aberdeen granite
Deaths of Lumberjacks, Ballater
Having travelled across the Atlantic for wartime work in the forests of Aberdeenshire Cecil White and Charles Short tragically died, not from enemy fire, not from a timber harvesting accident but from the folly of a fellow Canadian lumberjack. Ten forest men with driver James Francis Crockwell were travelling on the south Deeside road by Pannanich quarry when the lorry hit a high bank, swerved across the road and violently collided with a sand heap. Most of the passengers received minor injuries but Cecil White and Charles Short were so severely hurt that they died in hospital. James Francis Crockwell was charged with culpable homicide and driving whilst intoxicated. When the case came to trial in October 1941 JFC pled guilty to a lesser charge of driving in a culpable and reckless manner whilst drunk. He was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment.
The men were buried at Tullich kirkyard overlooking the site of the fatal accident at Pannanich.
Note nod to the men's homeland in the etching at the top of the stone.
Deaths of Lumberjacks, Ballater
Having travelled across the Atlantic for wartime work in the forests of Aberdeenshire Cecil White and Charles Short tragically died, not from enemy fire, not from a timber harvesting accident but from the folly of a fellow Canadian lumberjack. Ten forest men with driver James Francis Crockwell were travelling on the south Deeside road by Pannanich quarry when the lorry hit a high bank, swerved across the road and violently collided with a sand heap. Most of the passengers received minor injuries but Cecil White and Charles Short were so severely hurt that they died in hospital. James Francis Crockwell was charged with culpable homicide and driving whilst intoxicated. When the case came to trial in October 1941 JFC pled guilty to a lesser charge of driving in a culpable and reckless manner whilst drunk. He was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment.
The men were buried at Tullich kirkyard overlooking the site of the fatal accident at Pannanich.
Note nod to the men's homeland in the etching at the top of the stone.