“Mayor Allan’s right
arm was broken in an automobile accident late Saturday evening.”
Hamilton Herald.
October 12, 1914.
As mayors usually do,
Mayor Allan was fully engaged in his mayoral activities seven days a week.
On Saturday October
10, 1914, Mayor George Allan, in company with Hydro Commisioner George Willoughby and his
nephew George Anderson, was at the Victoria Yacht Club. The mayor had been
asked to present prizes.
When returning from
the ceremony, Commissioner Willoughby was at the wheel :
“When the party
reached the railway crossing on Wellington street. The gates were down, but the
brake of the car refused to act, and the machine crashed through the barrier.”1
1 “Mayor’s
Arm Broken : His Worship Was Injured When Auto Brakes Failed”
Hamilton Herald. October 12, 1914.
Mayor Allan had been
sitting in the front side of the auto, on the right side, and was struck by one
of the downed railway gates on the main Grand Trunk Railway line, sustaining a
fracture just above his right elbow. None of the other occupants were injured.
Despite the painful
injury, the ever-cheerful mayor was at his desk the following Monday morning. Interviewed
by a Spectator reporter, the mayor stated, “with a few appropriate grimaces,”
that he had learned “the exact route of his complete nervous system, having had
plenty of time to become acquainted with it since the accident.”2
2 “Back at
Desk”
Hamilton
Spectator. October 12, 1914.
Dr. James Edgar was
the physivian attending to the mayor, and the doctor allowed the mayor to
resume his duties as long as he kept fairly quiet and did not move his injured
arm at all :
“ It has always been
my boast that I wouldn’t use a rubber stamp to sign my name,’ said Mayor Allan
today, ‘but I guess I’ll have to get one now.’
“ ‘If you do, put it
on your watch chain and keep it in your pocket,’ was the advice given to his
worship.’ ”2
The mayor and a
delegation of Hamilton leaders had been scheduled to travel to Ottawa to lobby
for an immediate release of funding to lallow an early start on government
public works in the city.
The mayor reluctantly
heeded Dr. Davey’s advice and decided to remain in Hamilton, allowing the rest
of the delegation to proceed without him.
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