b. 28/09/1859 Rainford, Lancashire. d. 21/01/1942 St Helens, Lancashire.
DATE OF EM ACTION: 26/02/1918 St Helen’s, Lancashire.
Robert was born on 28th September 1859 in Rainford, Lancashire, the youngest of five children born to Robert and Esther Farrington. He became a miner from a young age, but soon rose to working overground as a under-manager. He married Margaret Eden in 1883 in Prescot, and they had seven children. The Farrington family moved to St Helens, near to the Pilkington’s Colliery. Having worked in the mining industry all his life, he retired to the Noak area of St Helens. His wife sadly pre-deceased and he was cared for in later life by two of his unmarried daughters, Esther and Florence. He died in 1942, aged 82.
EM CITATION:
On the 26th February, 1918, a fireman, Peter Anders, was inspecting a place where a level was being driven to cut off a brow, and he went round the brow to test the progress of the work by knocking on the coal. Unfortunately, gas had accumulated in the brow owing to the brattice cloth by which it was ventilated being broken down by a fall of coal. Anders was overcome by the gas, and his groanings brought several men to the place where he lay, which was in complete darkness, as it was dangerous to use any light. Thomas Pickering, a jigger, first tried to rescue the fireman, but, though he succeeded in getting hold of Anders, he could not release the fireman’s legs, which were fastened round a prop, and he was overcome with gas, though he managed to roll clear. Henry Foster, a collier, then tried to rescue Anders, but was in turn overcome by the gas and fell senseless. Pickering made a second attempt, without success. In the meantime, Robert Farrington, the under-manager, arrived and immediately went into the gas, but fell unconscious after two attempts, though he managed to grasp Foster’s legs. Pickering then succeeded in grasping Farrington, who had kept his hold on Foster, with the result that both were rescued. Foster was brought round by artificial respiration. The position of Anders was ascertained with the help of an electric lamp, and, as soon as the ventilation was restored, Anders was also brought out, but life was, unfortunately, extinct.
BURIAL LOCATION: ST HELENS CEMETERY, ST HELENS, LANCASHIRE.
SECTION 6, GRAVE 186B.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
