By Isle of Wight Observer
This week we found a very sad tale, published in the Isle of Wight Observer on 22nd March, 1856. It is interesting that the appeal made a point of the good character, sobriety and industriousness of the deceased father. You can imagine the outcry if somebody tried to do that these days!
FATAL ACCIDENT.
TWO ORPHANS cast upon the sympathies of a humane and generous Public, under circumstances of truly painful interest, of which the following is a brief outline: –
On Friday, the 7th inst., Robert Jacobs, a servant in the employ of Messrs. Oakley and Co, Agents of the South-Western Railway Company, was engaged in removing some household furniture in a van from the residence of a lady at Niton. He was in the act of attaching a rope, which bound the entire load together, when the horse made a sudden movement; the unfortunate man lost his hold, and feel backward on his head to the earth with such violence that his scull was fractured in the most frightful manner. He never spoke after the accident, but lingered till the day following, when death put his seal to this sad catastrophe in the Ryde Infirmary.
Robert Jacobs (about 28 years old) was a married man, of unblemished reputation, of sober and industrious habits, and had been four years in the employ of Messrs. Oakley and Co. He lost his wife only three weeks prior to the accident, who left behind her an infant to which she had just given birth and an only son of about three years old.
By this awful visitation two helpless Orphans are deprived of both Parents in the short space of three weeks.
To whom shall they now appeal? Will not the sympathies of Christian beneficence, ever active and conspicuous as they are in Ryde and the Isle of Wight in general, rise in a case like this? Will not an Orphan’s cry find an echo in the breast of many a parent?
The smallest Contribution for the benefit of these destitute Children may be forwarded to Thos. Eldridge, Esq., National Provincial Bank, Ryde; P. T. Hellyer, Esq., Hampshire Bank, Ryde; Messrs. Smith and Jacobs, Union-street, Ryde; or to Mr. George Oakley, 61, Union-street, Ryde.
It is proposed that the amount collected should be deposited in the Savings Bank at Newport, and a small weekly allowance made for the support of the Children, until the amount be exhausted.