Harrower Family Tree » Andrew Farmer (1874-1950)

Personal data Andrew Farmer 

• He was born on April 9, 1874 in Hill of Beath, Fife, Scotland.Sources 1, 2, 3, 4
• Occupations:
• in the year 1891 Coal Miner in Skellyhead, Portmoak, Kinross-shire, Scotland.Source 1
• in the year 1901 Ploughman in Pitkinnie Farm, Auchterderran, Fife, Scotland.Source 2
• Resident:
• August 1945: 35 Burnside Cottages, Kinglassie, Fife, Scotland.Source 5
• in the year 1881: Greenhead of Arnot Mansion Cottage, Portmoak Parish, Kinross, Scotland.Source 3
• in the year 1891: Skellyhead, Portmoak, Kinross-shire, Scotland.Source 1
• in the year 1901: Pitkinnie Farm, Auchterderran, Fife, Scotland.Source 2
• He died on October 11, 1950 in 35 Burnside Cottages, Kinglassie, Fife, Scotland, he was 76 years old.Sources 5, 6

  Andrew Farmer, 76, Coal Miner (retired); Married to Margaret Ramsay; Father: Andrew Farmer, labourer (dec'd); Mother: Helen Shepherd (dec'd); Cause: Diabetes, Gangrene of both feet; Informant:Alex Farmer, son, 18 Burnside Cottage, Kinglassie

• A child of Andrew Farmer and Helen C Shepherd

Household of Andrew Farmer

He is married to Maggie Spowart Ramsay.

They got married on February 26, 1897 at 27 Mid Street, Dysart, Fife, Scotland, he was 22 years old.Sources 7, 8

Child(ren):

1. Andrew Farmer  1902-1921
2. Jemima Powers Farmer  1900-

Event (Witness at Marriage) on February 26, 1897 in 27 Mid Street, Dysart, Fife, Scotland : Robert Farmer, Kate Ramsay.Source 7

Notes about Andrew Farmer

1. FIFE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY JOURNAL NEW SERIES No 30 Spring 2014

“LIVES RISKED - LIVES SAVED - LIVES LOST”

MINE RESCUE SERVICES IN FIFE

A TRIBUTE By Andrew Farmer

Formed in 1872 by taking over existing coal companies on the Cowdenbeath area, the Fife Coal Co`s aim was to develop established pits and sink new ones across the county. This it did very successfully over the remaining decades of the century.

But the first decades of the new century, the 1900s, saw serious safety problems arising quite independently in a number of old collieries. The decade began very badly in 1901.

At Hill of Beath Colliery in Feb 1901 7 men, including 5 would-be rescuers, died from carbon monoxide poisoning. The source was an underground fire, thought to have been safely sealed, which had unknowingly continued to smoulder.

Later that year, on 26 Aug 1901, a much more dramatic and publicly witnessed disaster occurred on Mossmorran Moor, on the outskirts of Cowdenbeath. The workings of Donibristle Colliery had long encroached beneath the moor. On that fateful day, procedures carried out by 2 workmen had broken through the rock roof, and a mix of moss, peat, and rain water had rushed in .These 2, and 2 others working at the same level, were overwhelmed and lost their lives. At another level, the oversman, Rattray, and 3 others, decided to investigate the disturbance. These 4 would-be rescuers were never seen again.

Over the next few days, under the direction of the manager and at team from Bowhill Colliery, safety fences were erected - to keep a crowd of watchers back - and, using a makeshift cage, attempts were made to reach 6 more trapped men, by entering through the whole chasm in the moss. One attempt succeeded in bringing out 5 men, but led to the trapping of 2 rescuers.

On 29 August, one man, Robert Law, a miner from Cowdenbeath, volunteered to be lowered into the huge hole himself. He succeeded in bringing all 3 men to the surface. A heroic feat indeed.

In all, 8 men died: 4 rescuers from the work-force; and the original 4 workmen. So dramatic were the events of that August 1901 that a little ballad was composed - and is still sung - about the self-sacrifices of oversman, Rattray, and his 3 fellow rescuers, Messrs McDonald, Hynd, and Patterson.

And, then, later in the decade, this happened.

Cowdenbeath No 10 was also known as Kirkford Pit. In July 1907, 3 men, including 18-year old William Oster, were preparing for the restart after the holidays. They were “redding” (clearing) a roof fall, when another fall buried them. Helped by one of the struggles of his colleagues, young Ostler managed to break free.

The roof fall had also extinguished their lamps, leaving them in total darkness. However, Ostler found their pony, and set out, badly injured, to get help. But the pony had other ideas, and made for its stall, and would go no further. The stables were still some distance from the pit bottom. The youngster then crawled along a nutch rail and eventually reached the down shaft.

However, the pit bottomer was working on the surface. He heard repeated signalling, and descended to find Ostleer lying in a pool of his own blood. He had a massive head injury. He was taken to the surface, and a rescue party set out to help his 2 companions. One had died in the roof fall.

There was great admiration for Ostler`s heroism, and astonishment that the injured youngster had travelled so far in total darkness to seek help for his colleagues.

But the effort had taken its toll. He collapsed into seme-consciousness next day, and sadly died 5 days later.

These 3 colliery incidents, involving both loss of life of workman and rescuers, reflects what was long known in coalmining circles. Miners had no hesitation in putting their own lives at risk in their efforts to reach trapped colleagues.

Perhaps the Kirkford Pit incident and the heroism of young William Ostler motivated a few executive minds. The Fife Coal Co set about formalising rescue practices within and between collieries. They established the first rescue station in Scotland in 1910 - a whole year before the Scottish Mines Act, 1911, made it compulsory for coalowners to do the same nationally.

That first rescue station was in Cowdenbeath, in the basement workshops of the newly built Beath High School, at the top of Stenhouse Street. Its first Superintendent was David Beveridge, an experienced first aider from Bowhill Colliery, a pit that seemed at the forefront of rescue practices.

Indeed, in 1913, it was a team from Bowhill which was called to a fire at Cadder Pit, near Glasgow, because of lack of rescue centres outside Fife. Despite the time it took for them to get there, they were still able to rescue the men who would otherwise have died. A successful outcome and testament to Fife`s wisdom in setting up early colliery rescue teams.

The work of training miners in rescue techniques continued for many years at Beath High School workshops - and at Mossbeath Colliery for practical work in situ. Ironically, despite being built on what was thought to be a safe site, Beath High School was slowly and visibly sinking. The workings of No 7 and No 8 Pits lay beneath it. It was examined by a Royal Commission in 1925, and declared to be the worst case of subsidence they had examined in Fife. However, Beath High, in its basement workshops, continued as an important mine rescue training centre for another decade.

In 1936, Cowdenbeath Mining School was finally completed, and was soon established not only as a centre for training mining apprentices, but also where experienced miners learned mine rescue techniques. At that time, in the mid 1930s, Cowdenbeath was the central hub of the Fife`s coalmining industry. It was central to the county`s most productive collieries; it had offices, workshops, and laboratories all contributing to the development of the industry. The establishment of its own Mining College was the technological icing on the cake. Fife, with its huge spread of collieries and associated villages, was one enormous coal producing communal entity. But how long could it survive?

War was again on the horizon. Coal in greater quantities would be needed - as would the miners to dig it out. Fife had its own solution to the first. It established a number of “drift mines” - shallower than usual, with coal seams being reached and extracted by narrow gauge rail, the coal being mechanically hauled to the surface, for dumping and washing, in special hutches. The idea of rail extraction had been gleaned from a visit to the USA by Fife Coal Co officers in the early 1930s.

The problem of manpower became critical a few years into the war. It became a national issue, with a political solution. Ernest Bevin, then the Minister for Power and War in the Coalition Government, devised a solution in 1943. Every 10th conscript, randomly selected, was channelled into mining work after 6 weeks training. There were 50,000 men, between the ages of 18-25 years, dubbed “Bevin Boys,” employed 1943-48. It kept miner numbers up, both during and after the war.

Post-war, there were also important political changes afoot. Nationalism became the name of the game. On 1st January 1947, known as “Vesting Day,” the coalmining industry was nationalised, and the National Coal Board (NCB) came into being. The Fife Coal Co, and other associations like it throughout the UK, simply ceased to exist.

To mark its inevitable demise, and to commemorate its long reign in Fife since 1872, it produced a weighty volume entitled: “Record Book of Veteran Employees in Service with The Fife Coal Company.” It was published in August 1945, and presented to 242 of its existing veteran work-force. The criteria for receipt was to be at least 65 years of age, and still working after 40 years of continuous service with the Fife Coal Co.

I am in proud possession of an original copy, inherited - as his oldest Grandson - through my paternal grandfather, Andrew Farmer. This now brings me on to a more personal and family viewpoint of the foregoing exposition on mine rescue development in Fife.

POSTSCRIPT

In researching into the history of the Mine Rescue Services in Fife, I was struck by now much of it was reflected in Farmer family over the last three generations, viz: my grandfather, my father, and myself. Judge for yourselves.

My earliest recollection of my paternal grandfather, Andrew Farmer, is in 1945, when Dad was demobbed from War Service in the Middle East, and we returned to our Pit Rows house in Kinglassie. Grandad was a gnarled, pipesmoking, and usually unshaven old miner. Born in 1874, in Hill of Beath - to colliery working parents, Mum on the pithead - as the 2nd son of 4 in family of 11, Grandad`s mining career began in 1886, aged 12 years, at Kirkness Colliery beside his father. By 1945, he had worked at a number of Fife collieries including Bowhill (6 years) and Kinglassie (34 years). In 1945, and still working, he easily met the Fife Coal Co`s criteria of “veteran employee” and inclusion in its long-service “Record Book”

Grandad worked at Bowhill Colliery during the 1900s, until Kinglassie began producing coal in 1910, and was therefore privy to its initiatives in first-aid practices and rescue techniques. Their manager controlled the surface rescue at Donibristle in 1901, and they provided the mine rescue superintendent, David Stevenson, in 1910, based in the Beath High School basement workshops, - the first rescue centre in Scotland.

In 1924, Grandad lost his youngest brother, Francis Farmer, in a shot-firing accident at Kinglassie. Perhaps this increased his support for first-aid practices and rescue issues below ground even more. And he had a receptive ear in his middle son of 5, also Andrew Farmer (my father), whose own mining career began, aged 14, at Kinglassie in 1926. Dad was intelligent, very practical, and physically fit, and he soon mastered the details of first-aid, through formal evening classes - and annual practical tests - and he occasionally attended rescue stations in Cowdenbeath. Recreationally, he and colleagues formed a team of first-aiders which participated in area competitions organised by St Johns Ambulance Brigade.

From my own perspective, I became acutely aware of Dad`s experience in first-aid when he saved the life of my young friend, Robert, who had accidentally impaled himself, at the neck, on loose roof-wire on a partly demolished air raid shelter in the Pit Rows. Dad expertly and coolly, stemmed the copious flow of blood, until an ambulance arrived to take Robert to Victoria Hospital. The wire had just missed his carotid artery.

I knew that Dad often attended classes in Cowdenbeath, at the Mining College, and then, in August 1950, I began to do so myself. I had successfully negotiated the Fife Qualifying Examination at 11 years, which entitled me to a high school education at Beath High School. For the next 7 years, until 1957, I took craft classes in its basement, and lived daily with its on-going sinking disposition. The subsidence of 50 years was terminal. A new school elsewhere was inevitable. But Grandad was pleased with my school progress.

“With a good education,” he said, “you won`t hve to crawl my coal seams of fear.” His words were to become reality within a few weeks.

On Thursday, 7 September 1950, at Knockshinnoch Colliery, in Ayrshire, a mining disaster was unfolding. A hug inrush of moss and peat had flooded through a fractured surface and into the mine workings below, trapping 129 miners. Rescue teams from all over Scotland, including Cowdenbeath, sped to the scene. Dad went with them. The 3-day rescue process is too detailed and lengthy to describe here, but we provided a synopsis.

The initial inrush of moss and peat had engulfed 13 men working nearby. They were never found. The remaining 116 miners, working a few miles away at a much lower level, found themselves trapped behind a wall of poisonous gas (fire-damp) flooding out from old workings disturbed by the surface fracture. The situation was critical; they would soon run out of air. In essence, each man was brought out, wearing at Salvus breathing mask (as used by the fire brigade in smoke-filled premises), and led to safety by rescue teams. It had been exhausting round the clock work. But the combined expertise of rescue teams and firemen had won the day, and had saved 116 lives.

Grandad listened intently as Dad told him the rescue. Back in 1901 he had attended the similar Donibristle disaster, and knew the heroic Robert Law personally. A few weeks later, at home, Grandad quietly passed away on October 11 1950, aged 76 years.

Within these 76 years he had been married for 52 of them, had raised 8 children, and entertained 17 grandchildren - including me - and had contributed 60 years of mining work, mostly underground, to the Fife Coal Co.

On the introductory page of of his presentation copy of “Record Book of Veteran Service Employees of the Fife Coal Company (published 1945), is inserted this quotation by Burns:

“Scotia! My dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent! Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content”

Therein follows 103 pages of 242 Fife miners, including Grandad - with individual photographs, plus short biographies, with personal interests. Grandad`s was farming, in his spare time. The book then concludes on its final page, with this poignant quotation, again from Burns:

“From scenes like these old Scotia`s grandeur springs, That makes her lov`d at home, rever`d abroad; Princes and lords are but the breath of Kings, And honest man`s the noblest work of God”

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Timeline Andrew Farmer

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