On This Day in Wembury — 11 July 1932
A fatal accident occurred in Wembury when 12-year-old George Walke, son of an agricultural labourer living in Knighton village, fell from the ladder of a stationary omnibus just as it began to move. One of the wheels passed over him, and though Dr. Bradbury of Oreston arrived quickly, the boy was declared dead at the scene. His body was taken to the chapel mortuary by Plymouth St. John Ambulance.
Source: Western Morning News, 12 July 1932
The loss of young George Walke reminds us how tightly woven village life once was — every tragedy felt across the whole parish. Knighton, a community of farming families, would have rallied around his parents at a time when there was little outside support. Set against Wembury’s wider history of storms, wrecks, and wartime dangers, this small but devastating moment illustrates how the everyday risks of rural and working life were just as capable of reshaping a community’s memory.