South Yorkshire Times – Friday 27 April 1934
Mr. Henry Benton
October 27th, 1908. Four men sweating in Cadeby pit. One is hewing coal. Suddenly a staccato splitting and roaring; a terrible fall of roof. A pony driver is completely buried and a filler is injured.
Lights are dashed out. The collier is in dire peril. Now and again the roof cracks, and the next fall might occur. Coolly, however, he uses his pick and shovel to extricate the unconscious “filler,” and then hurries for lights to help in his attempt to rescue the pony driver. But the case of this poor fellow is hopeless.
Mr. Henry Benton. He has been crushed under a broken by a weight of 300 tons. For his gallantry the collier, Henry Benton, was awarded the Edward Medal, with which he was decorated by the King at Buckingham Palace on July 22nd, 1909. The Carnegie Hero Fund awarded £20 to Benton, and this was formally presented to him at a meeting of the Mexborough U.D.C. on November 11th, 1909.
Benton hero died, aged 66 years, on April 18th, at 1, Swinton Road, Mexborough, where he had lived for seven years. He was born at Dudley, Worcestershire. When twelve years old he commenced work at Cadeby, and he worked there for 45 years. The rescued man, John Green, died about nine months ago.