A sad skating fatality

I came across this sad little entry in some information i was looking at about skating on the fens; it is the tragic accidental death of a young woman in 1903. her name was Dorothy Kate Newton, but I can find no other information about her.

I was looking at records of skating in the fens of East Anglia and Lincolnshire; it used to be that most winters the rivers and lodes would freeze, and latterly the sewage farms would deliberately flood to create a skating rink. I remember when I was a young child, maybe for or five, my dad skating on the river, towing me around by his scarf.

Here is the sad story of Miss Newton

17th January, 1903

A sad skating fatality occurred at Cowbit Wash, at a point known as Brotherhouse Bar, about six miles from Spalding. A young lady, her brother and a man to whom she was engaged started off towards Crowland, skating on the new river which runs through the Wash. The water here is very deep and the ice giving way, all three fell in. Every effort was made to rescue them but the girl was drowned and the two men were in imminent danger, one of them being taken from the water in an exhausted condition. The deceased was the daughter of the district manager of the Wombwell Main Colliery Company.