According to Don Walter of the Harrow Hill Trust, Port was a railway guard on the line and on the day of the accident was moving through the train checking for excess fares – even in the 19th century passengers would buy a cheap fare and sit in a more expensive carriage.

However, the carriages were not linked by doors, and Port had to manoeuvre himself along the side of each wagon to reach the footplate. Even though the steam train was, reportedly, not moving quickly, he lost his footing and fell underneath the train. His legs were amputated by a passenger who happened to be a doctor. He left a wife and a number of children.

At his inquest, the railway company attempted to claim that Port was acting unnecessarily, but other railway authorities confirmed that his actions were routine and expected. The memorial was erected and paid for by Port’s father. The mock-heroic couplets of the salacious verse are of their time, a period when such poems were popular.

It is possible they are a homage, if generally recognised to be mediocre, to Lord Byron, famed for his own tongue-in-cheek lyrics and who in his youth would sit on a tombstone in the churchyard and write poetry. Byron’s illegitimate daughter Allegra is also buried in the churchyard.