Cadeby Pit Disaster of 1912
Funerals for Victims
The suggestion that a combined funeral should be held at Denaby conducted by the Archbishop of York, was cancelled because the relatives preferred to have their dead interred separately, and also Denaby Church would not hold all the coffins and mourners.
Rev. S. F. Hawkes, Vicar of Denaby, had placed himself at the disposal of his parishioners for conducting funerals.
At the churchyard at Denaby there were three long parallel lines of graves.
14 bodies were interred there on the 12th July. 2000 people assembled at Denaby Church and many hundreds were unable to gain admitttance. During the first part of the service the Archbishop went outside and addressed the people there.
The same day, the funeral of Douglas Chambers, manager of Denaby Main Colliery and one of the rescue party, was held in the afternoon. The Mayor and Town Clerk of Doncaster attended. The route was guarded by the Ambulance Corps of 500 men, of which Mr. Chambers was superintendent.
William Ackroyd was buried on 14th July 1912 at the Cemetery Lodge, Sheffield Road, Conisbrough, Doncaster
Mr. H. R. Hewitt, Inspector of Mines was buried at Ecclesall churchyard, Sheffield in the presence of a large gathering of members of the Mining industry.
The funeral of Mr.W. H. Pickering, Chief Inspector of Mines for Yorkshire, took place at his hometown of Doncaster on the Saturday.
The funeral procession proceeded to Doncaster Parish Church amid a crowd of sympathisers and friends. At the church where Mr. Pickering was a warden, the coffin was met by the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Sheffield, Canon Sandford, Vicar of Doncaster and many church dignitaries.
After the service the procession re-formed and passed through the crowded streets to the cemetery, a mile away, where the Archbishop said the Committal Service.
Among those who attended the funeral were Charles Thellusson, Lord Scarbrough, Government Inspectors and colliery representatives and miners.
A Memorial Service was held in Doncaster Parish Church on the 14th. In the course of a tribute to the dead and the heroism of the rescue party, Canon Sandford, Vicar of Doncaster, said that Mr. Pickering was a man in ten thousand. Miners had been heard to declare they would follow him anywhere, even unto death. Some had followed him to death.
Two remaining bodies were recovered on the 21st September 1912. At the subsequent inquest the bodies could not be identified. The Vicar of Denaby conducted a service and invited all the widows to attend and to regard the service as a memorial to their own dead.
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