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James Russell Blair

Age: unknown

Sex: male

Date: 8 Jun 1907

Place: Lock No. 16, Forth and Clyde Canal

James Russell Blair died after he was thrown into the water on a canal lock.

A boatman was charged with his culpable homicide but a verdict of not proven was returned.

It was alleged that the boatman had culpably and carelessly opened the sluices of the upper gate of Lock 16 of the Forth and Clyde Canal at Camelon in Falkirk, with the result that the tiller of the lighter Foxy swung round and knocked James Blair overboard.

The court heard that the boatman was seen to open the sluices and that almost at the same moment to cry out that James Blair was in the water.

James Blair only came to the surface for a minute and his dead body was found twenty minutes later.

James Blair had lived in Clyde Street, Port Dundas in Glasgow.

The boatman was tried at Falkirk on Tuesday 16 July 1907, but a not proven verdict was returned.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Falkirk Herald - Wednesday 17 July 1907

see Edinburgh Evening News - Tuesday 16 July 1907

see Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser - Saturday 20 July 1907

see Falkirk Herald - Saturday 06 July 1907