b. 25/04/1865 Ossett, Yorkshire. d. 01/02/1911 Water Haigh Mine, Oulton, Yorkshire.
DATE OF EM ACTION: 19/11/1910 Water Haigh Mine, Oulton, Leeds, Yorkshire.
Herbert was the eldest of four children born to Harrison and Martha Pickersgill (nee Auty) in Ossett, Yorkshire on 25th April 1865. His mother died in 1891, when he was 26, and his father remarried, and Herbert gained two half-siblings. Herbert married Hannah McDonald on 6th September 1885 in Hunslet, near Leeds. They had a son and a daughter. Tragically, following Herbert’s gallantry on the 19th November 1910, he would be killed in an accident at the same colliery less than two months later on 1st February 1911. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Normanton, Yorkshire.
EM CITATION:
On the 19th November, 1910, a shaft was being sunk at the Water Haigh Colliery at Oulton, near Leeds. A depth of 255 yards had been reached and the shaft had been lined to a depth of 240 yards with brickwork, the end of which rested on a stout oak crib. Below this and suspended from the crib were iron rings securing the unbricked sides of the shaft. On the day of the accident ten men were at work on or about a scaffold near the bottom of the shaft, when a mass of shale fell out of the seam, the timbering collapsed, and the rings broke away. The chargeman, James Cannon, noticed shale falling, and with great presence of mind and promptitude shouted to all to make for the centre; he also signalled for means of ascent to be lowered. He and five others jumped into the centre and escaped; the other four were caught, either by earth or by rings of timber, one being killed on the spot, two trapped and seriously injured, and the fourth seriously injured but not trapped. Cannon went to the surface with the uninjured men and at once came back with Artis and others, to take up the work of rescue. The rescue operations were protracted, the woodwork of the stout oak crib having to be sawn through before the men who were trapped could be liberated, and, as shale and other material kept falling down the shaft, the lives of all the rescuers were in danger. The further task of extricating the dead man had to be abandoned until the pit had been made more safe. Cannon was engaged in the work of rescue for six hours and Silkstone for about half an hour. Artis, after assisting for two hours, was struck by a piece of shale and had to return to the surface. Asquith and Pickersgill were also in the pit for a long time and risked their lives, the former being hurt by debris.
BURIAL LOCATION: ALL SAINTS CHURCHYARD, NORMANTON, YORKSHIRE.
Section A Row 2 Space 15 (unmarked).
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
