Grave 37
     

Harry Cohen

1874  – 1889

In Loving memory of HARRY COHEN
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
5649
MARCH 5TH 1889 ,
AGED 14.


Harry Cohen was the son of Moses Cohen, a tailor.  It is not known who his mother was or where he was born, or when he and his father moved to Bath.
In June 1887 father and son were living at 5 St John’s Place, their address reported in a court case in which Harry was summoned for assault following a fight involving two other boys. He was fined 2s 6d, or in default five days imprisonment.

Harry, then aged 14, had a part time job selling refreshments at the Theatre Royal, but very little else is known about him except the manner of his death in March 1889. It was a wintery day and he was clearing snow from the roof of his father’s tailors shop in St John’s Place, Bath. Slipping on the snow he fell about 10m from the roof into the yard below, and onto some tall wooden stakes, one of which went into him under the armpit. 

He was rushed bathed in blood to hospital, but was dead when examined there.
From the Shepton Mallet Journal 8 March 1889

A shocking accident occurred in Bath Tuesday morning, by which a boy named Henry Cohen lost his life. The deceased, who was 14 years of age lived with his father, a tailor, at 4, St. John’s Place, adjoining which is a butcher’s shop, at present unlet, which opens into the Seven Dials yard, and is surrounded at the back with wooden paling, about 8ft in height. 

Just before one o’clock the deceased went upstairs, and, by means of a window, stepped on to the roof of the house adjoining and began clearing away the snow. There is no parapet to the roof, and almost as soon as he commenced shovelling he must have slipped, falling into the yard beneath, and pitching upon two of the points of the wooden paling, one of which entered his body, and the other was broken off. No one witnessed the accident but hearing the fall several persons rushed out and saw the poor boy on the ground bathed in blood. 

Two men, named Bethell and Harris, at once conveyed him to the Hospital, where it was found by Mr. Helps that the deceased was dead, and six inches of the paling had entered the left side just under the armpit. The distance the boy must have fallen is about 30ft. 

The boy’s father was out at the time of the accident, and had not given his son permission to go on the roof, nor did he know that he was there. The boy has on other occasions been seen on the roof and cautioned as to the risk he was running. He was not in any employment, except that he was engaged to sell refreshments at the theatre.