How an early vending machine prompted a fit of railroad rage
MANY people will identify with the stress and frustration of waiting for a train to arrive.
It can cause some people to become agitated.
One such person was Robert Gibbons, who was more familiar with the slower life on the Leeds Liverpool Canal, having been born into one of the oldest boat families of Lathom.
Just three days after New Year 1908, Robert, 35, found himself at Ormskirk Railway Station.
While he waited for his train, he asked a young lad on the platform to nip and get him a pack of cigarettes from the vending machine.
He had given young Stanley Crompton a penny to use in the machine.
Stanley was quite likely hovering around the station looking for tips for minding luggage and carrying bags. He was the son of Henry Crompton, who at that time was the landlord of the Roper’s Arms in Wigan Road.
Unfortunately, Stanley put the penny in the wrong slot and the machine dispensed a packet of butterscotch.
The machine in question was a bright red electronic machine manufactured by the Sweetmeat Automatic Delivery Machine Company of Southwark Street, London.
This company made the first coin–operated automatic vending machines, including ticket machines.
It was world’s first company set up to install and maintain vending machines and its product could be found on most station platforms.
This particular model was cast iron and quite substantial, dispensing sweets, chocolate, matches and cigarettes from the three different compartments.
The machine was attached to the wall of the booking office out on the platform.
Robert did not react too well to his penny being lost and he marched into the booking office and demanded that the booking clerk get him the cigarettes.
Of course the staff couldn’t do that as they would not have had the key to the machine.
Walter Tully, a young porter working on the platform later told the magistrates that Robert Gibbons, apparently having had rather a lot to drink, took to pushing the machine sideways on the wall.
Walter went on to describe how the machine did tilt a little but righted itself.
Robert then pushed some more until the machine tipped to the floor and the glass panels smashed.
The case was brought before the magistrates at the Ormskirk court in Derby Street on April 3, three months after the incident occurred.
Robert, of New Lane, Burscough, had been summoned to appear in court for maliciously damaging the machine but did not appear on the day of the hearing.
Robert had been a boatman on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal for all of his working life, which began quite early as he worked on his father Peter’s boat before having his own. Th e vending machine company sent its regional representative along to the court to give evidence as to the damage caused and the cost of repair.
The representative, John Rowland, travelled from his home in Broughton, Manchester, to attend the hearing.
Interestingly, John (born 1849) had started his career as a signalman on the railways in his home town of Dorking, Surrey, and had been promoted to railway platform inspector in his early 40s.
By 1901 he had taken the position as Sweetmeats Automatic Delivery Machine inspector.
Ormskirk station master Robert Smith gave testimony that Robert Gibbons had seemed very noisy and agitated and made a great scene of getting sweets instead of cigarettes.
Young Stanley Crompton gave the two sitting magistrates an explanation for the situation, taking the blame himself for accidentally putting the penny in the wrong slot in the machine.
The chairman of the magistrates on that day was James Bromley, much respected local amateur historian and archaeologist, his fellow magistrate was Richard Shawe, who was the manager of the William Deacon and Manchester & Salford Bank.
He lived at the bank at 24 Derby Street.
Robert Smith went on to inform the magistrates that Gibbons had expressed remorse for what he had done.
Apparently, Gibbons had asked that the magistrates were lenient on him.
John Rowland explained that the machines were very expensive and that this particular one had to be transported to the Manchester
factory to be repaired, which also meant that there was no revenue from the machine during that period.
The cost of the repairs was £1.
The magistrates fined Robert Gibbons in his absence the sum of 20s plus costs and 20s damages.
Walter Tully, the porter at the station, lived in Islington, Liverpool.
He was born in October 1893 and would have only been 14 at the time of this incident.
He left the railway company sometime after the court case and took a job as a hotel porter in Liverpool.
He enlisted in the Royal Marines Light Infantry in October 1915 and served in Ireland during early 1916.
He then went out to France with the 190th Brigade Machine Gun Company, Royal Naval Division and was recorded as missing believed killed on the November 13 1916 aged 23.
Walter has no known grave and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.
Robert Gibbons and all the generations of his family of boatmen can be found on the Boatpeople website, created for the Ormskirk & District Family History Society.
At their February meeting on Wednesday 26 at 7.30pm, members of the society will present short case studies of gleaning information from a family photo.
There will also be an opportunity to learn more about the boat people and the website.
The meeting is held at the Moorgate Girl Guide HQ and admission is free to members and £1 to non-members.
There is ample parking close by. free