Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Certificate of Bravery, at the Whitwick Colliery Disaster, 22 April 1898, awarded to ‘W. J. Turner Esq.’, presented on 2 July 1898, 218 x 166mm., showing signs of wear, fairly good condition £20-30

Whitwick was a coal mining village in Leicestershire; the colliery first opening in 1824. On 19 April 1898 there was a fire and explosion at Whitwick Number Five Pit which resulted in the deaths of 35 men and boys, the youngest - Deputies Boy John Albert Gee being 13 years of age. A memorial plaque commemorating those killed may be found in Coalville Parish Church. Metal crosses and certificates were awarded to the men who assisted in the rescue attempts. The disaster was also recorded in a poem: ‘T’was at the Whitwick Colliery, In the springtide month of showers, The night shift men were working, Through the long dark dreary hours .......’