Gloucester Citizen - Tuesday 06 January 1891

Fatal Scolding Accident - A little girl named Emily Florence Cooper, aged five, the daughter of George Alfred Cooper and his wife, of 51 Worcester-street, died at the Hospital on Monday from the effects of being severely scalded on Friday last. It appears that on the last-mentioned day the mother was out at work, leaving the deceased with her four brothers, aged respectively 12, 9, 6 and 3 in the house with instructions to go to their grandmother who resided in the same street. One of the boys put the kettle on the fire for his mother to make a cup of tea when she came in at dinner time, and when the deceased and the youngest brother returned about half-past twelve the kettle was boiling, and the deceased, standing on the fender, attempted to lift it off, when it fell over into the fire, with the result that she was scalded over the left arm and chest. Her screams brought her father, who was in bed at the time, having been on night duty at the Gas Works, downstairs, and he cut her clothes off and applied linseed oil. The child was afterwards removed to the Hospital. She became worse on Sunday and succumbed on Monday as stated.