Mist hung under the trees of Warriston Cemetery this afternoon.
Rain dripped steadily from the canopy above, gathered into rivulets, gurgled into the black loam beneath J. Dick Peddie’s Gothic arches.
Compartment Z, beside the Water of Leith, never attracted the same number of grand monuments one finds elsewhere in the cemetery. Perhaps its lack of popularity had something to do with a damp location at the foot of the hill, its proximity to the service entrance bridge from Warriston Road, or its former closeness to the Edinburgh and North Leith Railway track.
Whatever the reason, it attracted instead a humbler clientele, and there are among its tangled weeds and ivy a disproportinate number of working-class interments.
Today it was a scene of melancholy beauty, matched by the tragic story behind one headstone inscription in particular.
The tragedy was covered soon afterwards by the Edinburgh Evening News, which continued to report it through the day with a combination of factuality, sentimentality, ghoulish human interest, and just the tiniest hint of anti-Irish prejudice.
This morning the bridge over the Union Canal at Ashley Terrace gave way, falling on and killing a boy. The bridge is at present being taken down for rebuilding, and the arch was temporarily supported on an erection of iron girders and wooden beams. About half past ten a boy was running under the bridge on the footpath on the north side of the canal when the structure suddenly collapsed and the boy was struck by the falling timber. He was at once seen to, but died almost immediately. The men who were working on the bridge at the time fell with it and were injured, but not seriously. The boy, who is unidentified, was taken to the City Mortuary. The two men who were working on the bridge at the time of the accident were Jn Rorke, labourer, residing at St James Street, who escaped unhurt, and James M’Cahe, 156 Canongate, who was bruised on the arm.
THE BOY IDENTIFIED
The boy was later identified as Ernest James Clements, ten years of age, who resided with his parents at 64, Ashley Terrace. It is stated that the little fellow, who was accompanied by his younger sister, was playing about under the bridge when the collapse occurred. The two had been out since a little after nine, and the mother becoming anxious, went out in search. When informed of the sad accident, she fainted, and had to be taken home.
The inordinate expense of such a large memorial as this, to people of very modest means, suggests that the boy's death was the defining moment of the family's life. It must have taken many years to save for or repay.
By accident or design, its position here – between railway line to the north and water to the south – closely matches that of the Clements home when Ernest died.