A TRUE HERO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9025, 11 April 1888, Page 5

A TRUE HERO.

One of the most terrible railway accidents which have yet blackened the records of New South Wales occurrcd at Homebush some days ago, and through which a pretty girl of seven years, named Nellie Woolley, and a gatekeeper named Isaac Werrill, lost their lives. About twenty minutes to six o'clock Werrill noticed the child crossing the line close to the station, and knowing that a train from Parramatta, in addition to the express from Sydney were due, he feared for the child's safety and ran to save her. Breathless, he reached the spot, clutched the child in his arms, but was not granted a second in which to carry his living freight out of danger. As he feared, both trains came along. He avoided the express, but the up-train cut him to pieces, also killing the little girl on the spot. Werrill was terribly mutilated, his head being nearly severed from his body. He risked his life to save the child's—both were lost.

This truly heroic deed of Isaac Werrill's brings to mind another, in which he was the one saved. It will be remembered that on the morning of September 10, 1887, Werrill was at the Petersham Railway Station. Whether he was stationed there or not at the time is not clear, but on the morning in question the 8.40 through train had just made its appearance round the corner near the bridge, travelling at a terrible rate. Werrill, who was a heavy and rather a cumbersome man, hap[>ened at the time to be crossing the ine. He missed his footing, and fell right across the line. In a few seconds he would have been cub to atoms, had not the stationmaster heroically jumped off the platform, and, by a superhuman effort, lifted the fallen man out of danger. It was the work of a moment, and the stationmaster narrowly missed being killed himself. It is strange that poor Werrill should have suffered the death, while endeavouring to save the life of another, from which he was saved only a few months previously.