Wander amid the tranquil grounds of St Mary’s Church in the village of Combs, Suffolk, and you’ll find a gravestone commemorating an incredible young man. Eventually the inscription describing his heroism will be eroded, but the memory will not fade thanks to the research of Nigel Ellis.
“A few years ago I decided to search for family graves at St Mary’s,” Nigel explains. “I found the headstone of Samuel Scarff, my great-great uncle, and was surprised by its inscription.
“It read ‘Samuel, the dearly beloved husband of Alice Scarff who while saving the lives of his wife and children was knocked down and killed by a runaway horse in Lea Bridge Road, Leyton, January 19th, 1896’.”
This tallied with a memoriam card that Nigel’s grandmother had kept from her uncle Samuel’s funeral, which she attended aged 11. “I was keen to discover more about Samuel’s life and the events that led to this tragic accident.”
Samuel was born in 1866 in Combs, the ninth of a family of 10 children. He received a basic education at the village school then left to work as an agricultural labourer.
In late Victorian times, mechanisation increased the levels of unemployment among farm servants. At the age of 19, Samuel decided to move to London and found work as a driver. In 1894, he married Alice Horne, who was also from Combs, and they settled in Walthamstow in north-east London where their daughters Sissy and Lilian were born.
Nigel discovered the full story behind Samuel’s tragic death via an article in the Walthamstow, Leyton and Chingford Guardian. “I contacted the paper to ask if they had an archive, and was pleasantly surprised when two large photocopies of the relevant pages arrived in the post.”
The report was published on Friday 25 January 1896 and revealed that the previous Sunday was a fine day, so the family set off on a stroll in an area of Lea Bridge Road called Chestnut Walk. Still infants, Sissy and Lilian were tucked up in a pram together. The family was on a footpath separated from the road by a row of trees when Scarff met with “a terrible fate”.
Three young men driving a hired horse and buggy were travelling towards Lea Bridge Road. The horse bolted downhill, careered over a road and passed through the gap in the trees next to the footpath.
Suddenly they came upon the Scarff family. Samuel just had time to push Alice and the pram out of the way before the horse and buggy struck, crushing him against the fence.
“Severely injured, he was taken to Walthamstow Hospital where doctors concluded that ‘not the slightest hope of his recovery could be entertained’,” Nigel reveals. “Samuel died that evening from a fractured skull, without regaining consciousness. His distraught wife was by his side.
“A witness told the inquest that Samuel’s last act was to push the pram out of the path of the horse but he was unable to save himself. The coroner exonerated the driver of blame and recorded a verdict of’ ‘accidental death’.”
Alice and the children returned to Combs where Samuel was laid to rest on 23 January 1896, which would have been his 30th birthday. Sadly, baby Lilian died seven months later and was buried alongside her father.
“Alice worked as a maternity nurse for many years, and lived to the age of 94. Sissy married, had her own family and passed away aged 79. Two lives were lived thanks to Samuel’s selfless and brave act.
“My home is just three miles from Combs, and I often go there to enjoy the tranquillity of the churchyard. I always pay my respects to Samuel.”