On this day in Oxfordshire...

ON GOOD FRIDAY, 19 April 1908, Anthony Townsend, 35, a resident of Milton Quarry, was working with a steam saw at Payne’s Farm in Swinbrook, when suddenly one of his fingers was completely severed. He was taken to Burford Cottage Hospital, and the newspaper reported that he was making good progress.¹  

So did the injury affect Townsend’s fortunes as a working man? It seems not because he made a life with his wife and family in King’s Road in Banbury working for Braggins & Co timber merchant as an engine driver.² He died in 1927 aged 55.³

1  Witney Gazette and West Oxfordshire Advertiser, 25 April 1908

2  1921 Census Returns; Reference: RG 15/7553, ED 1, Sch 314; Book: 07553, Banbury

3  Anglican Parish Registers; Reference Number: PAR21/1/R5/5, Banbury St Mary, 19 March 1927