Maltby Pit Disaster of 1923
Subscription Fund Opened
The relief fund was opened with a donation of £2000 from the Doncaster Colliery Association and £500 from Mr. Charles Markham.
On the 2nd August, Alderman E. Dunn, secretary of the Maltby Branch of the Yorkshire Miners Association stated that financial assistance was urgently needed for the victims of the Maltby disaster. He said that the men lying entombed were all volunteers for hazardous work undertaken in order that the pit should be saved from ruin.
The Directors of the Maltby Colliery Company had sent a cheque for £2000 for the relatives of the men lost in the disaster.
Appeal by Lord Harewood
On 8th August, 1923, The Times Newspaper published a letter from Lord Harewood:
I am sure that, as you have done in the past, so you will now allow me, as Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding, to
appeal to the public to help the widows and orphans of the victims of the terrible disaster in the Maltby Colliery.
These men and boys who have been lost had volunteered to try to get the pit safe for their comrades to work in.
Surely, therefore, the least we can do is to raise a fund which will keep those families which have lost their breadwinners,
in decent circumstances. Practically the whole population of Maltby, numbering, I am told, 13,000, is dependent upon
mining for its subsistence, and the distress and unemployment will therefore be great.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, HAREWOOD.
The following subscriptions to the fund had already been received:
Lord Harewood , £100; Messrs. Montague Burton, Ltd., Leeds, £10 10s.0d ; Editor, The Times, £2 2s.0d.
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