A memorial service was held in a Lanarkshire village to honour the memory of 47 miners killed in a pit disaster more than six decades ago.
Former miners, families and local residents paid their respects at the annual service at the Auchengeich memorial, honouring those who lost their lives in an underground fire on September 18, 1959.
Wreaths were laid at the memorial on Gartferry Road in Moodiesburn, as the community turned out in numbers to remember its “darkest and saddest day”.
Aged between 20 and 62, the miners suffocated due to carbon monoxide poisoning following an underground fire which started in the transmission belt of an electrical booster fan and which then spread to nearby oily deposits and roadside timbers.
They had been about to begin an early shift when the fire took hold just after 7am 360 yards down in the mine’s No 2 pit, and were overcome by the smoke as their train attempted to return to the surface; with only one miner surviving after managing to scramble to a point where he could be rescued.
It was Scotland’s worst pit disaster of the 20th century – leaving behind 41 bereaved wives and 76 children – and saw donations being made from across the country to an appeal fund, as well as various safety improvements in the mining industry.
The Auchengeich pit, which had opened in 1905 and employed 830 miners who produced 730 tons of coal per day, closed six years after the disaster; with the homes of the nearby mining village of Bridgend also being knocked down in the same year.
Organisers of the memorial service said: “This cruel disaster happened right here on our own doorstep; let us all rally to the call of not only remembering those miners who lost their lives on that fateful day, but also their families who still mourn the sad loss of their loved ones to this very day.”
Attendees at this year’s service of reflection included National Union of Miners president Nicky Wilson, and Richard Leonard, the Central Scotland MSP, who joined those laying wreaths at the memorial.
Mr Leonard said: “The Auchengeich memorial service was impressively organised, as it is every year, and a quiet and reflective opportunity for us to mark the tragic loss of 47 lives.
“It was a poignant reminder that, as we remember those who died at work, we must continue to fight for the living.”
The MSP has campaigned for miners convicted of breach of the peace and obstruction during the industry strikes in the 1980s to receive financial recompense.
A bill pardoning those who had been found guilty of offences during the dispute was unanimously passed at the Scottish Parliament in June; but Mr Leonard’s additional call for a compensation scheme failed at Holyrood and was referred instead to the UK government.
He was recently presented with a miner’s glennie lamp from the Moodiesburn and District retired miners’ branch in recognition of his work “to seek justice for those who were arrested and sacked during the 1984-85 strike”.
Mr Leonard called the gift “a great honour” and said: “The fight for justice for the miners carries on.”
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