b. 25/08/1880 Chester le Street, Durham. d. ? 1966 Durham Northern.
DATE OF EM ACTION: 28/06/1932 Pelton Colliery, Pelton Fell, Durham.
David was born on 25th August 1880, the fourth of seven children born to John and Margaret York. His father was a coal miner who worked at the Pelton Colliery, near Chester le Street. Due to tough financial conditions for the family, David became a miner from a young age, beginning as a hewer before becoming a master shifter. He married Marion, and living for the rest of his life in and around Chester le Street. He died in 1966, aged 85.
EM CITATION:
On the 28th June, 1932, a cage with four men on board was descending a shaft at Pelton Colliery, Pelton Fell, Durham, when, just after leaving a platform at a seam seventy-six yards above the pit bottom, a corner of the cage caught a girder supporting the platform and the cage remained suspended about 7½ feet below the platform. Realising the serious danger that any movement of the cage might send it crashing to the pit bottom, York, a Master Shifter, volunteered to try to obtain assistance. He climbed out of the cage into the shaft, and although he had only a few inches of clearance in which to work and although his only hand or foot hold was a two-inch pipe, he succeeded in squeezing himself between the cage and the girder and reaching the platform. After telephoning for assistance he returned to the shaft, gave warning to the engine man to stop winding, and attempted to make the cage secure. He succeeded in attaching a cable to the cage chains, but before he was able to anchor it the cage fell to the shaft bottom, the other three occupants of the cage being killed.
BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
