On this day in Yorkshire 1953

Boy With a Book Overcome by Gas

For nearly half hour last night Mrs. Miriam Dixon, of Grace Terrace, Upper Wortley. Leeds, waited for her 13-year-old son, Robert, outside a shop about 300 yards from her home. He had promised to meet her after school and carry home the week’s groceries.

When he did not come, Mrs. Dixon decided to go home alone. It was a decision that probably saved her son’s life.

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When she opened the door she smelled gas and saw him unconscious in a chair.

Mrs. Dixon told The Yorkshire Post last night: “Robert must have come home early and decided to have a cup tea. He lighted the gas — there were spent matches near the burner — and put the kettle on. The flame must have been blown out and he did not notice it. He was reading a cowboy book and presumably did not smell the gas.”

“I dragged him to the door and shouted for help. Two neighbours gave him artificial respiration until an ambulance came.”

The boy was taken to the General Infirmary at Leeds and given oxygen. He was detained and was stated early today be “fairly comfortable.”

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