Explosive ending to young life
It is a standard warning to our children to not play with matches but James Woods of Gore Hill played with much worse.
As is often the case with boys, they love to experiment and 15-year-old James and his older brother, Harry, sons of Arthur James Woods of Whiting Street, Gore Hill, were no different.
On this particular day, the boys had decided to experiment with gunpowder by placing it in a piece of iron piping about five inches long. From there, they plugged one end of the pipe with lead and punched a hole about two inches from the other end. Through that end they poured a teaspoonful of gunpowder. The open end was blocked with a piece of paper. James stuck a fuse in the hole, laid the pipe on a board, lit it with a match, then as his brother called out 'Run hard!', he did just that.
But he wasn't fast enough.
Having only run about five yards from the pipe, James turned to watch as it exploded. Large chunks of iron flew in all directions with, sadly, one of the largest penetrating his stomach.
Despite being in excruciating pain, James managed to remove the piece of iron from his stomach. It was reported that he didn't complain or lose consciousness through the whole ordeal. He was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital by a neighbour but died within the hour.
A coroner's inquest was held on May 8th, 1922 and the verdict returned was "Injuries accidentally received through a piece of metal piping penetrating his abdomen (during an explosion of fireworks)."
James is buried at Macquarie Park cemetery, North Ryde in Sydney.
References
' Playing with gunpowder', The Daily Telegraph, Monday 24 April, 1922, Page 4
'Fatal Experiment', Daily Mercury, Friday 12 May 1922, Page 9
'A Brave Boy', The Inverell Times, Tuesday 25 April 1922, Page 4
'James Edwin Woods', New South Wales, Australia, Registers of Coroners' Inquests, 1821-1937, accessed 22nd October, 2026.
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