Lives in Cricket No 45 - Brief Candles 2

86 Tragedy trying to protect her. Both had suffered severe head injuries - later it was discovered that their skulls had been fractured - while Dick also had a dislocated neck and a broken leg. It was the best part of another hour before the body of the third victim was found - that of Margaret McCluskey, who had evidently died of suffocation in the ruins of the clogger’s shop. Although the search of the wreckage continued well into the night and on the following day, no further victims - alive or dead - were to be found. The town of Burnley was plunged into grief at the loss caused by the accident. 61 There was naturally great sadness over the loss of a man as well known and liked as Dick Boys (‘All who knew him loved him … Burly men stood with eyes dimmed with tears’ - Burnley Gazette ), but concern quickly shifted to the welfare of the survivors - to Dick and Rebecca’s four orphaned children (the youngest not yet ten years old); to James McCluskey, Margaret’s recently-widowed father who was described as already being ‘in poor circumstances’; and to Peter Grant. Subscription lists for the benefit of the Boys children were quickly set up by both Burnley CC and the local tradesmen’s association, but under the Mayor’s influence these were quickly unified, and their remit extended to cover the others affected by the disaster as well. 61 The news did not remain confined to Lancashire; there was a report of the chimney collapse in The Times on the following Monday, and later of the inquest verdict. The scene of Dick Boys’ death, as drawn for the contemporary press in Burnley.