Coal Mining Disasters in the Modern Era c1900-1980
by Brian Elliott Pen & Sword, 175 pages, £14.99
This is part of a series of books with the general title “Images of the Past” and it is the images that stay in the mind; the grim faces of wives and children waiting at the pithead for any glimpse of hopeful news, the haggard appearance of rescuers and rescued and the many, many photos of those who did not survive. The story of mining disasters, particularly in the first three decades of the 20th century makes appalling reading and the sheer scale of the tragedies is extraordinary, often reaching more than a thousand deaths a year and culminating in 1,453 deaths in 1909.
Brian Elliott tells this story in a very straightforward way, rarely apportioning blame, though blame there certainly was. He does make the point that some mines in South Wales, an area that had the worst record of any region, were known to be so dangerous that they should never have been worked at all. And when describing the worst disaster of them all at Senghenydd where 440 men and boys died in 1913 he simply states the fact that the management acted illegally in disobeying safety rules. The company was ordered to pay compensation of £10!
Inevitably the pages are filled with harrowing accounts of catastrophe, where explosions were often so fierce that families were unable to identify their loved ones. But it is also the story of the heroism of many ordinary men, prepared time and again to risk – and all too often give – their own lives to attempt to save their comrades. Brian Elliott’s prose is factual rather than emotional, but he does not need elaborate phrases to show the horror: the illustrations do that all too well. He has done a splendid job in assembling so many remarkable photographs and drawings: The story may be tragic, but it is one that lies at the very heart of the history of coal mining in Britain. Anthony Burton is a historian specialising in industrial and transport history