New findings reveal true tragedy of Sunderland's Victoria Hall disaster as 140th anniversary marked

A disaster which claimed the lives of 182 Sunderland children is not the end of the tragic story.

A study by Meg Hartford, Michael Pickering and David E. Robinson has painstakingly looked at every one of the youngsters to lose their lives.

Parents who lost a boy in the disaster - and another from consumption the next day

It found that the officially listed death toll was 182 and not 183.

Months of research has been carried out by all three. There have been numerous fascinating findings and they have been released in time for the 140th anniversary of the disaster on June 16.

Among those findings were;

Children as young as 3 years old were killed - but some grieving families would suffer again within days.

John George Thomas Venus was 7 when he died in the disaster. His 13-month-old brother Charles Ronald Venus died from consumption the next day.

Three brothers dead in three days

John James Taylor was 6 when he died at Victoria Hall. His half brother Thomas Taylor (Toward) was 9 at the time and also died in the crush.

But John's half brother Andrew, just 4 years old, died of hydrocephalus 3 days later and not in the disaster as originally listed.

25 sets of brothers and sisters died

There were 25 sets of siblings who died. They included the Mills family from Hendon who lost four children that day - Elizabeth, 12, Alice, 11, Frederick, 7, and Richard, 6.

Mary Ann Thompson, 11, from Deptford was with her 3-year-old sister Margaret. Both died.

William James Briggs, 9, from Blandford Street was there with his 4-year-old brother Newrick and they also died.

Crushed in the stampede

Meg, who was born in Sunderland and went to Bede Grammar School for Girls, has always marked the anniversary of the Victoria Hall disaster, just as she will - quietly - this year by thinking about the 'victims and their families'. 

The children were crushed in the stampede for free toys during a show.

Worried about missing out, many of the estimated 1,100 children in the gallery stampeded toward the staircase leading downstairs.

Three experts working together

At the bottom of the staircase, the door opened inward and had been bolted so as to leave a gap only wide enough for one child to pass at a time.

Those at the front became trapped and were crushed by the weight of the crowd.

Meg told the Sunderland Echo how the new findings came about: "There were three of us involved, Michael Pickering, David Robinson and myself. We all had previously researched various aspects of the tragedy.

"Michael in particular had done lots of work on the death certificates, I did a lot on the family details and checked the burial records for local cemeteries and David was a whizz with spreadsheets.

Many hours spent on research

"I put all the details onto the spreadsheets and the other two checked them over several times. It took us at least a couple of months to be happy with the data and the format never mind the many hours we had spent gathering the info.

"Michael had pictures of several headstones and Paul Emerson visited cemeteries to photos others we had located. Many did not have headstones and we know that others have probably fallen and are now covered with grass."

A hero amidst the tragedy

The trio have released details of their research via social media in anticipation of the 140th anniversary this week.

Meg has special reason to pay tribute as her great great uncle Frederick Graham was the caretaker who did his utmost to save as many lives as he could.

He tried but failed to remove the bolt on the door. He then cut through another way and diverted hundreds more children through the previously closed dress circle door.

To find out more about the research, join the Facebook group The Victoria Hall Disaster, Sunderland.