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HARRY SISLEY - MAY 24TH 1878

DROWNED IN ATTEMPTING TO SAVE HIS BROTHER

The memorial plaque to Harry Sisley.

THE MEMORIAL PLAQUE TO HARRY SISLEY

Harry Sisley (1868 - 1878) is another child hero whose act of fatal bravery is memorialized on the wall in Postman's Park.

His plaque reads, "Harry Sisley Of Kilburn, Aged 10, Drowned in Attempting To Save His Brother After He Himself Had Just Been Rescued. May 24 1878."

The tragedy that claimed his life was reported in numerous newspapers across the country in the days that followed it.

On Monday the 27th May 1878, the Western Mail carried an article which gave a brief account of what had happened:-

TWO BOYS DROWNED AT KILBURN

"On Friday evening a very distressing fatality occurred at Kilburn, by which two little boys, brothers, lost their lives.

Some excavations have recently been made in St Mary's-field in conection with building operations, and in one of the hollows thus formed a good-sized poolpf water, several feet deep, has accumulated.

The two boys - Frank Sisley, aged 11 years, and Harry Sisley, aged 9 - sons of a cabdriver, living at 7, Linstead-street, Palmerston-road, were, it appears, returning home from school, when they placed a plank on the pool mentioned, and amused themselves as if in a boat.

The raft capsized and the two boys were drowned."

SAD DEATH OF TWO BROTHERS

The inquest into the deaths of the brothers, Frank and Harry Sisley, was held on the 28th of May 1878.

Under the above headline, the Western Daily Mail published the details of the proceedings in its issue of 30th May 1878:-

"Dr. Hardwicke held an inquest yesterday, on the bodies of Frank and Harry Sisky, aged twelve and ten years respectively, the sons of a cabman living at Kilburn.

It appeared that, after leaving school on Friday, the deceased and two other boys went to play at an old clay pit, which had become filled with water to the extent of eight feet in depth.

Having got on to a raft, Frank Sisley, in attempting to reach something, fell into the water.

His brother jumped in and tried to save him, but they both disappeared.

One of the other boys, named Pye, then entered the water with his clothes on, and succeeded in getting Harry to the bank.

He was returning to rescue Frank, when Harry uttered an exclamation of distress, and either jumped or fell into the water again.

His brother "cuddled" to him, and they went under the water together.

Pye then raised an alarm, but when, after some delay, the bodies were recovered, all efforts to restore animation were fruitles.

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death, and expressed their admiration of the conduct of Pye, as well as that of a man named Redword and P.C. Hopkins, the two latter having, after great difficulty, brought the boys out of the water."

BURIED IN HAMPSTEAD CEMETERY

By the time the above article appeared, the two brothers had been laid to rest together in the same grave in Hampstead Cemetery, Fortune Green Road, London NW6 1DR.