Exploded myth

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, so I'll assume I haven't. My middle name is Daniel, and the running gag in my family is that I was named after my great great uncle, Dan Hirons, who - the family legend has it - blew his head off when he stuck his head down a hole to check on some explosives that hadn't gone off.

When I started researching my family tree, I initially concentrated on the Peers side, and have built up a good picture of my ancestors, who appear to have lived in Nantwich, Cheshire for much of the 18th and 19th centuries. When I turned my attention to the Hirons family, and having initially gone up a blind alley, I stumbled on the correct line and eventually found details of not one, but two Daniels. Daniel Hirons senior was born in Northamptonshire in 1851, and Daniel Jr was born in the 1880s. Having researched Daniel Sr up to 1901 and his probable death in 1908, I discovered he became a navvy and helped construct some of the nation's railroads. By the 1901 census he's living in a railway hut in Skipton, North Yorkshire, and Daniel Jr was - at the tender age of 16 - working as a navvy underneath his father who had graduated to "navvy foreman".

I then searched the death records post-1901 and found two matches: one in 1903 was for an 18 year old in Cheadle, Staffordshire; the other is 1908, and is probably Daniel Sr. Because the Hirons were on the railways they moved around a lot - Daniel Sr has children born in Scotland, Yorkshire, Cumberland and Wales among other places - so the location didn't worry me. In the end I took the plunge and paid £7 to get the death certificate of Dan Hirons (as he was listed) from 1903.

It arrived this morning, and it's definitely "our" Dan. He's listed as a navvy, and while he didn't stick his head down a mine shaft, the cause of death is recorded by the coroner as follows: "On Sixth April 1903 the said Dan Hirons whilst working on the Light Railway in course of construction at Broomingshaw accidentally struck his pick against a piece of unexploded cartridge of nitro glycerine which exploding inflicted injuries of which he then and there died". It's clearly "our" Dan...

The inquest was held on 9th April, 1903 and I'm tempted to see if I can now track down any newspaper reports or the actual coroner's report itself.