TRAGEDY IN BETHNAL GREEN
How a local favourite was among 173 who died in an awful accident
Miles Templeton Boxing historian
GRIM SCENES: The aftermath of the fatal Bethnal Green Tube station crush
BIG WIN: Corbett [
right
] shakes hands with Baldock, who he would beat to earn a British title opportunity
ON MARCH 3, 1943, anti-aircraft rockets were fired from Victoria Park, Bethnal Green, a little after eight o’clock in the evening.
It was a dark night and as civilians made their way to Bethnal Green Tube station, thinking that an air raid might be in progress, they reached the steps downwards, which were blacked out, and a young mother and child tripped and fell. Within seconds, many others fell around them and within a minute, hundreds had. 173 people died, including 62 children – crushed and asphyxiated within the tangled pile of bodies.