2-715-433 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Volunteer going to retrieve bodies in the Gresford Colliery disaster, Wales, 1935. A man with a gas mask recieving last-minute instructions. 'Heroes of the Coal Mines: on 22 September 1934, occurred on of the worst disasters in mining history, when nearly 300 miners lost their lives...After the explosion which caused the tragedy, the gas fumes were so deadly that 254 bodies still in the pit could not be rescued, and the pit had to be sealed up. On 7 March 1935, volunteers who had been especially trained, descended into the death pit to report conditions. Here is one of these men, who risked his life to reclaim his comrades' bodies'. From "The Silver Jubilee Book - The Story of 25 Eventful Years in Pictures". [Odhams Press Ltd., London, 1935]