Cadeby Pit Disaster of 1912
The Relief Fund
A relief fund was opened on the 11th July, the appeal was signed by the clergy and Chairmen of Denaby, Conisborough and Mexborough Councils. Mr. F. J. Montagu, Lord of the Manor subscribed £500, Mr. Charles Thellusson, the High Sherrif, £100 and Sir Charles Nicholson M.P., £50.
At a meeting of the Hulton Colliery Disaster Fund held at Bolton Town Hall, it was resolved upon the motion of Sir Charles Behrens, that subject to the Court of Chancery, 1,000 guineas should be sent at once for the sufferers in the Cadeby accident. (The Hulton Disaster in December, 1910, involved the loss of 344 lives and a National Relief Fund was started)
Lord Harewood, Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding forwarded a cheque for £150, from the King and Queen. £100 was from the King and £50 from the Queen.
The High Commissioner for New Zealand sent £25 13s. 0d., collected from Napier in New Zealand.
The Trustees of the Micklefield Colliery disaster fund contributed £1000 to the Cadeby disaster fund.
In a brief speech in the House of Commons on 17th July, Ellis Griffith referred to the position of the widows of the Inspectors who lost their lives while engaged in rescue work.
He believed they would be paid one sixth of the salaries which their husbands earned. Because circumstances were exceptional, he hoped the House could do something more.
The administration of the fund was placed in the hands of a committee. From the invested donations, five shillings, was paid weekly to each widow and a shilling to children up to the age of 14. By 1933 the remaining beneficiaries consisted of seventeen widows but the fall in the value of the investments made it necessary to launch an appeal for £3,000 to keep the fund solvent. Donations realised only a fraction of this sum: a newspaper appeal raised £387.8s.6d and only one of the owners of the coal royalties responded to the appeal. It appears that the deficiency was finally made up by the Colliery Company and the Home Coal Carting Committee each agreeing to provide half of the sum needed annually. Source: Doncaster Archives DD/MF/1
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