b. 4th Quarter 1858 Whitehaven, Cumberland. d. 06/02/1927 Whitehaven, Cumberland.
DATE OF EM ACTION: 11/05/1910 Wellington Colliery, Whitehaven, Cumberland.
James Moore Dunlop was born in Whitehaven, Cumberland, the 4th of 9 children born to James and Mary Dunlop (nee Moore). They lived in the St James District of Whitehaven. He was baptised at St James Church, Whitehaven on 3rd October 1858. From an early age, James became a master wasteman in the Wellington Pit, and sadly his father passed away. His mother re-married to James Quinn, and in the 1891 Census, James (now aged 32) was living with his mother and step-father in the Preston Quarter of Whitehaven. James never married, and remained living with his mother and step-father until their deaths. At the time of the incident at Wellington Pit which led to his Edward Medal, he was now 52 years of age, and was boarding with a fellow coal miner, James Bigrigg and his family at 19 Woodville Terrace in Whitehaven. James died on 6th February 1927 aged 68 and left his estate to the widow of James Bigrigg, where he was still boarding at the time of his death.
EM CITATION:
On the 11th May. 1910, a terrible fire occurred in the Wellington Pit, Whitehaven, at a point about 4,500 yards from the shafts. Various rescue parties, with great courage and selfdevotion and at considerable risk, descended the mine and endeavoured to extinguish the fire and penetrate to the persons in the workings beyond the same. Thorne and Littlewood, fitted with breathing apparatus, reached within a distance of 150 yards of the fire, but were driven back by the great heat and effusion of gases. The others got to within about 300 yards of the fire, working in the smoke backing from the tire. It was found impossible to penetrate to the scene of the fire or to rescue any of the entombed miners. Had an explosion occurred—a by no means unlikely eventuality, seeing that the mine is a very gassy one—they would undoubtedly all have been killed. Special gallantry was shown by John Henry Thorne, to whom the Edward Medal of the First Class has already been awarded, and by James Littlewood.
BURIAL LOCATION: WHITEHAVEN CEMETERY, WHITEHAVEN, CUMBERLAND.
WARD 1, SECTION F, GRAVE 189
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
