TERRIBLE AGONY

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 37, 20 June 1927, Page 8

TERRIBLE AGONY

NEVER A MURMUR

BEDFORDSHIRE HEROINE. LONDON, May 20. “Agreement has been readied in* the case, Your Honour. Defendants have undertaken to pay the girl LOGO compensation.” Refund this matter-of-fact - statement, made in the county court at Luton to-day, there is the story of a girl who had gained for herself a reputation of being the pluckiest girl in all Bedfordshire.

Her name is Vera Hunt, and sho lives at Clarendon Road, Luton. She is to receive £6OO for the loss of hen right hand, which had to be amputated after an accident in which it was caught in a machine at a hat factory, and burnt when, the machine caught fire.

Throughout her terrible ordeal she never mad© a murmur, although, according to one or the medical men who attended her, “she must have suffered * the agony of hell.” Vera Hunt is a, slim, blue-eyed girl, eighteen years old, and still wears her hair iu unshingled curls. When seen at her home to-day she shyly said that she did not want to say anything about her conduct — hut all Luton is talking about it. Sit© was wearing a gold wristlet watch, which had been presented to her by old workmates. The girl had been employed at the factory of Messrs Dillingham bind Sons one month only as a learner iu the hat-making trade at the time of the accident, on. New Year’s Day, 1925. For live minutes she wps held a prisoner, while to add to her suffering the machine caught fire. A workman who dismantled the machine stated that • although shei could not restrain her tears, no a sound passed te girl’s lips while ho was releasing her. When stimulants were brought she declined them and suggested they should ho given to .the girls about her who had fainted.

Unaided she walked down the four flights of stairs to the ground floor and entered the. waiting ambulance- “ This is my 12,000 th case,” said Mr H. W. Lathom. who conducted the girl’s case in the county court, “and 1 have never met such a plucky girl. It was epic heroism,” With storical patience Vera Hunt is now training her left hand to do the work of two. She can already write quickly and neatly, knit with, four needles, paint cleverly. make artificial flowers and embroider. Her on© regret is that she cannot now sit for the pianoforte examination for which she was preparing on the morning of the accident.