Balloon "George Higgins Gas Balloon No.2" accident at Leeds.
On Monday, 3rd August 1891, this balloon was flown at Roundhay Park during the Leeds Hospital Gala with the named people below successfully descending by parachute to entertain a large crowd. The balloon fell into trees and while it was being retrieved it was torn. A further two parachute descents were to have been carried out on Tuesday, 4th August 1891 so repairs were hastily made but when it was filled again the gas escaped. Longer repairs were then carried out and it was agreed that during the afternoon of Saturday, 8th August 1891 the parachutists would display again. The descent was to have been made near "the new entrance" to Roundhay Park but this appears to have been switched to Clarence Gardens, Kirkstall. With the crowd in place the gas filled balloon was about to be flown and the two parachutists on sat on trapezes below it. Just prior to taking off a strong gust of wind tore a hole in the top of the balloon, bystanders pulled one of the parachutists off as it left the ground but the second was unaware of the damage so called for the ropes to be released. He went briefly up with the balloon but then his legs struck telegraph lines and broke his back when he fell around thirty five feet onto a wall. Sadly he died of his injuries.
Clarence Gardens appears to be Horsforth rather than Kirkstall but I wasn't there so who am I to argue.
Parachutist - "Professor" Mr George Higgins, aged 39, killed. Buried Kirkstall Churchyard, Yorkshire.
Parachutist - Miss Emma Dovey "Emmie de Voy", aged 22. Uninjured.
Sally Smith's book "Magnificent Woman and Flying Machines" has a good biography of Emily and her exploits.
Using the English birth index Emma Dovey was probably born Emma Louisa Dovey and her birth was registered in Pancreas in 1869, her sister Matilda's birth was also registered there in 1862 but I cannot locate her marriage registration. George and Matilda were married when the 1881 census was taken though appear to have no childen by this date. The only Emma Dovey on the census that fits was living with her brother Arthur (aged 15) and possibly her mother Elizabath in the 1881 census. Emma was listed as Emily de Voy on the 1891 census and was living with George Higgins at the pub in Crewe.
Matilda appears to have remarried in Islington in 1896 and if so gave her name as Matilda Dovey Higgins when she married Charles Edward Bale. Matilda Bale probably died in Edmonton in 1923
What happened to Emma is unclear. I can find no marriage or death in England that fits for her. My assumption is she emigrated.
George Higgins and Emily or Emma Dovey (aka Emmie de Voy) were famous balloon parachutists of their day. George Higgins married Matilda Dovey in 1880 and they had four children, while working as a coachman in London he became interested in balloon parachuting and made at least one successful jump before his wife's sister Emma (or Emily) Dovey showed an interest in joining him display parachuting. Emma was a domestic servant at the time. Whether George Higgins had officially left his wife in favour of her much younger sister appears to have been lost to time but much later she claimed to be his wife. Their first jump together appears to have been on 4th May 1889 at Cheltenham with both rising to around 3000 feet before jumping, in completing this jump she became the first woman in Britain to make a parachute descent. Further parachute descents were booked in the Manchester and Liverpool areas so the pair moved north and George was offered job as landlord at the Lord Nelson Inn, Monks Coppenhall, Crewe with Emma moving with him. Around the same time they were to have made a similar parachute descents at the St.Helens Gala in Grange Park, unfortunately the balloon developed a hole that caused the gas to escape so the attempt was abandoned. George, who went by the name of "Professor" went under the balloon to examine or disconnect gas valves but did not return. Some time later he was found to be unconsious under the balloon, he was revived and would successfully jump some days later at St.Helens for a large crowd. On 16th July 1889 he survived an accident when the balloon collapsed over Burnage, Manchester. He parachuted to safety but his companion William Hinde Lennox was killed. Emma Dovey became somewhat more famous than George Higgins because she was a woman and while a few men were undertaking these feats in Britain women were not, she also wore mens clothes to jump in. She changed her name to "Emmie de Voy" for the purpose of sounding more grand. In August 1889 George broke his ankle in a bad landing at Barrow after the balloon trapeze seat struck telegraph wires and dislodged him from his seat. This then saw him be unable to go up with the balloon for some months but it did not stop Emma from exhibiting alone. In October 1889 Emma made a solo flight and gained a new parachute height record of 5000 feet over Preston. In late-October 1889 she made a 10,000+ feet jump over Wolverhampton but the winter weather than halted the exhibiting. In 1890 there was much more competition from others but they continued to make appearances. In 1891 she had to be rescued from the Welsh Harp, North London after landing in water following a jump. Following George Higgins' death in August 1891 around 10,000 people attended his funeral procession and he was buried locally at Kirkstall Churchyard. Public collection were made for Emma what the public believed was his wife, but his actual wife then travelled north and reappeared claiming the money. Emma's final parachute jump appears to have been made in 1895 when she had a near fatal incident and after this nothing is known about her. She appears to have gone back to a life of domestic service possibly with a family involved in the ballooning business.