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On Thursday evening, 22nd October 1903, around eight o'clock, an express train, travelling from Leeds, Bradford, and Halifax to Manchester and Liverpool, ran into a stationary tank engine, standing just outside a tunnel, after having passed through Sowerby Bridge station. There was only one fatality.

The railway accident which occurred in a tunnel near Sowerby Bridge of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, on Thursday night, resulted in the death of one of the passengers of the express from Leeds to Liverpool, Mr. G. E. Croysdale, a commercial traveller. He had his foot cut off and much crushed. It is presumed that he was killed in getting out of his carriage just as the slow train from Manchester ran in to the of the express. Mr. Croysdale was formerly in the Imperial Light Horse, and went through the siege of Ladysmith. Between twenty and thirty passengers were injured, but none seriously. The accident occurred owing to the express running into a light engine which had been allowed to remain on the metals. A signalman has been suspended.

The Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, Friday 30th October 1903


Mr. George Croysdale, the Liverpool commercial traveller, killed in the express collision at Sowerby Bridge, was employed by a firm of cork dealers. He was formerly in the Imperial Light Horse, and went through the siege of Ladysmith. He leaves a widow, but no family. A railway official was sent to-day to inform Mrs. Croysdale of her husband's death. Numbers of people who expected friends by the train called to-day at the Exchange Station, Liverpool.

Yorkshire Evening Post, Friday 23rd October 1903

Hi Berenice

Interestingly, Croyesdale served in the ILH but wasn't at Ladysmith. The medal roll shows:

951 Trooper George Edward Croysdale entitled to a QSA with clasps Cape Colony and Transvaal. Discharged 12/11/1900.

A tragic and premature death.

Regards

David

I visited Kellington, east of Pontefract, Yorkshire, on Saturday, and went through the churchyard at St Edmund's, looking for George Croysdale's grave. The only Croysdale family plot was heavily overgrown, although the inscriptions are perfectly readable, several of the names being from around the early 1900s. No mention of George, although I think this is likely to be where he was interred.

Somehow the ornate metal surrounding the plot escaped being taken during WW2.

It is certainly a great shame to see a memorial as grand as that in such a state of neglect, but, I dare say it might well be the same old problem there simply being no immediate family members left, whatsoever, today.