Wednesday 22nd April 1987
From Yesterday’s Warminster by Danny Howell, 1987:
Another of the inmates [at Warminster Union Workhouse, Sambourne], who spent the last year of his life at the Workhouse, was William Tucker who formerly lived at Brook Street. He earned a great deal of notoriety for himself and he had two nicknames. ‘The Workhouse Terror’ was a reflection on his behaviour at the establishment, where he assaulted a fellow inmate called Allard, for which he was sentenced to gaol. Not long after that, in August 1902, he found himself in trouble again for assaulting a porter and the Master of the Workhouse, Jesse White. Tucker was taken into custody, during which time he broke the windows of a cell at the Police Station. He was sent to gaol again – two months for assaulting the Master, one month for assaulting the porter, and one month for breaking the windows.
Tucker’s other nickname was ‘Benny Lantern’ which probably stemmed from his time as a supernumerary porter at Warminster Railway Station, where he met with an accident on the evening of 23 December 1903. While attempting to cross the tracks at the pedestrian crossing place, with a trolley loaded with goods for the platform on the other side, a light engine which had banked the 6.45 p.m., came out of a yard. The engine and its tender struck the trolley, smashing it to bits and dragged Tucker down the line for about 20 yards. He was taken to the Cottage Hospital, where he was attended to by Dr Partridge and Dr Willcox, and although severely cut and bruised about the scalp and body, he fully recovered. However, ‘Benny Lantern’, aged 44, died at the Workhouse, eleven months later in November 1904.