🔹 ON THIS DAY IN WEMBURY — 2 JANUARY 1939

GUN ACCIDENT NEAR WEMBURY POINT

On this day in 1939, the Western Morning News reported a serious New Year’s Day accident involving a Wembury resident.

Leslie Willingham, who lived at Wembury Point Station near Plymouth, suffered gunshot wounds to his right arm in an accident close to his home on 1 January.

He was taken from Wembury to the Prince of Wales’s Hospital in Greenbank Road, Plymouth. Late that night, his condition was reported as being “rather poorly.”

The short newspaper report gives no further details. It does not explain what kind of gun was involved, how it discharged, whether Leslie was alone or whether anybody witnessed the accident.

It also provides no age for him and no later update on his recovery.

REFLECTION

Old newspapers often recorded serious events in remarkably few words. Behind this small paragraph was a frightening New Year’s Day for Leslie Willingham, his family and those who helped transport him from the isolated coast at Wembury Point to hospital in Plymouth.

The description of his condition as “rather poorly” now sounds almost casual. In the language of newspapers at the time, however, it could conceal a genuinely grave situation.

Medical care and emergency transport were very different in 1939. Britain’s National Health Service was still nine years away, antibiotics were only beginning to enter clinical use, and an injury involving gunshot wounds carried a considerable risk of blood loss, infection and permanent damage.

The report leaves us wanting to know what happened next. Did Leslie recover fully? Was the accident caused by a hunting gun, a service weapon or something connected with the station? Somewhere, perhaps in hospital records, family papers or a later newspaper notice, the remainder of his story may still survive.

For now, this small clipping preserves one worrying moment at Wembury Point on the first day of 1939—and the name of the man at its centre.

📷 The accompanying image is a modern historical interpretation of the aftermath. Leslie’s appearance, the station building, the weapon and the method of transport are not described in the report and have therefore been imagined.

Source: Western Morning News, 2 January 1939.

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On this day in Wembury — 2 January 1991

A new evening cleaning contract began in Wembury under RCO Support Services Ltd, a Plymouth-based company specialising in cleaning and maintenance work across Devon. The firm advertised for local staff to work 5–7 pm, Monday to Friday, with transport provided from the Plymouth area.

RCO Support Services, originally founded in 1968 as Rebate Cleaning Organisation Ltd, handled numerous public and private contracts in the South West and later featured in a national employment law case concerning workers’ rights. The Wembury contract marked part of the company’s steady expansion into rural service sites during the early 1990s, when many such cleaning operations were newly outsourced from public institutions.

Source: Western Evening Herald, 3 January 1991 (advert placed for contract commencing 2 January 1991).