b. 21/07/1876 Durham. d. 23/03/1947 9 Bridge Gardens, East Molesey, Surrey.
DATE OF EM ACTION: 29/09/1930 Hedley Pit, South Moor, County Durham.
Walter R Scott EM
Walter was the eldest son, and the second of nine children born to John and Eleanor Scott (nee Simpson) and he was born on 21st July 1876 in Durham. Part of his childhood was spent in South Africa where his father was working. His youngest sister and brother were both born there. Walter became a mining engineer and in 1901, following their return from South Africa, he married Ethel Maude Wardle Fairley in Craghead, Durham. Walter and Ethel would have five daughters born between 1903 and 1913. Walter eventually was promoted to Colliery Manager, and became the manager of Hedley Pit, in South Moor, County Durham. Following the award of the Edward Medal for his actions on 29th September 1930, he remained as the colliery manager, and he and Ethel lived in Stanley at a property called The Limes. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Walter retired to Surrey, where he and Ethel lived in East Molesley. Ethel passed away in 1942 in Battersea, London, and Walter lived the last five years of his life alone. He died on 23rd March 1947 at 9 Bridge Gardens, East Molesey, aged 70.
EM CITATION:
On the 29th September, 1930, a fall of roof occurred in the Hedley Pit, South Moor, County Durham, partially burying a hewer, Frederick Beaumont. A chargeman, Victor King, was the first to come to the rescue. He found that a small passage-way remained open by which the buried man might be reached and, with the assistance of his son Richard and John George Tarn, be immediately built two chocks of timber to keep it open. The passage was seven yards long and about two feet square and the only practicable method of rescue wasfor three men to crawl along the passage-way and lie full length, two in the passage-way and one over Beaumont’s body, and pass back, one at a time, the stones that were pinning him down.
This perilous and arduous work was carried on for nine hours by a team of miners (including Victor King) working in relays under the direction of the manager (Walter Robert Scott) and the under-manager (Robert Reed) until at last Beaumont was released, shaken but otherwise uninjured. During the whole nine hours the roof was shifting and “trickling” and on four occasions Beaumont was almost freed when a further fall buried him again. At one time the danger of a further fall appeared so great that the manager telephoned for a doctor (Dr. Charles James Brookfield Fox) to come to the pit to amputate Beaumont’s leg and so expedite his release. Fortunately — as it turned out — the doctor found it impossible to amputate in the restricted area in which Beaumont was confined, but he remained on the scene until Beaumont was rescued and examined and treated him before sending him to the surface. Shortly after Beaumont was extricated the whole of the tunnel collapsed.
BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
