70th Anniversary of Burnden Park Tragedy

marlowe said:

Something I wasn't aware of. In circumstances which foreshadowed the Hillsborough Disaster 43 years later. On March 9th 1946 in a match between Bolton Wanderers v Stoke City 33 people lost their lives when overcrowding led to barriers collapsing and people being crushed to death. What I found most shocking was the fact that they didn't abandon the match but resumed it with the dead bodies laid out behind the goals. I wonder if, so shortly after World War 2 and having suffered German air raids people had become more stoic and immune to tragedy and death.

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GT49er said:

That was the way it was back then. Remember, in the war if you're husband, son or father got killed, all you got was a telegram saying, basically, 'sorry about that'. No family support workers or any other support; if you were lucky, a neighbour might have seen the telegram boy and would come round and make you a cup of tea.


And after the war, in sport and other ways, things carried on like that. Formula 1, for instance, deaths were the norm. Take the 1955 Le Mans 24 hours, for example - dozens of spectators beheaded, but it carried on -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcDwxo30gro


Or take the 1953 Farnborough Air Show - horrendous crash, far more fatalities than Shoreham; someone got in a new jet plane straight afterwards and broke the sound barrier, as if to show, 'Deaths? Nah, tough, we can take it!' -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHj0FOkcE94


Different world, eh?

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marlowe said:

Definitely a different world. Can you imagine Shoreham being reported like that

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marlowe said:

It was interesting watching that 1955 Le Mans Race Report and how the crash (at 3.05 min) was breezily reported as if it was a minor intrusion into the important matter of the race in hand, even though the commentator manages to acknowledge it as "the worst disaster in motor racing history" it had little more than 30 seconds devoted to the event. By 4.40 mins, just a minute later the matter is completely forgotten about and the commentator is making a light hearted quip about Mr Brooks recalling the delights of seaside holidays as a child while putting his back into building sandcastles. Definitely a different world. Can you imagine Shoreham being reported like that.

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wolfie said:

The disaster at Bolton is covered in Stanley Matthews autobiography (The Way it Was) - an excellent insight into football pre-1960s. Matthews was playing in the match. In fact many of the massive crowd had come to see him in action.

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