Charles Dickens and the Staplehurst rail crash

The Staplehurst rail crash was a railway accident at Staplehurst, Kent, England, which took place on 9 June 1865 and in which ten passengers were killed and 40 injured. It is particularly remembered for its effects on the novelist Charles Dickens, who was travelling as a passenger in a front, first class carriage on the boat train returning from France, with his companions Ellen Ternan and her mother.