Single Record

Full Details

Surname

FORRESTOR

Forename

Thomas

Day

05

Month

09

Year

1941

Age

40

Occupation

Stripper

Mine/Quarry Name

Michael

Mineral Worked

Coal

Owner

Wemyss Coal Co. Ltd

Location

East Wemyss

County

Fifeshire

Details of Event

5 September 1941: Widow Awarded Compensation - Husband's Death at Colliery - A Buckhaven widow and her two daughters have been successful in a claim for compensation raised in Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court against the Wemyss Coal Company. The claimants Mrs Charlotte Forrester, 89 West High Street Buckhaven, and her daughters, Cecilia and Isabella, sought an award under the Workman's Compensation Act, 1925, for the sum of £300 and also for £91 10s, being the total of the children's allowances result of the death of Thomas Forrester, claimants' husband and father. Sheriff-Substitute J. W. More, in his findings states that the deceased Thomas Forrester who was 40 years of age, and who died on September 5, 1941, in the Michael Colliery, East Wemyss, was employed by respondents as a stripper. On the morning of September 5, he was engaged first in "gumming," or shovelling small coal produced by coal-cutting machine and then, with the assistance of another workman, in building wooden pillars between the pavement and the roof to support the roof. Following upon this operation which did not call for any great exertion, deceased assisted, along with another workman and a lad of 16, in boring four shot holes in the coal face. This operation of boring did not call for as much exertion as other jobs to which the deceased was accustomed a stripper. Fell to the Ground. - Deceased having completed the operation came off the bench on which he was working, and about three minutes thereafter complained that "Something had burst about the left side of his chest." He walked about three yards, fell to the ground, and died shortly after, his death occurring ten to twelve minutes after he stopped the boring operations. Sheriff More goes on to state that a post-mortem examination revealed Forrester had suffered from atheroma of the coronary arteries of the heart for considerable time. Coronary atheroma is a heart condition whereby the coronary arteries which supply the blood to the heart muscles become thickened and their passage narrowed with the result that the blood supply is restricted. The heart, so affected, is limited in its capacity, and when called upon to act beyond its capacity, by reason of any extra strain, physical or even emotional, it unable to bear the strain and heart failure occurs. Coronary atheroma cannot be diagnosed unless the patient manifest symptoms such as angina pectoris or breathlessness after exertion. Forrester had never complained of heart trouble prior to the date of his death. Adding that the work in which deceased was engaged in on that occasion contributed to his death, Sheriff More finds that death resulted from injury by accident arising out his employment, and that the claimants, having been totally dependent on deceased are entitled to an award of compensation. His Lordship ordains the respondents to pay the sums claimed, and finds claimants entitled to expenses. Unusually Early Age - In a note Sheriff More remarks that deceased was a man of 40 years of age, and it was agreed by the medical witnesses that this was an unusually early age at which find an atheromatous condition. It was also agreed that, sooner or later, this condition would produce a condition of heart failure followed by death, and it was stressed in evidence by medical witnesses for the respondents that it was just as probable that this heart failure would occur when deceased was at rest, or even in his bed as when he was engaged in his normal work which entailed considerable amount of physical exertion. "As I read the evidence of these witnesses however," comments Sheriff More, "they are not prepared to say that if the deceased had not gone to his work as usual on September 5, but had stayed at home doing nothing, that he would have died of sudden heart failure on that day. Looking at the medical evidence as a whole I think the inference is irresistible that the work which he was engaged in immediately before his death gave a sufficient impetus to his atheromatous condition to produce failure from which he died." For the claimants—Mr R. W. Currie, solicitor Dunfermline; for the respondents – Mr J. Hyslop for Mr A. Ferguson, solicitor, Dunfermline. [Evening Telegraph 3 April 1942]