George Ball was the proprietor of the Victorian Temperance Hotel in Station Road for 30 years. At the time of his death in 1922 he was retired and he and his wife lived with their married daughter at 36 Cheltenham Street.
Although retired George remained a very active man and on the day in question had taken the 9.20 train from Swindon to Shrivenham on a visit to his wife who was staying with her sister at Somerset Farm, Hinton and also to take care of some business matters. Apparently George made this journey regularly as the Advertiser reported “on leaving the train at Shrivenham it was Mr Ball’s habit to cross the line in the direction of Bourton.”
However, on this day an upstopping train in the station obscured the view of William Herbert Ody, the driver of a train travelling in the opposite direction.
Mr Ody told the coroner’s court that as the stopping train passed him he saw a man walking across the level crossing. He shouted as loudly as possible and plied the steam brake at once, but it was too late. Mr Ball was killed outright. The line was perfectly straight and if it had not been for the train in the station he could easily have seen the man and the man him, he said.
The Coroner returned a verdict of accidental death and expressed his deepest sympathy.
Mr Ball’s son Samuel had told the court that his father had good eyesight but that his hearing was failing. Following the verdict Samuel suggested that a footbridge should be built across the line, as what had befallen his father might happen to anyone else.
George Ball died aged 62 years old. He was buried on March 29, 1922 in grave plot D1305 which he shares with his wife Mary Ann and his son William who both died in 1948.
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