Mexborough & Swinton Times, January 6
“Better Than the Pit“
Two soldier pals are 18-year olds Private John Whitehead, adopted son of Mrs. And the late Mr. Thomas Whitehead, of Low Road Conisborough, and Private Ernest Hurst, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Hurst, of 1, Castle Terrace, Conisborough.
Both of them, former schoolmates at the Station Road School, Conisborough, enlisted together in the Cameron Highlanders, and are now somewhere in the North.
Both worked at Yorkshire Main Colliery, Edlington, and at one time Hurst was an employee at the Edlington Brickworks.
Mrs. Whitehead, whose son stands 6ft 2 ins, mentioned that the two lads “had been more than brothers”. Private Hurst writes home to say that he thoroughly enjoys the life and thinks it is “heaps better than working down the old pit