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Details of Event: 17 August 1940: FATALITIES AT COLLIERY - Fatality in the Wellesley Colliery, Denbeath, were the subject of inquiry at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to-day by Sheriff- Principal J. R. Wardlaw Burnet, K.C. Donald M’Donald, miner, 39 Ossian Crescent, Methil, died in Wemyss Memorial Hospital on August 17 from injuries received the previous day when he was crushed between hutch and a girder in the roof of his working-place. The inquiries were conducted by Mr R.S. Henderson, procurator-fiscal. Giving evidence in the M'Donald case, John Gillon, 48 Forth Street, Denbeath, explained that M'Donald was employed as a clipper. His duties were to accompany a race of hutches and guide them along rails. He had been standing in one section when he saw M'Donald's light approach. The light suddenly disappeared, and when he went forward to see what had happened he found M'Donald sitting by the side of the haulage road. Gillon sent for assistance. M'Donald told him that he had been putting his weight on to where the foremost hutch was attached to the haulage rope. The rope had given a jerk, he had fallen over the clip, and the hutch had come up and thrown him against the girders, which were only two feet above the hutches. Evidence was also given by John Richmond, 411 Wellesley Road, Methil, and Alan Hunter, 535 Wellesley, Road, Methil. A formal verdict was returned. [Evening Telegraph 27 September 1940]