WOMAN KILLED AT THE KEEPERS HOUSE AT THE MAUSOLEUM.
A sad tale occurred on Saturday the 16th of September 1911. Mrs Thomas Kerr, wife of the keeper of the Mausoleum at Hamilton Palace, died at one o’clock Saturday morning from injuries sustained by explosion of gas in her house late the previous night.
Her husband had gone out to post letter, leaving in the house his wife and two children, aged respectively two years and six months. After making some calls, he returned home between ten and eleven, and entering the house a painful scene confronted him. His wife was lying the stair leading from the kitchen the coal cellar. Her clothes were practically burned off, and her body was scorched in a terrible manner.
He lifted her into the kitchen, and ran for assistance, Mrs Kerr was still conscious, and was able say that when she was going down to the cellar fetch coals something went up in a blaze at the gas jet on the stair. The elder of her two children, a bright little girl, was with her, but Mrs Kerr had the presence of mind to push the child down the stair when the explosion occurred. In this way the girl escaped the flames which enveloped her mother.
The younger child was asleep in a perambulator in the kitchen, and was uninjured. Mr and Mrs Kerr are a young couple, who only entered upon duty at Hamilton Palace three weeks ago, having previously lived at Caledonia Road, Glasgow.
On the morning of 30th of October 2016 I took a drive over to the keeper’s house to take some pictures for Historic Hamilton. As I walked through the woods and across the overgrown and once well-kept grounds I approached the house. Possibly my mind was playing tricks on me, but I swear that I could hear voices coming from inside the old caretaker’s cottage. The voices were not very clear, but more of a whisper! But nonetheless, as you can imagine after hearing this it dawned on me that I had not told anyone where I had intended to be!
Do you ever get that feeling that someone is following you when you are walking alone? Well, I couldn’t get out of the woods quick enough and I had this very same feeling all the way back past the Mausoleum caretakers house, back through the overgrown hedges and through the trees back to my car. This is the first and last time that I will visit an old house on a dark morning on my own.
The mausoleum caretakers house has a lot of History connected to it and is now sitting in a very bad state. This week I am going to ask for your help to try and save this Historic Building from disappearing forever.
Historic Hamilton 
Amazing read very intriguing! It’s a building steeped in history! Hamilton history like the mausoleum and chatlerhault are places we and local councils should take more pride in!!!
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This building should definitely be saved. To many historic buildings are being left to rot. This is part of Hamiltons history we must save it
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Yes save this building. Please keep some interesting history in Hamilton
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