Haunted by pit tragedy

A PIT disaster immortalised for the "Angel of mercy" will be  remembered by one man as the day he never had time to say goodbye to his dad.

Phil Smith always regretted not making up with his dad after a minor fall out before he was killed inn the tragedy

But now, 43 years on, Phil has made amends by writing a moving personal account of the Silverwood Colliery "paddy train" tragedy that claimed nine lives in February 1966.

The "Angel" was the name one reporter gave to a nurse, colliery sister Diane Adsetts, who tended the injured underground "...her face blackened with coal dust and her pink nail varnish chipped."

One of the ten miners to die was Phil's father George Pugh Smith, aged 55.

Since that fateful day Phil (62), 18 at the time, has regretted not being able to make up with his dad after a trivial argument over a crossword the night before.

He said: "Having had enough of my 18-year-old 'I know it all arrogance' he rose from his chair, uttering what would be his last words to me: 'I'm going to bed, you know everything.'

"I found out later that, compared to him, I knew very little."

Phil poignantly describes how after his dad was missing the family's worst fears were confirmed when he looked through a "cracked dirty window" to an office at where a roll call was being carried out.

Phil, one of six children from Bramley whose twin brother Ron and three uncles worked at the pit, writes: "On peering through I could see a man seated at the desk. In front of him was the list of men down the pit.

"When men passed him and handed over their chits he crossed off their names.

"The first name I could see not crossed off was that of the man rumoured to be dead.

"The very next name under it was my dad's"