Leeds Mercury – Thursday 01 September 1938

Playing At “Indians”

Wombwell Boy’s Operation for Eye Injury

A game of Indians has resulted in a Wombwell boy receiving injuries for which he has had to undergo an operation in a Sheffield hospital. He is Douglas Sokell (11), a pupil at Wombwell Middle School, and son of Isaiah Sokell, painter, Hough Lane, Wombwell.

With others, he went Wombwell Wood, where boys were playing with bows and arrows and spears made from sticks cut from wood. Sokell cried out that he had been struck in the face, and it was found that his eye had been injured, presumably by a “spear.”

With the assistance of his playmates, he was taken home to receive treatment by Dr. W. R. Dickinson, who ordered his immediate removal to hospital.

To-day he was stated to have come through the operation successfully, and was comfortable.’” It was not known whether he would lose his eye. Sokell had just resumed school after the holidays