Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Wednesday 10 July 1912
Terrible Pit Disaster.
80 Lives Lost At Cadeby.
Rescuers’ Fate.
King Visits The Mine.
Queen in Tears.
Heartrending Scenes in The Village.
About 80 lives were lost in a terrible colliery disaster yesterday at Cadeby Main, Denaby, South Yorkshire, almost half of the total number of victims being gallant men who volunteered to go to the rescue of their friends.
The party of rescuers, numbering between 40 and 50, and headed by Mr W.H.Pickering, H.M.Inspector of Mines, were the victims of a second explosion, and only half a dozen came out of the pit alive. Among the dead are Mr Pickering and two of his colleagues.
In the evening the King and Queen paid a visit to the village, where their sympathy was greatly appreciated by the bereaved miners
Appalling Story
How the Rescuers were Lost
One of the most appalling mining disasters experience for many years in the South Yorkshire coalfield occurred early yesterday morning at Cadeby Main, Denaby. By a grim coincidence the King and Queen passed only a few hundred yards from the pit of their way to Elsecar mine while the victims of a terrible explosion were being brought to the surface.
All told, the casualties number about 80. There are still some of rescuers in the People’s lives are despaired of, but up to a late hour last night their bodies and not been recovered.
The tragic feature of the catastrophe is that practically half of the victims were heroic men from this squad who volunteered to go to the rescue – from the lowliest collier to the ice officials – and these include Mr W.H. Pickering, H.M. Divisional Inspector of mines, two of his colleagues, Mr G.Y. Tickle and Mr H.R. Hewitt, and the nephew of Mr W.H. Chambers, managing director of the Denaby and Cadeby Colliery Company.
After 35 men had fallen victims to the poisonous gases and five had died following an explosion, the cause of which is a complete mystery, the gallant rescue brigade headed by Mr Pickering, descended the pit, only to be caught in the same trap.
Out of a party of between 40 and 50 rescuers only some half-dozen came out of the pit alive
The King Visits the Scene
During the day a message of sympathy was received by the colliery company from the King and Queen, and in the evening there Majesties paid a visit to the stricken village, being desirous of learning at first hand the story of the calamity and expressing their deep sorrow at the sad loss of life.
There majesties were both visibly affected by the account of the disaster there heard from the lips of Mr Chambers and Mr Wilson, when only just left the pit when the Royal party arrived, and had not time to change their clothes or remove the coal dust in their hands and faces.
There was no ceremony about the reception.
The King simply grass the black hands of heroic rescue whose lives have probably subsequently been spared; Her Majesty was introduced, and the painful facts of the distressing calamity were related across the boardroom table.
The visit of the King and Queen touched the hearts of the villagers, and women sobbed aloud as the sympathetic message left by their Majesties, posted outside the colliery Offices, was easily scanned.
Cause a Mystery
The story of the disaster follows the line of most colour explosions. The cause is a complete mystery.
As far as can be gathered from men who escaped with their lives, an explosion occurred and what is known as the South district of number one Pit at about 1 o’clock in the morning.
In this particular district 35 men were working – but for the fact that a number had stayed away from work on account of the Royal visit to the neighbourhood the casualty list must inevitably have been a good deal heavier – and not one of them within 400 yards of the explosion survived. What happened precisely, therefore, is unknown and can only be conjectured.
A Terrible Sight
That something had gone wrong was first conveyed to men in the same district, but between 400 and 500 yards away just before 1 o’clock. They felt a strong current of air, warmer than usual, and with the intuition of the experienced underground worker, concluded that all was not well with their mates than half a mile further along the road. After consultation with the deputy and other men whose suspicions had also been aroused by the warm current of air, an exploration of the pit was made in the direction whence came the ominous signs, but their progress was cut short by foul air, and they had to return to the pit bottom.
Other exploration parties met with the same experience, and when the gravity of the situation was realised, rescue brigades were requisitioned.
A dreadful sight met the gaze of the rescuers. The scene is likened by one to a slaughterhouse. Half naked men were lying as they have been flung in all directions by the force of the explosion, their limbs mangled and pinned by splintered jobs and stone, and burned by the fierce flames which followed.
The rescuers were once driven back by the overpowering fumes of the carbon monoxide gas, and it was some seven or eight hours after the explosion that the work of recovering the bodies could be taken in hand thoroughly.
Heroic Rescuers Overcome
Expert rescue delegates and neighbouring collieries placed themselves at the service of their fellow workers, and, as it proved, most of them, along with Mr Pickering and Mr Douglas Chambers, met their death after doing splendid work in the task of rescuing the ill-fated gang of datallers, of whose safety there was but the faintest spark of hope.
How the rescue party, which included such expert men as Mr. Pickering and his colleagues, failed to detect the dreaded gas before it was too late must remain a mystery. One of the saddest features of the affair is the fact that Mr. Pickering’s son, Mr. Basil Pickering, who is the manager of Wath Main Colliery, went down the pit along with others when it became known that the rescue brigade had been overcome, and had the painful experience of finding his father’s dead body.
As the day wore on, instead of the first reports proving exaggerated, as was hoped, every hour added horror to the tragedy. Hundreds of people, anxious relatives and employees at the colliery, hung about the precincts of the colliery from an early hour, and a strong force of police was requisitioned to keep the crowd of frantic women from rushing to the pit mouth.
Some 300 yards from the road is situated the shaft, and plainly visible to the horror-stricken spectators was a continuous procession of ambulance men bearing corpses from the pit to the pay-room, where the long tables were rapidly filled up with the bodies of the victims wrapped in white sheets.
With regularity at intervals of only a few minutes the bodies were brought up until the number had reached 22, when there was a long pause. Then the first hint of the second explosion, which carried off the heroic rescuers, was conveyed to the waiting crowds.
A party of men were seen to make a wild rush from the pit-head to Mr. Witty, who was in the lamp-room giving instructions to the rescue parties, and immediately further gangs of volunteers descended the pit. The next news that came through was that Mr. Pickering and his party had been overwhelmed.
Consternation throughout the village followed, and the wives and mothers of brave men who had willingly laid down their lives to rescue comrades —a forlorn hope from the first —wrung their hands in despair.
The calamity at one stroke had become two-fold, and many would not believe that it could true until, some hours later, the mournful procession of ambulance men bringing bodies from the pit recommenced. The second rescue party had reached their ill-fated colleagues, who had been trapped beyond a fall of roof and cut off from the current of pure air in the in-take.
During the afternoon the bodies brought up in quick succession, and over one period of 45 minutes they were raised at the rate of one every two minutes.
Worst Fears Continued.
The worst fears were confirmed, and only three or four of the original rescue party were brought to the surface alive. Among these was Mr. Bury, the manager of the colliery, who was conveyed to the Denaby Hospital in a critical condition suffering from the effects of gas.
A number of the rescuers collapsed on getting to the bank, and the small hospital was very quickly overcrowded with the unfortunate men who had been “gassed.”
The one outstanding feature in the picture of gloom was a stoic band of doctors and nurses, who devoted untiring attention to the unfortunate men suffering from the effects of the deadly gas, whose lives remained in the balance for hours after reaching the surface.
Just after six o’clock the last body recoverable was placed in the pay-room which contained the remains of close on 70 victims. The bodies were all shockingly burned or mutilated. At seven o’clock Mr, Wilson and Mr. Chambers came to the surface, leaving Mr H. M. Hudspeth underground with band of rescuers were still endeavouring extricate two of the victims whose bodies were buried beneath a fall of roof.