Death by Brick
E. S. Wigg & Son stationers and adjoining buildings in Grenfell St, Adelaide, 1922
SLSA: [B 10365]
It was August 1921, when Arthur
Leonard Brown of 166 Carrington Street, Adelaide, went to work like any other
day. On this day he was employed as part of the work gang building known as Wigg’s
Building at 63-69 Grenfell Street, Adelaide.
E.S. Wigg & Son
Limited began on Rundle Street in 1849, established by Edgar Smith Wigg. The
company produced stationery, which it just so happened, that a law had passed
in 1849 requiring records to be kept for councils, religious congregations, licenses
and taxation. In the 1870’s Wigg & Son also offered school supplies. A new
building was erected on Rundle Street in 1880 – which was subsequently
demolished during the Myer Centre rebuild in the 1990s.
With a growing business in South
Australia and Western Australia, the company bought land on Grenfell Street to
meet its storage requirements. They moved into the Grenfell Street building
in December 1921.[1]
Mr Brown was going
about his business as a bricklayer on that fateful day. Another bricklayer,
Harold Gordon O’Reilly, was also working at Wiggs. O’Reilly was stationed on
the third floor of the building when he the cry of “Under below!” O’Reilly noticed two bricks falling from the
floor above.
Gordon Scroop, another bricklayer was
working on the third-floor landing, winching up bricks in a barrow. A load of
bricks came up on the winch but was an inch too short to be swung onto the
landing, because of this there was a slight jerking motion to the barrows which
caused two bricks to come loose and fall. Scroop called out several times with a warning: “Under below!”[2]
Brown had hooked the
barrow of bricks onto the winch that was to go to the third floor. Richard
Williams, the winch driver, set the winch in motion, and both men watched it go
up from below. Williams heard the cry of “Under, Below,” but it was too late,
he watched as one brick hit Brown in the back of the head, and another slid across
his shoulder. Brown was rushed to the
Adelaide Hospital where he died later the same day.
An inquest was held a week later at the Education Building on Flinders Street,
under City Coroner, Dr Ramsey Smith. Dr Wentworth R.C. Mainwaring deposed that
the brick had hit Brown in almost the centre of the back of his head. It had
left a slight cut but had fractured Brown's skull from the top middle of his
head to the base of his skull – this is what killed him.[3]
The Coroner found the death to be accidental.
Arthur Leonard Brown was just 29 years of age when the
accident occurred. Brown was buried at the West Terrace Cemetery.[4]
Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2024
[1] ‘Wigg’s Building’, Heritage of the City of Adelaide, City
of Adelaide, (2001), p. 1., https://d31atr86jnqrq2.cloudfront.net/heritage-places/heritage-place-information-sheet-63-69-grenfell-street.pdf.
[2] 'Killed By A Falling Brick', The Express and
Telegraph, (29 August 1921), p. 2.
[3] 'Killed By Falling Brick.', The Journal, (29
August 1921), P. 1.
[4] 'Family Notices', Daily Herald, (26 August
1921), p. 2.
