A singular accident happened on Thursday morning in connection with the train which left Holyhead at 12.10 and passed through Watford about 7 o’clock.
Soon after 7 o’clock a telegram was received at Watford Junction from a signal box on the north side of Willesden Junction that a child had fallen from the train as it was passing through Watford Tunnel.
The officials at once proceeded to search the tunnel and near the 19 and a half mile post they found a little boy, three years old, who, although unconscious, was alive. He was taken to Dr Stradling’s house in Station Road and Dr Stradling found that he was suffering from concussion of the brain, a large scalp wound and an injury to the right leg, but that no bones were broken.
As soon as possible, the father of the child, Surgeon-Major Gasteen, of Woolwich, arrived from Willesden, and it was then ascertained that he, with Mrs Gasteen, a governess, were returning from a trip to Ireland.
When the train was in a tunnel, the boy was putting on his boots and was suddenly missed, attention being called to the open carriage door.
Dr Gasteen succeeded in stopping the train but not until it had passed Sudbury.
The child was afterwards conveyed to Watford District Cottage Hospital.
[From the Watford Observer of September 26, 1891]
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