b. 10/05/1865 Tofthill, County Durham. d. ? 1945 Durham.
DATE OF EM ACTION: 11/05/1910 Wellington Colliery, Whitehaven, Cumberland.
John Henry was the fourth of twelve children born to Jonathan and Margaret Parker (nee Gill) on 10th May 1865. He grew up in Tofthill, near Durham and from a young age he became a miner. In the summer of 1892, he married Margaret Musgrave and they had two sons, Arthur Musgrave and Thomas in 1897 and 1904 respectively. John Henry was promoted to the role of Colliery Under-Manager, and in 1910 it was in this capacity that he was awarded the Edward Medal for his part in the rescue at Wellington Colliery. John’s wife pre-deceased him and John retired from the mines in the mid 1930s. He spent his retirement living in Durham, where he died in 1945, aged 80.
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 self-devotion 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 fire. 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: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
