Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request Cammell Lairds

My late father in law (John Price) was injured in a boiler explosion whilst working at Cammell Lairds. My husband thinks it would have been about mid 1950s. He was in Clatterbridge Hospital for quite some time and then was transferred to Arrow Park convalescent home. He lost his sight for quite some time before regaining it. I have been trying to find any report of this accident but to date have had no luck - can any one throw any light on this please.

Unfortunately not all accidents were reported in the papers, they were if there was fatalities and more chance of the inquest being reported.

Perhaps Wirral Archives could help when we are back in peacetime, they have Cammell Laird records and copies of the Birkenhead News, which are not online.

Thanks for that Bertieone, will add it to my list of things to do once the world gets back to a more normal way of life. We have been oh so lucky here in New Zealand and on Thursday of this week we drop down to level 2, still with restrictions but we seem to be getting there. Stay safe

In the 1950s there was Cammell Laird Shiprepair yard as well as Cammell Laird shipbuilding yard. both owned by the same parent company but with there separate workforces and management structures for the day to day running of there respective work load. Yet at the same time some of the headformen of certain trades within the repair side of the business where answerable to the headformen of the shipbuilding yard. all may sound very confusing but actually worked in practice. so to attempt to trace any serious accidents that took place you would probably be best to do separate searches of both of the yards

Oh, I didn't realise that. My husband was only about 5 when the accident happened and doesn't really remember anything about it other than his dad worked for Cammell Lairds and spent a long time in hospital regaining his sight. Unfortunately my husband's family have now passed away so we can't ask them. At least now I have another couple of avenues to try. Many thanks for answering jimbob