Edward Bendall was caught in a roof fall at Kilton Ironstone Mine, his rescuers were awarded the Queens Commendation for Brave Conduct in 1956, presented by Princess Margaret.
Edward Bendall – Bottom Right
At the Skelton History Fair, I was fortunate enough to meet a relative of Raymond Brown who had the actual award he received.
From 1946 onwards civilians received a silver metal laurel leaf and a bronze oak leaf for armed forces personnel.
My Dad Dennis Pearson is front left. He was the Deputy present at the time. I too still have those medals and provided photos of the team, both at Kilton and at London at the presentation plus the full newspaper report. I posted them both on facebook and ECD Images some years ago. Wonderful brave men when you realise what they did. Crawling under a 20 + ton lump of roof stone to saw through timbers which pinned Edward down. A collapse or a slip of the jacks would have crushed them to death too. I was justly proud of my father and all the team,
I too have the Laurel Leaf medals which were awarded to the team. My Father was Dennis Pearson, Deputy and is the front left on the above photo above. I posted the full photos of the whole team and the medal presentation in London on F/B and ECD images some years ago. I still have the original write up as posted in the Gazette and the London news.
Edward Bendall (though I never heard him called Edward – it was always Ted) was my Uncle married to my mothers sister Jesse. It’s a long time ago but I seem to remember them living in Charltons before moving to the bottom of Belmangate, given I was born in 1955, I guess both living in Charltons and Belmangate must post date the accident in Kiton mine.
Alan Moss