A CAMERA TRAGEDY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8893, 13 August 1907, Page 4

A CAMERA TRAGEDY.

A suaushot photograph cost three neisous their lives in. peculiarly wul circumstances at Blackpool. j.he victims were Miss Dorothy muvanr»t Gillam, Worcester street; Stourbridge; Mr J. W. Gillam., her brother, a clerk in the Chartered Bank of India; and Mr Ernest laylor, of Highclere, Noton, to whom Miss Gillam was engaged. Miss Oriilam, the two young men, and a young German girl named Bring-, fricde Schaffer, who was a, guest ol the others, left the house where they were staying with their parents shortly before ten o'clock and walked along the parade at IS.ortli Shore admiring the rough sea, and when opposite Derby Road Miss Gillam, who was an enthusiastic amateur photographer, ami had her camera witn her, expressed desire to take a snapshot of the waves as they broke against the hulking. For this purpose she went on to ftJio stops loading down to the sands, and was followed by her companions, lne hulking at this point is concave, and is provided with flights of concrete ! steps at every few yards leading to the sands. Miss Gillam at first took her stand at the top of or.e ol these flights. Had sue remained there it is probable she would have Veni safo, as it is protected by iron rails She went, however, some distance down the stops to secure a better picture. The crowd ou the two higher promenades were hornlied by her fool hardiness. She fixed her camera and was hi the act of snapping a picture when a pyramid of water rushed up, lifted her like a cork, and boro her away amid the shrieks of the frantic onlookers. Her brother and Mr Taylor leaped in after her almost simultaneously witho.it doffing a single article of clothing, although one of them wore a mackintosh. Both made heroic; efforts to reach Miss Gillam, but the sea beat them back each time. At length Mr Gillam readied his sister and held her head above water for more than five minutes, until, in fact, long after life seemed extinct. Ho was repeatedly struck by the waves, but lie retained his hold, hoping against hope, it seemed, that aid would come from ins friend, who, however, had failed to seize a lifebelt which was thrown to him, and sunk In the course of n few minutes Mr Gillam rolled over aud

sank. All three bodies were afterwards seen iloatiug by thousands of people, who omicklv assembled. The bodies of the moil wore several times dashed

against the sea wall, receiving injuries that caused them to bleed freely. All three were recovered during the afternoon about 200 yards south of the stops from which they entered the. water. The bodies wore terribly mangled and battered, for the, waves had hurled them time after time against the hulking. 'As the tide receded the people on the promenade caught occasional glimpses of the bodies ami of Miss Gillam's camera, and red tam-o-'-slniiter, and of the walking-sticks and other things belonging to the victims, which were floating' close in shove.