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MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS
During the year there were ten fatal road accidents concerning
Woolwich residents, compared with 16 the previous year, None
related to children under 5 years and only one to persons over 65
years.
One fatality was a boy of nine who was run over by a van; a
man of 47 was struck by a car whilst crossing the road, as was a
woman of 76 years.
Accidents to motor cyclists resulted in three deaths of cyclists
and also a woman pedestrian. A woman passenger in a car was
fatally injured when the car collided with a van, and a youth
received fatal injuries following a fall from his bicycle. A
woman passenger was fatally injured following a fall from a bus.
OTHER ACCIDENTS
Deaths due to other accidents totalled 26, including 12 persons
over the age of 65 years, almost all of them being due to falls at
home. A child of eight months received multiple injuries when he
fell from a balcony at home, and a man was killed when he fell from
an iron pipe whilst at work at a local factory. After a fall at
home a middle aged housewife became unconscious from concussion,
having struck her head on a hard object. A young housewife
received shock and burns caused when the room in which she was
caught fire, and an Eltham housewife received fatal burns when her
clothing caught alight. Another domestic accident concerned a
boy who was suffocated by a mackintosh. There were two deaths from
drowning.
MARRIAGES
There were 1,137 marriages in the Borough during 1956, of which
779 took place in Churches; the remaining 358 took place at the
Woolwich Register Office. Of the number of marriages which took
place in churches in the Borough, Registrars of Marriages attended on
118 occasions.
DEATHS FRCM CANCER
Of the total number of deaths, 313 were from Cancer(including
four from Sarcoma), being a similar number to the previous year.
Of these, 176 occurred in men and 137 in women. More than half the
Cancer deaths (183) took place in hospitals.
The following tables give details of Woolwich deaths from cancer
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