WEDDING DISASTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11950, 26 April 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

WEDDING DISASTER.

VERANDAH COLLAPSKS : SEVERAL PEOPLE INJURED,

A WEDDING party at Pembroke Square, Earl's Court, was brought to ft seal and abnipt termination one day lately. In the morning Miss Lillit Daly had been married. ut the Pro-Cathedral, South Kensington, to Mr, Frederick Allen, of Netherwood Road, Shepherd's Bush. After the wedding, the bride ami bridegroom, with their parent* and numerous guests, adjourned to la, Pembroke .Square, the. residence of the bride's mother, where the reception was* held, . Shortly before three o'clock the carriage by which the newly-wedded pair were to leave for the railway station for the bridal tour arrived, and to .see them about a dozen of the guests, including relatives of both bride and bridegroom, assembled on a verandah In front of the house situate between twenty and thirty feel; from the pavement. From thence they were in the act of throwing rice on to the heads of the couple as they Weil entering the carriage when, without any , warning, the verandah collapsed, and the whole of the occupants were precipitated into an area below. 'Hie cries and scream* sent up were heart-rending, and to make matters worse the whole moan of brickwork .and cement forming the verandah, together ■ with the iron railings, also fell into the area, Assistance was at once obtained; and the sufferers were removed to the West London Hospital, he injured including Mr. and Mrs. Allen, and three Misses Allen, father, motherland sisters of the bridegroom/all of whom were terribly cut about the face and hands : Mrs. Pestall, an old lady of 75 years, who had her leg broken, besides sustaining severe cuts on lace and hands ; Lily Daly, a little girl but three years of age, one of whose eyes was nearly knocked out of her head J v Mrs. ; Hall, who sustained a , broken leg } .'Cecil Coward, aged 14, cut badly about the ~, tee ; Miss Florence \Vyse and Miss Nora Daly, , The .wonder, is that none of the victiros were impaled on the spikes of the rails surmounting the area,. Their injuries were ••-o never*, that it was found necessary to detain at the hospital all those whose names . have been mentioned.,, The remainder.of the people m the verandah escaped with a severe _ MUOCKa :■■,>.■■■:■■■■■, W -