Name
Margaret Field
28 June 1905
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
31/10/1918
14
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Civilian
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Searched but not found
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BALDOCK CEMETERY
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Baldock memorials
Pre War
Margaret Maud Field was born on 28 June 1905 in Baldock, Hertfordshire, the daughter of Albert and Lydia Field, and one of ten children, although one died in infancy. She was baptised on 15 October 1905 at Baldock. On the 1911 Census the family were living at Norton End, Baldock where her father was working as a farm labourer.
Margaret was killed in an unusual accident in which she was struck by an RAF aircraft being flown by a pilot from RAF Duxford, about ten miles away, who had flown over that morning to collect a colleague who had been staying at a local house. An inquest followed which was a stormy and peculiar affair, but the pilot was exonerated, and a verdict of accidental death returned. Margaret was buried next to her brother Bertie in Baldock Cemetery, but it seems no stone or marker was placed there.
The tragic accident was reported in newspapers. The first extract was reported the following day.
" KILLED BY AEROPLANE - MACHINE STRIKES GIRL IN A FIELD AND FLIES AWAY
A distressing aeroplane tragedy occurred at Letchworth yesterday, resulting in the death of a young girl and serious injuries to a boy. The occupants of the machine did not stop, but a piece of canvas from one of the wings was afterwards picked up, and the police are seeking to establish the identity of the pilot and observer.
The machine was swooping downwards over a field on the outskirts of the Herts garden city, and it happened that at the moment the two young people were in the field searching for dandelion roots. Both were struck by the aeroplane, and the girl, Margaret Field, 14 years, was killed. The boy, Horace Field, a cousin of the girl, escaped with injuries. There were several people in the field at the time, and they had narrow escapes."
This newspaper report appeared following the inquest.
"KILLED BY RISING AEROPLANE"
The pilot of the aeroplane which fatally injured Margaret Field, aged 14, and injured Horace Field, her cousin, in a field near Letchworth, stated at the inquest held at Baldock on Saturday, when a verdict of "Accidental death" was returned, that he landed to pick up a flying officer who had been staying in the district, and in rising from the field to return to the aerodrome he failed to notice the two children."
Wartime Service
Additional Information
Brothers Bertie Field and Alfred Field both died in the First World War and are named on the Baldock War Memorial.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
