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Full Details

Surname
McKIRDY
Forename
Robert Kennedy
Day
23
Month
02
Year
1917
Age
Occupation
Drawer
Mine/Quarry Name
Bredisholm, No.2 Pit
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
United Collieries Ltd
Location
Bargeddie
County
Lanarkshire
Details of Event
23 February 1917: YOUNG MINER'S HEROISM. - SACRIFICED HIS LIFE FOR OTHERS. - Airdrie, Saturday. - An example of heroic self-sacrifice in a coal mine transpired in the Sheriff Court here during the hearing of a fatal accident inquiry before Sheriff Lee and a jury. The inquiry was as to the circumstances attending the death of Robert Kennedy M'Kirdy, a pit drawer, residing at Young's Land, Thorniewood, Nackerty, which occurred on 23d February in No.2 Pit, Bredisholm Colliery, of the United Collieries, Ltd. A pony driver named Neil Brown stated that the deceased was bringing a loaded hutch down an incline 280 feet long, and in putting a snibble into the wheels when the hutch was at the steepest part of the slope he had accidentally pushed the snibble too far through, with the result that it failed to check the hutch which immediately ran off down the incline. M'Kirdy, however, retained his hold of the hutch, and hung on by it in an attempt to guy it off the rails or have it stopped, in view of the fact that other men might be coming up the incline and would be run down and killed. The lad's efforts to do so were unavailing, and he himself was dragged down and dashed violently against the wall of the mine, his skull being fractured. At the close of the evidence the Sheriff, addressing the jury, said that this lad had realised the danger the runaway hutch would be to others. His Lordship thought it a brave thing that this lad had done, and he suggested that the jury might add to the ordinary verdict a recognition of his heroic conduct. The jury unanimously accepted the Sheriff's suggestion, and in addition to the formal finding to the cause of the lad's death they said they desired to express their appreciation of the conduct of the deceased, and regretted that such brave conduct should have led to his death. [Sunday Post 25 March 1917]