Denaby Youth Killed In Nova Scotia – Terrible Fall Over The Cliff

September 1906

Mexborough and Swinton Times, September 29th 1906

Denaby Youth Killed In Nova Scotia.
Terrible Fall Over The Cliff.

The sad intelligence reached us on Monday from Canada that Thomas Laycock, a youth of 14 years of age, who is well-known in Denaby, had met with his death by falling over the rocky and precipitous cliffs which skirt the shore from Table Head to Sidney, Nova Scotia.

The father and mother of the deceased boy only emigrated from Denaby a few weeks ago, sailing for Canada on the 21st August, in the ‘City of Bombay.’ Both Mr. and Mrs. Laycock during the long number of years they lived in Denaby were very highly respected, and much sympathy is extended to them in the sad bereavement which has overtaken them so suddenly in their new home.

The exact circumstances attending his death may never be known, as no one appears to have been with him at the time of the accident.

The ‘Glace Bay Gazette’ gives the following account of the sad occurrence: –

The boy fell from the top of the cliffs, which are here about 40 feet in height and very precipitous, and into the water. There were two indentations on his forehead, evidently caused by striking sharp points of rocks. Young Laycock went to work the previous day in the pit, but came home. In the afternoon he was at his sister’s, leaving there about half-past two with the intention of fishing in the cove, where the body was found. At three o’clock parties noticed an object floating around in the cove, and the alarm was given. Joseph Hill, Thos. Matheson, and others went down the cliffs by a winding path. Matheson swam out 25 30 yards, and recovered the boy, although life was then extinct. The family came out from England about 12 days ago. The father was working in the pit at No. 2 at the time and the first intimation he had of the fatality was the sight of the dead body of his son.