b. 16/03/1907 Ripley, Derbyshire. d. 21/07/1980 Winshill, Burton on Trent, Staffordshire.
DATE OF EM ACTION: 05/02/1934 Langwith Colliery, Derbyshire.
Douglas was the eldest of three sons born to Douglas Ormond and Irene Bishop, and he grew up at the Manor House in Ilkeston where his father worked as a colliery agent and manager. In 1933, Douglas married Clare Sudbury in Basford, Nottinghamshire, just prior to the Langwith Colliery incident which led to his Edward Medal. By the outbreak of WWII, he was a colliery manager living at The Villas in Langwith. They had three children. Douglas lived in Winshill, Burton on Trent in later life, where he died a widower in 1980. A claim has gone in to the Home Office for him to be recognised as a George Cross holder as he was still alive in 1971.
EM CITATION:
On the 5th February, 1934, a heavy fall of roof took place at a point in the workings at the Langwith Colliery, Derbyshire. A stallman was buried under the fallen material but was saved from fatal injury because he was beneath a girder, one end of which remained in position and the other on some of the fallen material. Mr. Bishop, who is the manager of the colliery, took charge of the rescue measures and undertook the most dangerous part of the work. He first raised one end of the girder with a coal-cutter’s jack and then (largely with his hands) scraped away the ground from the imprisoned man’s feet and hip. After a good deal of manoeuvring the stallman, whose left leg had been fractured, was released. The release took a considerable time and Mr. Bishop was exposed to great risk for an hour and a half. At any time a further fall-might have occurred which would have proved fatal to Mr. Bishop and the imprisoned man.
BURIAL LOCATION: ST MARK’S CHURCHYARD, WINSHILL, STAFFORDSHIRE.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
