Fox & Morris - Maypole Disaster
Gavin Purdon has traced the story of rescuers James Fox and Thomas Morris, who risked their lives in a desperate midnight mission to save two trapped men Despite their bravery, the pair were denied gallantry medals - a decision Gavin believes to be an unpaid debt of honour.
Gavin has taken a deep dive into the many disputed truths surrounding their pit shaft rescue mission carried out in the chaotic aftermath of Wigan‘s Abram Maypole mine explosion of August 1908.
Gavin, 75, a retired care home inspector and son of a volunteer mines rescue worker, has had a lifelong interest in the mining history of his own county. His link with the Maypole goesback 50 years to a chance encounter in Durham City with a passer-by who liked the look of a shop window exhibition of mining memorabilia Gavin had put together.
This gentleman, Jim Twemlow, had a few pit relics of his father's in the garden shed not doing much and thought Gavin could put them to good use, Jim's father was the Reverend Thomas Frederick Brownbill Twemlow M.A., Cambridge graduate, Boer War veteran, champion of the pit brow lasses and Perpetual Curate of the Lancashire coal mining parish of Abram St. John the Evangelist when the Maypole mine exploded in 1908.
It was in Reverend Twemlow's churchyard the Maypole mine disaster memorial cross was erected and where for may years after bones found among the cannel coals of the Maypole were brought to rest in the crypt beneath the cross.
As for Jim Twemlow, he was a living link with the disaster, an eight month old baby when his cot in Abram Vicarage was rocked by the shock wave of the disaster blast and the fields and hedgerows between Jim’s cot and the explosion turned black with coaldust.
This was all way back in Gavin’s past when again he got, by chance, the crumbling remains of two miner’s lamps. They came off a site clearance rubbish heap on the outskirts of Wigan. These lamps, what was left of them, were both double stamped with the Maypole owner’s mark and from the time of the 1908 disaster.
Maypole volunteer rescuers James Fox and Thomas Morris took two just like them on their desperate midnight pit shaft rescue mission, down into a fearful place, in search of missing miners Israel Greenwood and Robert Bradshaw, where the fumes were so thick the lights of their lamps could not penetrate the gloom.
Gavin is now into the third year of his study of this rescue mission and why Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone rejected Wigan Mayor Sam Wood’s petition for life saving gallantry medals for James Fox and Thomas Morris, the two celebrated local Maypole Heroes and saviours of Israel Greenwood and Robert Bradshaw.
So far, he has produced 50 copies each of two booklets, "No Ribbons For Abram Maypole" and "Honours Refused. " These were not for sale but donated to the Wigan branch libraries and archives and to various groups and individuals who had assisted with images and information. Gavin would like to round his study off with a final booklet. He believes the refusal of medals for James Fox and Thomas Morris to be an unpaid debt of honour and considers that debt should be officially recognised.
His appeal to the people of Wigan is for any further information to assist in this matter.
What became of James Fox, Thomas Morris, Israel Greenwood and Robert Bradshaw in later life?
Did they ever look back and recall details of their shared ordeal?
Were their lives blighted in any way or was the trauma put behind them?
Did they voice their opinions of the honours refusal?
Such extra detail would improve the general quality of the historical record and might further strengthen the case for James Fox and Thomas Morris to have their gallantry properly recognised.
Gavin Purdon
The article has been produced with the permission of Gavin.