Saturday 23rd September 1893 had been a beautiful day, warm but not too warm; a great day to sit out in the garden all afternoon, which is exactly what Mrs Tolmie had been doing with her 7-year-old daughter, Bella at their home at Links Cottages, Broughty Ferry. Mr Tolmie, a gardener, had been away all day, and had promised to return by around 6pm to allow his wife to run some errands.
When he hadn’t arrived by the agreed time, Mrs Tolmie started to become anxious. The errands she needed to run required to be done by 7pm and she was running out of time. Against her better judgement, Mrs Tolmie told Bella that she needed to leave and that daddy would be home soon. Until then, she told Bella, stay in the garden. With those sage words of advice to her 7-year-old daughter, Mrs Tolmie left.
Whether Bella played in the garden for a while before her mother left is unknown, as she was not in the garden when a messenger boy came to the house with a parcel not long before 7pm. Upon not getting a reply, the boy became aware of a strange smell coming from the house which smelled like burning.
He pushed open the front door and stepped into the property, where he could clearly see the unmoving body of a child half lying in the burning fires of the fireplace, the fire grating knocked to the side, her body covered in flames. The young lad immediately grabbed her by the feet and pulled her body out of the fire, her clothes still burning around her. He tried to douse the flames but could not and rushed outside to scream for help.
Mrs Tolmie was returning home when she heard the young lads screams and saw neighbours rushing to her door. Mrs Tolmie rushed in to find her daughter still burning on the floor as folk desperately fought to remove her clothing and put the fire out. Burning herself whilst doing so, she grabbed her daughter and clasped her still-burning body to her chest as neighbours doused the pair in damp rags.
It was assumed she had entered the house and climbed onto the fire grating to retrieve an item from atop the mantelpiece, inadvertently tipping it over and causing her to fall into the fire. Whether she was knocked unconscious by the fall, or passed out due to the intensity of falling face first into the fire and onto the searing hot coals will never be known.
A local doctor, Dr Gowans, accompanied by 2 other medical professionals quickly arrived on the scene, but it was immediately evident that there was no saving poor Bella. Whilst still barely clinging onto life, the young girl was unconscious and remained so until her death 2 hours later.