Donibristle Pit Disaster
We come to members' business, which is on motion S1M-1964, in the name of Helen Eadie, on the centenary of the Donibristle pit disaster.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament congratulates the schools in Dunfermline East for their contribution to marking the centenary of the Donibristle pit disaster on 26 August 1901; notes that their efforts will help celebrate and keep alive the memory of the brave men, some of whom heroically gave their lives to save fellow miners in the tragedy; further congratulates all of those in our towns and villages in the constituency of Dunfermline East for the act of remembrance that binds miners and their families through the ages and across all our communities and, in doing so, sends its thoughts and prayers to the community of Caerphilly, Wales who remembered on 24 May the miners who lost their lives in the Caerphilly disaster on that date 100 years ago, and calls on the Scottish Executive to send appropriate messages to both communities.
I am very privileged to have secured this evening's members' business debate.
I lodged the motion on 24 May, which is the date on which 78 coal miners were buried alive by a series of gas explosions in Caerphilly, Wales. I wanted to remember those men alongside the brave men involved in the Donibristle disaster in Fife. Both the Donibristle disaster of 26 August 1901 and the Caerphilly disaster of 24 May the same year are remembered for many reasons, chief among which is the fact that coal miners and their families have had to make sacrifices throughout the ages to grow the wealth of our nation.
As members will know, at the beginning of the 20th century, coal was the main source of heat, light and power in nearly every country in the world. Coal has been dug in Scotland for many years, and as far back as 1,800 years ago the Roman army of occupation between the Forth and the Clyde canal was using coal. In no country did coal play as big a part in the economy as it did in Scotland. At the time of the Donibristle disaster, the Boer war still raged in South Africa and the price of coal leaped to new levels. The increased demand for the "black diamond" made coal mining highly profitable. However, it was the miners and their rescuers, who we remember today, who were the real diamonds of their time.
There have been many disasters in the coalfields of Britain, but the Scottish coalfields have earned an unenviable notoriety. The two disasters of Donibristle, in Fife, and Knockshinnock, in Ayrshire, were caused by the abundance of moss or peat on the surface in the neighbourhood of coal workings. I am sure that, if Cathy Jamieson were here today, she would have spoken more about the Knockshinnock disaster in which 129 miners were entombed.
Will Helen Eadie join me in remembering the mining disaster at Auchengeich, which happened in September 1959? Can we send our thoughts to the community, which will be holding its annual memorial service later this month?
I am happy to join Elaine Smith in expressing those sentiments and I would have no hesitation in joining her at the memorial service, if there is one.
At Donibristle colliery, on 26 August 1901, eight men were smothered underground by the inflow of moss. The pit was situated in the parish of Aberdour, near Cowdenbeath, on the southern edge of the Fife coalfield. Most of the workings lay under Mossmorran, a square mile of moorland 450ft above sea level, which, 200 years earlier, had been a sheet of water. Some 270 men were employed underground. The Mynheer seam had been entered more than 450ft down and had then been worked up a long, steep incline.
Ten months before the disaster, the heading had reached the outcrop and operations were stopped to determine whether a connection could be made with the surface to provide easier access to the workings. It was known that an inrush 40 years before had taken place only 300yd away; yet, on 22 August 1901, operations were begun in the heading, probing upwards with a 17ft rod.
At 1.40 pm on 26 August, as two men were continuing operations, the moss burst in. They were instantly smothered and another two men—Alexander Smith and David Campbell—who were working at lower levels also lost their lives. Oversman Thomas Rattray at once led a rescue party in from another level, which comprised James McDonald, William Hynd and Andrew Paterson. However, by 11 pm they had not returned.
On the Tuesday, by going down an airshaft and then through old workings, it was proved that the moss debris had not filled some of the upper workings and it was hoped that some men might have reached there. Attempts were made on the surface to sink small pit shafts from the ground beyond the huge hole that was opening up in the moss, but the pit kept filling with peat.
The next move was to stretch two wires across the hole in the moss and draw a platform over the gap. From there, the rescuers attempted to gain access to the workings. Two volunteers—James Dick and John Sheddon—were lowered into the hole with a sled on which to strap any survivors. The first miner to be rescued gasped that there were six of them. However, after five men were rescued in that way, the sides of the hole collapsed and the two rescuers were entombed with the remaining survivor, adding to the distress of the wives and families who had gathered at the scene.
On the Wednesday morning, the seven pit ponies were found fairly near the main shaft and were led to safety. Efforts were made to renew surface structures to allow rescuers to go down the hole in greater safety and several hundred volunteers carried materials across the moor to form a shaft.
Eventually, early on the Thursday morning, the last survivor—Alexander Bauld—was rescued after 60 long hours, along with his two rescuers who had also been entombed. Meanwhile, attempts were being made to locate the four men of the second party, led by Rattray, but nobody was able to find them because the moss and debris had filled so many of the tunnels. Their bodies were not discovered until 4 December, after 12,000 tons of moss and other debris had been brought to the surface and much more had been stowed away in old roads underground.
In total, eight men died, leaving seven widows and 15 children. The Donibristle relief fund raised the relatively large sum of £2,100 and Andrew Carnegie also gave £100 to each of the four heroic rescuers who went to help their comrades. Gold watches were donated by the editor of The Daily Telegraph and the relief committee and, along with the money from Andrew Carnegie, they were presented to Dick, Sheddon, Jones, Law and Richardson for their heroism. Many of the other men involved in the operation were given badges for the valour that they displayed.
Donibristle was not the only major mining accident in the area that year. On 15 February 1901, there was a gassing accident at the nearby Hill of Beath colliery. Two men were overcome by the deadly carbon monoxide and five of the men who formed a search party also died. They left seven widows and 25 children.
Around any pit where a disaster had occurred, the picture was always the same: wives, mothers, daughters, sisters and grandmothers all waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones trapped far below ground. We can only imagine what was going through the minds of those who, with a feeling of helplessness, could only stand and pray that their loved ones would be rescued. No one should ever underestimate the sheer courage of the women who stand and wait, supporting each other in the face of tragedy. Suffering in silence is every bit as painful as any amount of physical pain.
The Donibristle disaster provides a moving example of members of a community supporting each other in crisis. This year, the centenary of the Donibristle disaster, many people across the constituency of Dunfermline East have been involved in paying tribute to the brave miners who gave their lives trying to rescue their colleagues. The schools in the constituency have involved children in the commemoration of the event in various ways. In November, a play, poems and ballads written at the time of the disasters will be performed by children from primary and secondary schools. As part of the remembrance, an evening of words and music was organised by the Fife Mining Heritage Society; the Cowdenbeath community council commissioned some moving paintings by Davie Lockhart; and Fife Council sponsored, from the common good fund, a memorial book researched by Joe Paterson. In November, a commemorative conference, organised by the author of "Famous Fife Women", Lillian King, will be held to remember the women who were left behind after the disaster. On the day of the anniversary, 26 August, a memorial service that brought together churchgoers from three local churches was held in the Trinity church in Cowdenbeath. Visitors from as far afield as Yorkshire attended the service and the wreath-laying ceremony at the cairn. Our friend Dennis Canavan, the MSP for Falkirk West, joined us there as well. I thank him for that.
The supreme sacrifice was made by the miners and I would like to recall the last words that were written by the miners as they lay in the bowels of the earth. As the last of the tallow burned to give them light, they wrote their last tragic notes to their loved ones.
James McDonald wrote about his youngest son, aged three:
"I am thinking of wee Donil God Bless him."
Thomas Rattray wrote:
"I leave my love to E.P.M. and David"
and Andrew Paterson wrote:
"Andrew leaves his love to Annie and the bairns, goodbye; God bless you all".
The messages were found with the men, who were huddled together when their bodies were recovered later that year.
We remember especially tonight the heroes: John Sheddon, John Jones, Robert Law and James Dick, who were the surviving rescuers; William Hynd, James McDonald, Thomas Rattray and Andrew Paterson, who sacrificed their lives; and George Hutchison, Alexander Smith, William Forsyth and D Campbell, who were the original group.
Presiding Officer, I thank you for the honour of being allowed to make this tribute to the memory of such brave men and women and our coal mining heritage.
Ian Banks, one of Dunfermline East's famous local sons, wrote in "The Wasp Factory":
"All our lives are symbols. Everything we do is part of a pattern we have at least some say in. The strong make their own patterns and influence other people's".
I hope that the memory of the heroes of the Donibristle disaster will live on in our minds and will be a positive influence as we strive to serve others.
I congratulate Helen Eadie on securing an opportunity for the Parliament to remember the mining communities and those who suffered because of the work that they did to build the communities that we now know. I also congratulate David Reid and all those who were involved in the memorial ceremony and the building of the cairn. I also pay tribute to Joe Paterson, the former Scottish National Party councillor who has been responsible for compiling the memorial book to all the men who have been killed in the Fife pits.
I speak as one whose grandfather was killed in one of the Fife pits, as the daughter of one who was invalided out of the pits and the sister of a miner who was sacked from Seafield at the time of the strike. The Donibristle disaster of 26 August 1901 is etched deep into the psyches of all of us who were born and brought up in Cowdenbeath, including my good friend Dennis Canavan. All of us who come from mining communities lived with the mining disaster and the tales of our fathers and grandfathers.
It is true that the heroism that was displayed in the Donibristle disaster was way beyond what any community could have expected. It is also significant that that heroism was rewarded with gold watches from a newspaper but that the same people received no reward from the establishment of the day. That probably indicates how little regard the establishment had for the mining communities.
The Donibristle disaster led indirectly to the setting up of the mine rescue service 11 years later. That was set up in Stenhouse Street in Cowdenbeath. Dennis Canavan knows it as well as I do.
It was a privilege and pleasure to be at the ceremony in Trinity church in Cowdenbeath. I saw miners, ex-miners and their families coming from all over Scotland, Yorkshire and beyond simply to pay tribute to the many brave men of the disaster.
Of all of the brave men, I will single out one—Robert Law. After people were trapped and when almost all hope was gone, Robert Law went down and led out some of the rescuers and other men who were abandoned in the pit. After Robert Law brought out the last of those men, there were still eight men trapped in the pit. Their bodies were recovered, as Helen Eadie rightly said, some months later. From the stories that I heard when I was young, it was not a quick or easy death. The fate of the men in the pit can only be imagined. It was quite horrible.
I accept that we should pay tribute not just to the miners of Fife but to the miners throughout Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom who died to build the communities that we know. It is about time that we gave something back. Fife, like many other areas, was built on the back of the miners. The prosperity that we enjoyed for many years was built on the work of the miners.
It is appalling that, after all this time and when we have only one deep mine in Scotland, there is no lasting memorial to the miners of Fife and that it is almost impossible for the miners of Fife to get the money necessary to build a heritage centre. We need to remember who we are and where we have come from. If we do not remember that, we will have no idea about where we should be going in future. I urge the minister—he is the minister with responsibility for culture—to give, in his closing speech, some hope to the ex-miners of Fife that their relics and artefacts will be preserved for eternity.
I finish by welcoming those visitors in the gallery who have come from Fife. It is fortunate that business finished early, allowing Helen Eadie's members' business to be called and giving those people the opportunity to listen to the debate about Fife and our miners.
A number of members wish to speak in the debate, so I remind members that the time limit for their speeches is four minutes.
I congratulate Helen Eadie on securing the debate. I whole-heartedly support the motion in her name.
Having been born and brought up in Cowdenbeath, I appreciate the impact that the Donibristle disaster had on the local mining community. That impact was felt for many years after the tragic event. Accounts of the disaster were, and still are, an important part of local history.
The centenary evokes memories for many families, including my own. My grandfather's brother, Bernard Canavan—Uncle Barney, as we used to call him—was involved in the rescue work at Donibristle. He was comparatively lucky in that he lived to tell the tale. Some of his comrades did not.
At that time, mine rescue work was undertaken largely by volunteers because there was little in the way of organised mine rescue teams. It was not until the Coal Mines Act 1911 that there was a statutory requirement to locate mine rescue stations within certain distances of all collieries. The act also stipulated the numbers of rescue workers that were required to cover the number of miners employed by the colliery.
Even that legislation was not enough to prevent further tragedies from occurring in the coal industry. Thirty-eight years after the Donibristle disaster, and in the same county of Fife, a bigger disaster took place at Valleyfield colliery when 39 men lost their lives in an underground explosion. My Uncle Barney was also involved in that rescue operation. In recognition of his services to the mining industry and mine rescue work, he was later awarded the British Empire medal. As far as I know, that is the one of the few imperial connections in my family.
We have all heard of people getting British Empire medals and OBEs and CBEs and other gongs purely for crawling to the British establishment. Mine rescue workers crawled through the bowels of the earth to try to rescue their fellow miners. Some of them, including some of the rescue workers at Donibristle, made the ultimate sacrifice.
Yesterday, the Parliament rightly acknowledged the heroism of those who gave their lives in the 1820 rising. It is also right that today we should acknowledge the heroism of all those in the mining industry who gave their lives to supply the energy needs of the nation. Some of them also gave their lives for a greater cause—saving the lives of their fellow miners. It is right that the dedicated service and heroism of Scotland's miners should be recognised by Scotland's Parliament.
I congratulate Helen Eadie on securing the debate, I commend the previous speakers on their contributions and I applaud the schools that are commemorating the disaster with art displays and the forthcoming production of a play.
I am particularly pleased to speak in the debate as it has reminded me that I was brought up in a mining community. My older brother, destined for the navy in the second world war, was instead recruited as a Bevan boy and sent down the mines. He did not enjoy that experience. I can still vividly recall the day that we were told that there had been a tunnel collapse near the coalface in the colliery in which he was working. A stillness fell over the house and over the whole village. The uncertainty and lack of information were distressing. The waiting was terrible, and the relief was enormous when he eventually walked through the door unhurt. I recall that, on that occasion, there were fortunately no fatalities, but several miners were injured, some quite seriously. I have considerable empathy with families such as those who lost their loved ones at Donibristle.
Over the years, miners have risked their lives daily to keep the wheels of industry turning and to ensure our comfort in warm homes. It is most important that the children of today remember those miners who toiled underground and the many who lost their lives in the numerous accidents which have regrettably happened throughout the UK. I gladly support the motion.
I too congratulate Helen Eadie on winning this debate, and for the moving way in which she opened it. It helps to mark this centenary in an appropriate way, as it gives the Scottish Parliament its chance to pay its respects to a very brave group of men and a very brave working-class community.
In her motion, Helen Eadie notes how remembrance of the disaster
"binds miners and their families through the ages and across all our communities".
That has been demonstrated as the debate has proceeded, with Dennis Canavan inspiringly and affectionately referring to his Uncle Barney. Even if he did win the British Empire medal, I will certainly not hold that against him.
I do not come from a mining community, but in my time I have met a lot of people who came from mining communities. My experience is that being a miner or part of a mining community leaves a mark on people for the rest of their lives—it changes them. I have found that it breeds a healthy militancy, which is one of the outstanding features of mining communities throughout Scotland and Britain. For a very long time, the National Union of Mineworkers was regarded as the praetorian guard of the Labour movement. Most of the great victories of the Labour movement have been won with the NUM leading from the front.
Many of the finest characters in Scottish politics over the last century came from mining communities: the incomparable Michael McGahey, Lawrence Daly, one of the most talented of politicians and a Fifer, and Eric Clarke, one of the finest leaders the miners had. People with mining backgrounds have, in my experience, a warmth, a compassion and a humanity that are absent in the rest of the Scottish people.
The great Jock Stein, who went on to become the legendary manager of Celtic and Scotland, was a miner. He had gone down the pits, and never forgot the experience—he never allowed himself to forget it. Stories abound from the time of strikes, when the miners were out fighting for a better wage and a better life for them and their families. Stein would never go past a picket line without stopping: even once he was manager of a great and famous club and was travelling all over Europe, he would stop the car and go out to put money into the buckets to support the miners and would remind the pampered footballers under his command that they too had a responsibility to go out and help the miners. Back in those days, Scotland also had a better football team—there may be some connection.
We should never forget the part that the miners played in bringing this Parliament into existence. During the 1950s and 1960s, when the idea of home rule and of having a Scottish Parliament was forgotten by just about everybody, it was the NUM that kept that hope alive. Indeed, I think that it was Mick McGahey who moved the motion at the Scottish Trades Union Congress in the late 1960s that brought back into official STUC policy the desire that
"There shall be a Scottish Parliament."
If we are looking for a memorial to the Scottish miners, this Parliament is, in a sense, a memorial to them. It is because of their work that this Parliament came into existence, and we should never forget that.
This year also marks the 75th anniversary of the general strike. We should never forget the massively important part played in that strike by mining communities across Britain, particularly those in Fife. On the 50th anniversary of the strike, a book was produced about it. I remember reading in it about a man called John McArthur, who was described as a militant miners' leader from east Fife. It described how, the Sunday before the general strike, John McArthur, being the advanced worker that he was, did not really believe that the Labour and trade union leaderships would actually call the general strike. Although the miners called a meeting at Denbeath in anticipation of the general strike being called, they had to cancel it because nobody turned up. However, the following Sunday, after the general strike was called, the meeting at Denbeath was recalled. As McArthur himself said, the back of the crowd could not be seen because so many people had turned out. That was the mining communities of Fife turning out to play one of the most important roles in the history of our country—in nine days that shook the world.
By having this debate, the Scottish Parliament has paid back in a little way the great debt that we owe to mining communities across Scotland, particularly those in Fife. I congratulate Helen Eadie once again. I am sure that when the minister replies to the debate he will say that the Executive will send the appropriate messages to the communities involved, congratulating them on what they have done.
I join other members in congratulating Helen Eadie on securing this debate and on the way in which she delivered her speech. I also congratulate her on the excellent brochure that has been issued on the Donibristle mining disaster. It is first class and should in itself serve as a memorial to those who died. I will certainly not put it in the bin after this debate—I will hold on to it.
A number of former miners have already been mentioned. To those we can add Abe Moffat in the trade union movement, Matt Busby in football and many others. However, as it was Helen Eadie who secured this debate, I take the opportunity to mention her father-in-law, Alex Eadie, who was a miner and an activist in the mining union as well as the minister responsible for coal in the Government headed by Harold Wilson. I remember being with him on the day that he was appointed to that post—there could not have been a prouder moment for any miner. Alex Eadie joins the long list of those who have done great service to the mining community in times gone by.
Like many members who have spoken tonight, my background is in the mining community. I come from the village of Patna in South Ayrshire, which is well known to the minister. He must have had many a brawl on the fitba field in Patna, although I am sure that we get the better of him on every occasion. The Knockshinnock disaster has been mentioned. Knockshinnock is in New Cumnock; it is part of the Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley constituency in South Ayrshire, where I lived. I was only a young kid at the time of the Knockshinnock disaster, but its effect has lasted for decades. Particularly after the Knockshinnock disaster, people were always afraid of the knock on the door that said that it was their turn—that something had happened down the pit.
Quite rightly, today we remember the big disasters such as Donibristle and Knockshinnock. However, many other people died in the pits, sometimes alone. It must be even worse for someone to die alone down a mineshaft than for them to die with their comrades. We should remember those people as well, because they sacrificed their lives for the industry and their community.
John McAllion spoke about the miners' contribution to the establishment of the Scottish Parliament. We should also remember the Welsh, English and many other miners who have sacrificed their lives. In eastern Europe—where I have worked for the World Bank and others—there are many mines that are as dangerous today as Donibristle was at the start of the previous century and as Knockshinnock and many other mines used to be. As a Parliament and as a people, we could examine ways in which we might contribute to improved mine safety in eastern Europe. In parts of Russia and Romania, almost on a regular basis, tragedies happen that are never reported—huge disasters in which hundreds of people are killed. As a member of the Scottish National Party, I say deliberately that what happens and happened to miners in Wales, England and further afield is critical, as is what happened to miners in Scotland.
I am proud to have been brought up in a mining community and I am very proud to have taken part in this debate. I thank Helen Eadie once again for organising it.
Like other members, I heartily congratulate my close colleague and neighbouring MSP Helen Eadie on lodging this motion. It not only commemorates the eight men who lost their lives in the Donibristle pit disaster, but recognises the efforts of others in rescuing those who were trapped under the Mossmorran moorlands. We should also congratulate those involved in working with local schools on commemorating the centenary of the disaster and on alerting schoolchildren to their industrial heritage.
I want to speak in this debate for two reasons, the first of which is my close association with Cowdenbeath, where I worked for 12 happy years before I was elected to the Scottish Parliament. The second is my family's close association with the mining industry. In 1939, my grandfather moved from Lanarkshire to Fife to work at the Mary pit at Lochore. During the 1940s, he was also undermanager at Glencraig No 11. Both those pits were only a couple of miles from the Donibristle pit.
I was brought up in Glenrothes and, although it is a new town, its raison d'être was to accommodate miners and their families from the nearby Rothes pit. My parents met while they were both employees of the National Coal Board at the Frances pit in Dysart.
Although I was only five, I vividly remember the serious fire at the Michael pit in East Wemyss in 1967, which had a huge impact on the people of Glenrothes. That impact must have been replicated many times in many communities when disasters struck. Tricia Marwick's speech reminded me that my dad's cousin was also the superintendent at the mines rescue station in Cowdenbeath.
I have the privilege of representing the last deep mine in Scotland: Longannet at Kincardine. The history of Fife is nothing if it is not characterised by the mining industry. When we remember that, we should never underestimate the human cost that is associated with deep mining and the debt that we owe to all those who worked in that industry. For those of us who are proud to be members of the labour and trade union movement, the points that John McAllion made were both good and telling. Miners certainly have a special place in our hearts, given all that they did to promote the interests of organised labour throughout their long and proud history.
My constituency of Dunfermline West contains several communities that owe their existence to the mining industry, such as Blairhall, Oakley and, in particular, High Valleyfield, which in 1939 had the worst pit disaster in Fife's history, as we heard earlier. It is important that our children—not only in Fife but throughout Scotland—are not allowed to forget our proud industrial heritage. Events such as the Donibristle centenary allow those memories to continue. The work that has been done in local schools in Dunfermline East is a model that should be replicated throughout ex-mining areas, in order to remind our children and our families of the rich traditions to which we all owe so much.
Much of what I was going to say has been covered. As I represent the constituency of Kirkcaldy, I, too, am a neighbour of Helen Eadie. I was moved by her introduction and her great testament to the miners: what she said and the way in which she said it moved all members. I pay tribute to her for securing today's debate.
I was born and lived in a mining village called Dysart, which is just outside Kirkcaldy. Members will not be surprised, therefore, to learn that my grandfathers, great-grandfathers, brother and father worked in the Frances colliery which is—guess where?—in Dysart. My great-grandad and my grandads went down the pit at the age of 14. What must that have been like? My grandads had a huge influence on my life and my politics and on the fact that I joined the Labour and trade union movement—they were great supporters of the NUM. I remember that, when I was a little girl, I jumped on my grandad, landing on his knees. Those who know the Frances colliery will know that he would have spent his life up to his knees in water and so would have had problems with his knees and fingers. Many of us will have similar memories of our grandads and our fathers and the problems that they had in the mining industry.
Nevertheless, what community spirit there was in Dysart! I am sure that there would have been the same community spirit in Ayrshire and I know that it was the same in the Wemyss villages in Helen Eadie's constituency. That community spirit still lives with us. For example, I was presented with a 1937 minute book of the women's section of the Labour party, which showed that both my grandmothers donated to the poor. I noticed that they took the same things every week: a quarter of butter and a bag of sugar. That was the community spirit that we had in Fife and that still exists in many parts of Fife today.
Like Scott Barrie, I pay tribute to those folk from all parts of Fife who lost their lives, especially in the Michael disaster in 1967. Like Alex Neil, I would like to say that many people had friends who lost their lives on their own and alone down the pits. The impact of that on our local communities will not be forgotten. I still remember my father's and grandfather's stories of some of the horrific accidents and disasters that happened down individual pits. We must never forget those.
Since being elected, among other things I have fought for the headgear and A-frame at Frances colliery to be retained. Some members have helped me in that. We are now getting it painted, but it has taken us years.
As Tricia Marwick said, if we forget where we come from—that we are miners' daughters and granddaughters—we will be lesser people. I back the calls of Helen Eadie, Scott Barrie and Tricia Marwick for a mining heritage centre in Fife, for which we need funding. I will not forget, because I want my children and my children's children to remember the effort, the support and the community spirit that existed for miners in Fife and throughout Scotland. I ask the minister to consider the mining heritage in Fife and throughout Scotland. That is how we will remember whence we came.
I join fellow members in congratulating Helen Eadie on her excellent speech and on lodging her motion for debate.
Tricia Marwick asked how we know who we are. I firmly believe that we are all products of our environment and of our communities. One of the many features that link the communities of Ayrshire and Fife is our common coal-mining heritage. As Alex Neil said, we share the pain of disaster and know the true price of coal.
For the people of Fife, coal mining is the cornerstone of their heritage and of their present-day community spirit. The Donibristle colliery disaster of 1901 made an indelible mark on the collective memory of the mining communities of Fife. Eight men died, leaving seven widows and 15 children. Three hundred volunteers were prepared to risk their lives in various attempts to rescue their colleagues. That fact alone bears witness to the spirit of the Fife mining communities.
As members have pointed out, that spirit was reflected throughout the Scottish coalfields. Scotland's industrial might was founded on our coal mines. Today, it is all too easy to forget the price that was paid for that valuable fuel by miners in Fife, the Lothians, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire.
As Alex Neil mentioned, the natural hazards of flammable and noxious gases, unstable ground, fire and inrushes of wet materials have not changed; they are present in today's mines exactly as they were for the Donibristle miners in 1901. The Donibristle pit disaster was one incident in mining history that was, in part, responsible for the continuous improvements in mining health and safety legislation.
As Marilyn Livingstone mentioned, other health hazards have recently come to the fore. We now better appreciate the effects of long-term exposure to vibrating tools or equipment, particularly hand-arm vibration syndrome and vibration white finger. The Health and Safety Executive's mines inspectorate is working with employers to prevent such hazards by changing working practices and assessing alternative equipment.
Modern mining health and safety legislation, particularly the Escape and Rescue from Mines Regulations 1995, draws heavily on the lessons of the past. Those regulations set out the measures that mine owners and managers must take so that, in the event of an emergency, those below ground may escape to safety or be rescued.
Historically, the development of mining legislation was largely a response to such disasters. There was no mines rescue service at the time of the Donibristle disaster or at the time of the Hill of Beath colliery disaster—also in Fife—which occurred one month earlier. In 1906, a royal commission was established; its recommendations led to the Coal Mines Act 1911, which made provision for mines rescue, first aid and a mines inspectorate.
The people of Fife, however, were not content to wait for the legislators. Scott Barrie has referred to the establishment in 1910 by the Fife and Clackmannan coal owners association of the first mines rescue station at Stenhouse Street, Cowdenbeath. The first superintendent was David Stephenson, a first-aider from Bowhill colliery. The rescue brigadesmen were trained to use Garforth breathing apparatus to enable them to travel through irrespirable atmospheres to save people. No one would now doubt the importance of having well-established procedures for dealing with emergencies at mines. Indeed, history has shown that on such occasions a quick and professional response can make the difference between life and death.
Today, the Scottish coal industry consists of one deep mine at Longannet employing about 650 people. The Longannet miners recognise the debt of gratitude that they owe to the men of Donibristle and those thousands of other Scots, Welsh and English miners who, as has been mentioned, lost their lives through pit disasters. Not only did they provide Britain with a secure energy supply, they delivered the stringent mine safety regulatory framework that our miners enjoy today.
I take on board the points that have been made about a heritage centre. Too often, local history is either forgotten or scorned as unimportant. When I researched this speech, I looked up the words of the war poet Wilfred Owen. He recognised that failure when he wrote these words:
"The centuries will burn rich loads
With which we groaned,
Whose warmth shall lull their dreaming lids
While songs are crooned.
But they will not dream of us poor lads,
Lost in the ground."
It speaks volumes for the Dunfermline East community that teachers and pupils alike not only remember but pay tribute to the men who lost their lives in the Donibristle pit disaster. I say to John McAllion that I am pleased and proud to send out appropriate messages to those people. I commend the teachers and pupils in Cowdenbeath—at Crossgates Primary School and Hill of Beath Primary School—for their respectful commemoration.
Helen Eadie has enriched our Parliament with this debate in memory of the brave men who lost their lives at Donibristle more than 100 years ago. We thank her for that.
Meeting closed at 17:07.