Story
Louis was born illegitimately in Kippax in 1876. He was named after his uncle Louis Pickard (1858-1876) who had died days before Louis’ birth. His mother Emily Pickard (1856-1919) had a troubled life. After the birth of Louis she had another illegitimate son in 1878, and was charged with his murder under shocking circumstances:
6th July 1878
Suspected child murder at Kippax. On Saturday evening, Dr. Grabbham, district coroner, of Pontefract, held an inquest at the Old Swan Inn, Kippax, near Leeds, on the body of a newly born male child, found in a pond in a corn field, in the occupation of Christopher Hudson, farmer, on the Friday previous, the 28th of June. A young woman named Emily Pickard confessed that the child was hers, and that she threw it into the pond believing it to be dead at the time. Dr. Crossby, who had made a post-mortem examination of the body, believed it to have been born alive, and that it had breathed. It was probable the child had died from inattention at its birth. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that the child was thrown into the pond by its mother, Emily Pickard, under the belief that it was dead at the time. The woman will be brought before the magistrates at Leeds on a charge of concealment of birth.
13th July 1878
Concealment of birth at Kippax. – At the Leeds West Riding Police Court, on Tuesday, Emily Pickard, a single woman, aged twenty-two, the daughter of a miner, residing at Kippax, who was charged with concealment of birth. The prisoner, who appeared to be in a delicate state of health, was accommodated with a seat in the dock. The first witness called was Sarah Mackintosh, the wife of a miner living at Kippax. She said that on the 27th of last month she and several other women, including the prisoner, were hoeing turnips in a field belonging to Mr. Porter. The prisoner complained of having a headache, and she was advised to go home. She said she would do so, and left the field. Shortly afterwards they heard someone on the highway say, “Is’t thou ill, lass,” and thinking it might be the prisoner who was thus addressed, they all went on the other side of the hedge, and found her lying by the roadside. One of the women, named Mary Rhodes, asked her if she was poorly, and the prisoner replied that it was only a headache. Another said she would be better soon, and asked the others to return to their work, which they did. Later in the afternoon, on leaving their work, they passed the place where the prisoner had been resting, and saw traces of afterbirth. Ann Pickard, prisoner’s sister, said that the prisoner was the mother of two children. On the day in question she met her coming home and looking very ill. Witnesses turned back and walked home with her, but did not go into the house with her at the same time. Witness went into a neighbour’s house and stayed there some time, and on reaching home found the prisoner up-stairs. She subsequently came down and sat on the sofa. Shortly afterwards witness heard something from the women who had been working in the field with her sister, which induced her to question her as to whether she had given birth to a child. The prisoner admitted that she had had, and said she had put it in the pond at Borough Lays. Police-constable Croskery gave evidence of the finding of the body of a newly-born male child in the pond. Dr. Crossby said he had made a post-mortem examination of the body. He found no marks of violence upon it, with the exception of a mark on the cheek, which had been caused by the grappling Iron. The lungs being placed in water floated freely, showing that the child had breathed before birth. In his opinion the child was suffocated in delivery, owing to the helpless condition of the mother, and that it was dead before it was thrown into the pond. The prisoner was committed to the Assizes for concealment of birth.
Emily was imprisoned for one month. When released, she came back to live with her widowed father John, son Louis, and her youngest brother Fielding Pickard. Fielding and Louis both started working as coal miners at the age of 12 to support the family as quickly as possible. Later, their father John moved in with another of their brothers, so Emily, Louis and Fielding were financially supporting each other at 27 Robinson Lane, Kippax. Uncle and nephew worked at Peckfield Colliery, which was about 3 miles from home. At 6am, Thursday 30th April 1896, Fielding and Louis set off for work, joining up with Alfred Norton (28), two brothers: Fred Bellerby (21) and Harry (19), James Wilson (29) and Sidney Revis (19), all from Kippax.
Louis was a Trammer, and was working with Fred Bellerby in the No. 1 Rise Bord. They were not killed by the initial explosion, but by a secondary explosion set off by the first, which travelled up the No.1 Rise Board, killing James Benson and his 14 years-old son Fred, before it reached Louis and Fred, who were the last two men to be killed directly by the explosions.
Louis and Fred Bellerby were killed so far North in the mine that they were among the final four bodies to be recovered. Fielding Pickard survived the disaster, and had to identify his nephew at the inquest on 12th May. He found the body to be burnt beyond recognition, and was only able to identify the nephew with whom he lived, by the boots Louis was wearing and the general shape of the body, which had on no other items of clothing, as they had all burnt away. Louis was brought back to Kippax and was buried on 13th May. He was 19 years-old. There is no existing headstone for him.
In 1897, Louis’s mother Emily married her brother-in-law, Smith Backhouse (1853-1902). Smith was the widower of Emily’s sister Ann who gave evidence at her trial twenty years earlier. Ann had died in January 1897, aged 44, and Emily and Smith married later the same year. The couple had a daughter together, but Smith died 3 years later aged 49, and Emily was 63 when she died. Louis’s uncle Fielding married Pauline Appleyard (1873-1970) on 24th September 1898, and had a son, born on the 30th April 1902: the sixth anniversary of the disaster. They called their only child John Louis Pickard. However Fielding’s son, like his brother and nephew who carried the same name, died young at the age of 15, from meningitis.
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 