Appeal made for miners' relatives

An appeal has been made for relatives of miners killed while working at Woolmet Colliery to attend a plaque unveiling in their name.

Alex Bennett and Raymond Diamond at the Danderhall miners' memorial

Danderhall and Newton Retired Miners Branch is unveiling a plaque listing the names of the men and women who lost their lives in accidents at Woolmet Colliery, at the Miners’ Memorial in Danderhall on May 1, at 1pm.

Branch chairman Alex Bennett worked at Woolmet from 1962-65 before going on to work at Monktonhall.

He said: “I have done quite a bit of work on this. Just to make sure it’s all correct, we went to Register House and went through everyone. And there was some that were missing from our list.

“When we put the memorial garden there we had a coal tub. One side has mining tools on it. The other side is blank so this will be where the plaque goes.

“All my family worked there. It’s important to the community. Now that there is no mining left in Britain it’s going to be part of our history.

“I would also like to make this a reunion for people that worked there. After the plaque unveiling there will be a social gathering. So anyone that worked there at all, come along.”

Alex revealed more about those that died at Woolmet.

He said: “It’s 46 men and one girl. There was a lass called Christina Clark who was involved in a surface accident. A crane handle came away from the machine and cut her on the neck. It killed her. She was just 16.”

A list of people who lost their lives in accidents at Woolmet Colliery: James Beveridge 1907, Joseph Mitchell 1909, Edward Docherty 1910, John McLauchlan 1910, Robert Fairgrieve 1911, Robert Young 1911, Philip Wilson 1911, William Murray 1913, James Clark 1914, James Dalling 1914, David Allan 1916, Christina Clark 1918, Thomas Flynn 1918, William McVee 1918, John Chalmers 1918, Daniel Sutherland 1919, Carmen Placido 1919, Robert Hamilton 1921, David Murray 1922, Edward Walker 1923, John Murray 1923, Donald Yorkston 1924, Alex Leslie 1925, George Easton 1926, Andrew Swan 1928, Daniel McDonald 1929, James Letheny 1929, Robert Benn 1930, Frank Gibson 1930, Nisbet Middleton 1930, Thomas Davis 1930, John Wright 1931, James Porteous 1931, George Graham 1933, James Primrose 1934, Thomas Rae 1935, James Weighman 1935, Charles Ramsay 1938, William Marr 1940, George Walker 1940, Robert Crawford 1945, Thomas Brown 1946, William Stewart 1947, Samuel Miller 1951, John Tyson 1957, Andrew Anderson 1958, Thomas Wood 1960.