MINER’S STRENGTH

Southland Times, Issue 25312, 15 June 1935, Page 12

MINER’S STRENGTH

LIVES OF COMRADES SAVED. Thomas Marshall, miner, of Mexoborough, Yorkshire, takes a pride in being fit. And his fitness saved two lives in the Bamsboro Main Colliery, in which he works. Falls of roof cost four or five hundred lives a year in Britain’s coal mines, and when one occurred in the Bamsboro Pit two miners were partially buried. They could not extricate themselves. Above them a great mass of roof was trembling and cracking. In a few moments it would come down and crush and suffocate them. Tom Marshall and his fellow-worker, William Coulson, of Goldthorpe, rushed to the spot. Marshall savz the roof gradually giving way. Quickly he stooped down, thrust his strong back against the roof —and held it up. Coulson seized the opportunity and, digging with his bare hands, pulled enough debris off the imprisoned men to be able to drag them to safety. • Rescuers and rescued were all injured and had to cease work. But a few days later the nervous figures of Marshall and Coulson stood in the colliery offices. The directors presented them with gold watches. Marshall said: “It just happened that we were able to think of the right thing at the right time.” But it was fortunate for his buried colleagues that he does his daily dozen.