Fall at Lock 2 results in fatal injury
PROFILE NO. 132 Henry Benson, 53
• Born: January 2, 1879 (Homer, Grantham Township)
• Died: April 7, 1932 (Section 2, Lock 2)
• Cause of Death: Injuries from fall • Occupation: Carpenter, Department of Railways & Canals
• Burial: Victoria Lawn Cemetery, St. Catharines (New Section F, Plot 72, Grave 2)
In the early afternoon of April 6, 1932, Henry Benson was engaged in trimming the oak fenders on the gate recess wall at the lower end of Lock 2. This was work similar to what he had been doing for about two years according to inquest testimony by a fellow carpenter, Lloyd Richardson.
Richardson had been working with Benson until just before the accident, but had left him at the top of the lock.
Harold McGinnis, assistant to the supervisory engineer, had also talked to Benson shortly before the accident and had walked about 150 feet (45.7 metres) away when he heard someone running. Upon returning he found the north end of the tackle and scaffold hanging down by one piece. The hook was out and the mousing was off, and Benson was lying on the lock floor, having fallen about 35 feet.
He was still conscious, but delirious, when Richardson and other workers arrived at the scene. Though in bad shape, Benson was lucid enough to ask Richardson what had happened.
The city ambulance rushed Benson to the St. Catharines General Hospital where he received emergency treatment, but at 6:40 the next morning, he succumbed to his internal injuries.
A number of witnesses were called to testify at the inquest, including Dr.
John Ball who stated: “…that death was due to shock as a result of the serious injuries sustained.”
Canal photographer, James Joy, presented pictures of the scene of the accident and the scaffold that unexpectedly collapsed.
There were no witnesses to the accident and no one could explain how one of the ropes slung from the top of the lock to hold the scaffold had apparently slipped from the scaffold.
The scaffold was six feet from the top of the lock and the mousing and rope were not broken.
The St. Catharines Standard reported further, “evidence indicated that every effort had been made to use the best and safest material in this hazardous work, that nothing was left out to make the job just as safe as possible.”
The jury found the death accidental and no guilt was assigned.
Benson's only son Henry ‘Harry’ Alexander Benson, who still lived at the family residence at 14 Facer Street, provided the Informant information on the Ontario Certificate of Registration of Death.
In addition to Harry, Benson was survived by his wife, Constance (Cooper), and a daughter, Annie Myrtle.
Henry Benson was born at Homer, Jan. 2, 1879, the son of Maria/Marie Benson and Harmon Goring. Benson was a member of Union Lodge No. 16 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.), St. Catharines, at the time of his death.
Constance was born in Newport, Isle of Wight. In 1890 she was sent to Our Western Home for girls in Niagara-onthe-Lake, Canada, under the care of Miss Maria Rye. She was one of over 100,000 “Home Children” from the United Kingdom – orphaned, destitute, or abandoned juveniles – who were sent to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa under this emigration scheme.
This was somewhat a coincidence because Henry Benson’s mother had also been a Home Child and was also sent to Miss Rye’s home, only it was twenty years before in 1870.
Henry and Constance married on March 28, 1900 in St. Catharines.
In 1961, 29 years after the death of Henry Benson, Constance would be interred beside her husband in Victoria Lawn Cemetery. A beautifully engraved brown monument marks their graves. This article is part of a series remembering the men whose lives were lost in the construction of the Welland Ship Canal. A memorial to honour the men was unveiled in November 2017. The Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial is now open to the public at Lock 3 in St. Catharines, ON, next to the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre. To learn more visit www.stcatharines.ca/canalworkersmemorial