Trapped in the back bedroom of a burning cottage, an American soldier died from asphyxiation at Rushden on Sunday morning while his civilian friends escaped by jumping from the front bedroom window.
This tragedy took place about 4 a.m. at 10, Orchard-place and the 24 “yard” off High-street – and the 24 years-old victim was Pfc. Donald M. Green (known to all his friends as “Shorty”), son of Mrs. Mable Green, Brookdale-road, Salem Depot, New Hampshire. The family occupying the house comprised Mr. Frank Reginald Clayton, (52), shoeroom foreman for Messrs. J. and C. Claridge, Ltd., boot manufacturers, and pianist at the Town Band Club; his wife, Mrs. Alice Maud Clayton (42), and their daughter, Judy Ann Clayton, aged 8.
Mr. and Mrs. Clayton and Judy occupied the front bedroom and had retired for the night before their American friend who had often spent his leaves as their guest, came in. There were only two bedrooms, and the back one was used by Pfc. Green. A small fire, with a guard round it, was left burning in the front room downstairs, behind which is a kitchen.
Shortly before four o’clock, when the lower rooms were burning, a next-door neighbour, Mr. J. H. Barden, projectionist at the Palace Cinema, played a conspicuous part in helping the family to escape practically unhurt. The N.F.S. afterwards quelled the fire with surprising speed, removed the American after being beaten back by flames and fumes, and tried for an hour and three-quarters to revive him.
“We Are Choking”
Attired in clothes supplied by neighbours, Mrs. Clayton described the episode to an “Echo and Argus” reporter.
“My husband,” she said, “woke me up and said ‘Alice, something has happened.’ I jumped out of bed and said ‘Judy, come on, get up!’
“The smoke was awful. I banged the window and shouted ‘We are being choked to death.’ The child had been crying on the landing, but I was hanging her out of the window to get a bit of air when Mr. Barden arrived below. I let her go out of my arms and Mr. Barden caught her.
“He said ‘Come along,’ and I jumped and knocked him flying. Then my husband came out. I said ‘My God, there’s Shorty in the back room.’ Then the fire brigade came, and I left it to them to get him out.
“My little girl just cut her foot a bit, and my husband had one foot bruised. Judy was taken to a neighbour’s on the opposite side of the Place and was tucked in bed and looked after. Mr. Barden kicked our back door open, and I saw flames burst out.”
“Another two or three minutes and we should have been dead,” added Mrs. Clayton.
At The Window
Mr. Barden said the shouting woke him and, slipping trousers and slippers on, he ran downstairs.
“When I got outside their house I saw smoke coming out of the front bedroom window. Mr. and Mrs. Clayton and their child were all at the window, shouting. The American’s bicycle was just beneath, and I told them to wait until I had slung it out of the way. Then I told them to drop the child. I caught her, and the mother followed; I broke her fall and did the same for Mr. Clayton.
“I went round to the telephone box and rang up the fire station. When I came back they were shouting “Shorty!’ so I burst the back door open. It was all flames then, and I couldn’t get in. There was no ladder. I fetched my own youngsters downstairs and took them to friends across the Place.”
Mr. A. E. Clayton (63) brother of Mr. F. R. Clayton, lives next door at No. 9. His wife said: “They woke us up calling ‘Come on, Annie and Bert, we are choking.’ They couldn’t have stuck it another two minutes. My husband tried twice to get in and started to go up the stairs but he couldn’t do it. His hair was all scorched.”
Firemen’s Work
The N.F.S. received Mr. Barden’s phone call at 3.55 and turned out rapidly with a pump escape and a mobile dam unit. In the absence of Senior Company Officer Timpson, who was indisposed, Company Officer Bee was in charge. When they arrived the Claytons were already safe. They got to work from a street hydrant and the mobile dam unit and also used a first-aid jet from the pump escape.
Firemen using a short ladder tried repeatedly to enter the cottage through windows, but were beaten back by smoke and flames. Eventually they got up the stairs and found Pfc. Green lying on the bed with his head towards the foot. He appeared to have made an attempt to get out of the bed, but was then unconscious.
S/L Green, L/F Clark and L/F Griffiths got the young American out and took him into Mr. A. E. Clayton’s house. Dr. O. B. Lean had arrived, and under his direction firemen applied artificial respiration for 1¾ hours, an American Army doctor then arriving and pronouncing life extinct.
Meanwhile the N.F.S. who had found flames issuing from the ground floor windows back and front, had done remarkably well to quash the fire in 20 minutes and prevent any damage whatever to the cottages on either side. Flames had burnt through the bedroom floors, but the joists remained and the roof was intact. Gas pipes melted and there was some gas in the house.
Lost Everything
Mr. and Mrs. Clayton lost practically all their personal belongings, and the two ground floor rooms were burnt completely out, with everything in them. The family escaped in their night attire only and were dependent on neighbours and friends who lent them clothing.
The last fire appliance, with the officer charge, left the scene at 6.45. Valuable work was done by Police Inspector R. E. Valentine, P.C. Skells and W.R. Constable Smith, Divisional Officer Haylett, N.F.S., spent some time giving advice and assistance.
It is stated that neighbours used stirrup pumps on the fire, but that a ladder which used to be kept in Orchard-place for A.R.P. purposes had recently been taken away.
The body of the young American was removed by the U.S. authorities, and there will not be a civil inquest. The cause of death was given as asphyxiation.
Popular Soldier
Pfc. Green had many friends in Rushden, and Mrs. F. R. Clayton spoke of his lively and happy disposition. Only a week before the tragedy he celebrated his 24th birthday at the Claytons’ home and cut an iced cake, decorated with the Stars and Stripes, sent from America by his mother and inscribed “For my dear son’s birthday.” He has a brother in France with an American armoured division.
On Sunday afternoon he was to have visited a Wellingborough cinema with Miss G. Mackness, of 87, Trafford-road, Rushden, and other friends.
By midday on Sunday the neighbours had opened a fund for the assistance of the Clayton family.
The funeral of Pfc. Green took place at an American cemetery in this country on Tuesday, wreaths being sent by friends in Rushden.
During the week her schoolmates at Newton-road School have presented Judy Clayton with two books. One of them happened to be “Alice in Wonderland” and happily replaced a volume that Mrs. Clayton gave her daughter at Christmas.
