Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 6 December 1913

The King’s Medal

Reward For Courage And Devotion

Next Week’s Presentation

Next Tuesday, the King is to decorate 17 persons with a special medal provided by the St. John Ambulance Order for gallantry and life-saving in connection with the Cadeby Main disaster of July 9th, 1912.

This is the third presentation of the kind which has resulted from the disaster. In June, the King decorated six men with the Edward medal, two of the first class, and four of the second. A month or two ago, forty ladies of the Denaby nursing division received Yorkshire Miners’ Association medals in token of their courage and devotion during and after the disaster, and now the King again proposes to honour the gallantry of men who risked their lives again and again while the pit was in a perilous condition in the effort to recover bodies and succour the survivors.

The Vicar of Denaby Main went down the mine to administer communion and extreme unction to the dying, and the doctors also descended the pit in an attempt to restore animation in the case of several poor fellows who were badly gassed. Mr. Basil Pickering, the manager of Wath Main, worked manfully with the rescuers for some time after the body of his own father, Mr. W. H. Pickering, then Divisional Inspector of Mines, had been removed. Mr. George Milnes, who is mentioned in the list, has since been appointed under-manager of Denaby Main.

The following is the full list:—

E. Feeney, 48, Maltby St., Denaby Main.
W. R. Goodwin, Wheatley St., Denaby Main.
B. Mansbridge (Manvers), 112, Avenue Rd., Wath-on-Dearne.
F. Adamson, 43, Bolton St., Denaby Main.
J. Blenkiron, 93, Tickhill St., Denaby Main.
H. Rockcliffe, Low Sprotbrough, Doncaster.
A. Wall, 27, Sprotbrough St., Denaby Main.
Dr. Forster, The Poplars, Elm Green Lane, Conisboro’.
Dr. Feroze, Leek, Staffs.
Rev. S. F. Hawkes, the Vicarage, Denaby Main.
B. H. Pickering (Wath), East Cottage, Wath-on-Dearne.
W. Wilkinson, 7, Tickhill Sq., Denaby Main.
G. Wilding, 8, Athelstone Rd., Conisboro’.
J. Bucknell, 92, Tickhill Sq., Denaby Main.
G. Milnes, Denaby Main House, Denaby Main.
A. Sykes, 121, Tickhill St., Denaby Main.
T. A. Soar, 149, Rawnsley Buildings, near Hednesford, Staffs.