AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
95
The kindness of so many friends and readers when at last it became possible for us to get married was somewhat
overwhelming, and the accompanying acknowledgement I feel should be preserved in this story of my early days
(see next page).
I have already recorded the accident that nearly proved fatal, when as a babe of fifteen months, I was scalded,
and only saved under God by the skill and care of Guy's hospital doctors and nurses.
Four months after I was married, I was again placed in deadly peril, being involved in a railway accident that
took a heavy toll of life. The local train leaving Ilford station for Liverpool St. was run into by an East coast
express, which cut the local train in half, pitched the engine down an embankment, and crushed one carriage into
splinters.
The carriage in which I travelled left the rails, turned on its side, and came to a grinding stop with a full
complement of passengers compressed into about one third of normal space, with broken glass beneath and luggage,
mats, and people, piled into a dreadful mix.