Recent research has found that accident compensation claims have been ongoing in Britain for the past 150 years or so.
Papers discovered by insurance firm Aviva relate to a catalogue of injury claims dating back as far as the 1860s. These include a bizarre claim in 1878, when an innkeeper from Handsworth received a £1,000 payout after mistaking a poisonous potion for sleeping medicine.
Other cases included falls over croquet hoops, ferret bites and public transport injuries. For example, one individual received accident compensation of £7 after he was struck on the head by a pole when travelling on the top deck of a tram.
There were also a number of accident at work claims, including a £1,000 award to the family of a man who fell into a vat of boiling liquor at work and a farmer who received £199 after being knocked over by a sheep.
Anna Stone, archivist at Aviva, has been trawling through the old documents to gather a display for an exhibition at the insurer's headquarters in Norwich. She commented, “I have to say I do have some personal favourites from across the country that stand out for their sheer peculiarity – like the vicar who fell while playing a game of leap frog, or the gentleman who missed a dog while trying to kick it and struck a sofa instead, injuring his big toe.
“Sport injuries are also commonplace, with slips during fencing, blows from hockey sticks and golfers rupturing legs getting out of bunkers – not to mention the clerk who received £36 for an injury caused by a blow from a fellow bather's heel sustained while diving," she added.