Last updated 09:48, Thursday, 15 May 2008

Brian Parnaby salutes a hero of the Wellington Pit disaster who went on to die at the Somme six years later

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FOR COURAGE: The Edward medal awarded to miners.

ROBERT Curwen Richmond Blair, scion of a branch of the wealthy Richmond family, was one of a team of rescuers awarded the Edward Medal for his rescue attempts on May 11 1910 – 98 years ago this week – following the explosion at the Wellington Pit disaster.

Six years later, he was to die at the first battle of the Somme.

The son of John and Nina Blair, he was born in about 1879, probably in Whitehaven, to a family which had strong business links to Whitehaven.

Captain Blair was already a much respected local figure in Whitehaven because of his brave rescue work during the 1910 disaster which claimed the lives of 137 miners – men and boys. It was the worst tragedy ever in the history of mining in West Cumberland.

Blair – an engineer and assistant manager at the pit – was one of 14 men listed by the London Gazette as receiving the Albert Medal (later renamed the Edward Medal) for their rescue attempts.

The men were William Ball, shiftman; Thomas Banks, under-manager (Moresby Colliery); John Batty, overman; Daniel Benn, rope splicer; Thomas Birkett, collier; Samuel Birnie, deputy; Robert Richmond Blair; William Campbell, deputy; William Cannon, deputy; James Coulthard, deputy; Joseph Cowan, pitman; David Devine, deputy; Thomas Donald, pitman; and James Dunlop, master wasteman.

All these men received the Edward Medal, Second Class (it got its original name after Queen Victoria’s Consort, Prince Albert, and subsequently changed when Edward VII became King).

Following the explosion and initial exploratory work to ascertain the extent of the disaster underground, it was realised that there were no apparent survivors. The Chief Inspector of Mines, Mr J.B. Atkinson, gave orders to build a 2ft thick ‘stopping’ in the main roadway, in an attempt to starve the still blazing underground fire of oxygen.

This was done despite furious objections from the crowd of waiting relatives and miners. On the Sunday after the accident, a party of seven men entered the mine via the return airway, intending to reach the source of the fire. This party included the mine manager, Mr Steel, Robert Blair, Mr Henry, the under-manager, and Mr Thorn of the Sheffield Mining Company, an experienced mine rescuer.

These four men, all wearing breathing apparatus, passed through doors separating the ‘intake’ from the ‘outtake’ but had travelled only about 200 yards when their canary fell from its perch. Shortly afterwards their safety lamps went out and were discarded.

Even then this exploratory party continued until the heat became so intense that they could not even see their electric lamps for the smoke. Having travelled to within 400 yards of the fire, it became physically impossible to continue and the party came to the conclusion that no-one could possibly have survived the explosion and fire.

CAPTAIN Blair’s connection with the Armed Forces had begun two years before the pit disaster, on June 26 1908, when he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the 5th Battalion of the Border Regiment.

The 5th (Cumberland) Battalion was one of the Regiment’s two Territorial battalions, with its headquarters in Workington and companies and detachments in Aspatria, Cockermouth, Egremont, Frizington, Whitehaven, Wigton and Workington.

Blair was promoted to Lieutenant on November 24 1909. It is likely that there was a break in his service in the Territorial Army for some time between then and the outbreak of the Great War as his name does not appear in the 1914 Army List.

At 6pm on August 4 1914, the order to mobilise was received at the Headquarters of the 5th Battalion at Workington. The following evening the Battalion left for its war station at Barrow and sailed for France on the SS Manchester Engineer on October 26, 1914.

The Battalion’s strength was 30 officers and 878 non-commissioned officers and men. Among the eight Captains was Capt Blair who commanded ‘A’ Company, so he had obviously mobilised or been recalled to the Colours immediately after the start of the war, and, in the interim, had been promoted on August 26 1914.

Once in France the Battalion was attached to the Lines of Communication and remained there for some time, escorting some 2,000 German prisoners coming down from the front en route to prisoner of war camps in England and carrying out guard and fatigue duties at the Camp.

In April 1915, the Battalion was concentrated at Arques for extensive training, obviously in preparation for duty on the front line. Sardonic humorists described the training as “getting ready for the slaughter”, a phrase which would prove prophetic.

On May 5 it left Arques for Droglandt, to join the 149th Infantry Brigade, and from there was sent to Brandhoek, apparently to support French troops. Here the Battalion had its baptism of fire, as it caught its first sight of bursting shells and came under German shellfire on the following day, without casualties.

On May 13, the Battalion moved into huts one mile to the west of Ypres (or ‘Wipers’ as it soon became known throughout the British Army). The next day instructions were issued that the 149th Brigade had been placed at the disposal of the GOC (General Officer Commanding) 4th Division, and that its battalions were to be separately attached to different Brigades within that Division.

(Basically, a Battalion forms part of a Brigade, a Brigade forms part of a Division, a Division forms part of a Corps and a Corps forms part of an Army. The British Army per se therefore contains a number of Armies, not just a single entity.)

Four companies including Blair’s ‘A’ Company became attached to the 10th Brigade and, for almost a fortnight they remained in reserve, out of the trenches, at Busseboom. Meanwhile, the other four Companies of the 5th Battalion had been transferred to the Royal Warwickshires, the Seaforth Highlanders, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and the Royal Irish Fusiliers.

Those latter Companies suffered heavily in the trenches when, on the morning of May 24, the Germans attacked them, using poison gas and causing numerous casualties. They were repulsed, but with severe losses to the Battalion.

By May 28, when the four Companies of the Battalion were relieved, one officer and eighteen other ranks had been killed; three officers and 113 NCOs and men had been wounded; 90 men were suffering (some severely) from gas poisoning; and one man was missing.

Following a period of relative quiet out of the trenches for ‘A’ and its fellow Companies, the situation changed suddenly when they were moved into positions for the defence of Hooge. On June 11 the four Companies had their first real taste of severe fighting. The 149th Brigade co-operated with the 3rd Division to the west and south west of the château of Hooge where the enemy had formed a salient which the British wanted to flatten out. On June 16 British artillery bombarded the enemy line from 2.50am to 4.15am and immediately followed up with an attack on the German line by the 3rd Division. 149th Brigade was directed to seize any opportunity to take the offensive and improve the situation around Hooge.

In one engagement, an officer and a corporal of the Royal Engineers were machine-gunned by the enemy while crossing open ground in the rear of the British lines. The officer was killed immediately and the corporal wounded. Witnessing this, Capt Blair and No. 1194 Private Mossop (a good old West Cumbrian name) of ‘A’ Company at once went out and brought both men into the cover of a ditch, while under sustained fire from enemy machine-guns.

On the evening of the 16th the Battalion was withdrawn. The casualties during the week from June 11-18 numbered 43 – one officer killed and six other ranks killed or died of wounds; two officers and 34 other ranks wounded.

By June 21 the Battalion had returned to its old Brigade and, on the same day, it was directed to form part of the Second Army Corps, commanded by General Sir Charles Ferguson.

For more than three weeks it was involved only in routine work in the trenches and temporarily out of action, although there was the usual crop of casualties caused by intermittent shelling. An additional 12 officers were posted to the Battalion during this period, and one was wounded in the first week.

A period of respite then followed, lasting until the end of August. The Battalion had acquitted itself well in its initial exposure to enemy action, especially so as it was a Territorial unit.

Towards the end of this ‘rest’ period out of the front line, rumours spread through the battalion of the imminent prospect of further action. An order came down from Brigade HQ stating that ‘in the event of the wind not being favourable tomorrow morning” – September 24 – “the bombardment will start at 5am without the smoke” (bales were set alight to create smoke to mask the troops’ activities – see below). This order was followed by a message from GHQ: “Chief wishes troops to be informed that he feels confident they will realize how much our success in the following operations depends upon the individual efforts of each officer, non-commissioned officer and man. He wishes this to be conveyed to them verbally and in such a manner as not to disclose our intentions to the enemy.”

Captain Blair was officer in charge of Trench 77, which was under orders to create a demonstration against the enemy by igniting bales of straw soaked in water and paraffin, in front of the British trenches, to create dense smoke, thus cloaking the activities of the British troops. In addition smoke bombs were to be used.

This part of the attack programme was placed in the hands of Lt Adair; the sole purpose being to create the impression among the enemy that a gas attack was about to take place. The most important part of the British plan was to incite the Germans into stacking their trenches with men, while the purpose of the British was that, if the ploy succeeded, heavy artillery fire, supported by rifle and machine-gun fire from the British lines, would be deployed on the enemy’s trenches.

Unfortunately, the timing of the demonstration was postponed for an hour because of the wind direction. At 6am it was cancelled altogether; but the fires had by then been lit in some trenches and smoke was drifting across towards the enemy’s lines some 450 yards from the British trenches.

The smoke duly drifted well beyond the enemy’s trenches, eliminating any chances of the enemy being packed into their trenches and susceptible to sustained British artillery and small arms fire.

Patrols and bombing parties were sent out towards the German lines – a most hazardous occupation. On the night of September 27, one of these parties was led by Captain Blair, with Lance-Sergeants Tiffen and Graham, Lance Corporal Mossop (again), Privates Lofthouse, Ball, Coles, Walker, Harker, Rooney and Farish. Their objective was to bomb an enemy listening post. The patrol ambushed a German patrol and practically annihilated it, bringing in one of the dead for identification purposes – to confirm the identity of the unit the Borders were facing.

Captain Blair was recommended for a decoration. In due course the following statement appeared in the London Gazette of October 29 1915:

Award of the Distinguished Service Order, to Captain Robert Curwen Richmond Blair.

“For conspicuous gallantry on the night of 27th September 1915, at ARMENTIERES. He went out with a party of 10 to bomb the enemy’s trenches. Finding conditions unfavourable, the party lay down and waited about 50 yards from the enemy’s wire. Soon afterwards a party of 14 Germans were seen advancing towards them. Capt. BLAIR held his fire till they were 10 yards away when he shot four of them with his revolver. His party accounted for all the remainder except two and returned unscathed. Capt. BLAIR has constantly taken part in arduous and enterprising night work.”

There is a report that Capt Blair had been recommended for the Victoria Cross but there had been insufficient senior eye-witnesses to confirm his deeds (at least one officer of field rank, a Major or above, is required as a witness, to enable such a recommendation to be processed.

In July 1916, the 5th Battalion’s War Diary goes on to relate how Capt Blair met his end.

“5th July 1916: During night of 4th-5th, officers patrol went out... and reported no sign of enemy patrols, but sounds of work indicated great activity in the repair of the enemy trenches. Enemy snipers have shown more activity yesterday and today using dummies and devices for attracting attention, then firing persistently at our periscopes... Transport shelled at Vierstraat at 11.30pm (no casualties.)

“21st July 1916: Machine gun and rifle fire again persistent. A patrol under Captain R.C.R. BLAIR, DSO, went out from (point) D.5. and reach [sic] the German wire, but they could find no Gap.

“They returned about 1.45 a.m. owing to bright moonlight fearing that it would expose the patrol. Going out a few minutes later to point out a spot where some small repairs to our own wire could be made in a very little time, CAPT BLAIR was hit by a bullet and died two hours later without regaining consciousness. The loss of such a gallant officer is keenly felt throughout the battalion.”

The Divisional General, Major-General Wilkinson, and Brigadier-General Clifford, commanding 140th Infantry Brigade, to which the 5th Battalion was at that time attached, sent messages of condolence to Colonel Hedley. The Brigadier wrote: “I cannot tell you now distressed I am to hear that Captain Blair has been killed. There never was a more gallant Officer, and I know what the loss must be to you and your Battalion. Please convey to all ranks of your Battalion my deep(est) sympathy with them in their loss.”

The courage shown by all the officers and men in the trenches is remarkable. For long periods they had to endure hardship and extreme danger, night and day. The bravery required to go out on patrols towards the enemy lines, sometimes on consecutive nights, is a testament to their stoicism and endurance. It is hoped that such men were also decorated for their heroic deeds.

During the remainder of that year, the 5th Battalion was not engaged in any major operations and from October to December they spent long periods in the trenches and for shorter periods in divisional or reserve, or in rest or training areas further behind the front. On 20th December the battalion relocated to huts at Dickebusch, following its transfer to the 151st Brigade of the 50th Division, where it replaced the 5th Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. It took over trenches on the right of Hooge. It remained in the Dickebusch area, sustaining just a few casualties, though not as heavy as those of units in other parts of the front.

Although few casualties were sustained, the Battalion’s strength remained low as very few reinforcements arrived.

In the Spring of 1916, the 5th Battalion had been stationed near the town of La Clytte, alternately occupying the trenches or shelters in the rear. It suffered many casualties because of the activities of German snipers. The long-prepared for battle of the Somme had started on July 1 1916 – probably the most ferocious and catastrophic feat of arms to which the British Army had ever been exposed up to that time.