Two years ago I wrote this in my private blog:
Once upon a time there was a little girl called Elizabeth. Elizabeth lived in Glasgow at a time when many blue collar workers lived with their extended family, and she thought she was very lucky to live not just with her Mummy, Daddy and little brother but also with her Granny, Uncles and cousins too. Elizabeth was a very good little girl and was very helpful around the house. She did very well at school and very rarely missed a day.
Then, one day Elizabeth wasn’t feeling well. She was so ill that she had to miss school and her Daddy volunteered to stay home to look after her. Elizabeth was eight years old and she was a big girl who could look after herself, so she told her Daddy that the other men at work needed him too and that he should go to work and he could look after her when he got home.
Except Elizabeth’s Daddy never came home. Along with 46 other men, Elizabeth’s Daddy died in the Auchengeich mining disaster on September 18th 1959. A fire, started by a faulty fan which was used to purify the air in the pit, trapped the men in bogies on their way to the coal face. Despite being only a few hundred yards away from safety only one of the men came back out the pit alive. Rescue attempts failed due to the severity of the fire and the decision was made by the Scottish coal board to flood the pit to put out the fire despite none of the men being recovered. Alexander Sharp was only 34 years old and left behind a wife and two young children.
Elizabeth grew up and had two sons of her own with her husband William. Her younger son has a son of his own, making Elizabeth a granny and her little grandson has been the apple of her eye since the moment he was born. His name is Findlay and he is my son.
Bob has just linked me to this BBC news page. The memorial to these miners – which was only unveiled two months ago – has been stolen. Someone, somewhere knows what has happened to this statue and knowing how small Glasgow really is I’m imploring anyone reading this who might have information to do the right thing.
What kind of person would steal a memorial?! Why am I so naive to be shocked when things like this happen?
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This post was written by Vonnie on November 19, 2009
I heard that on the radio earlier and thought of you. It’s shocking.
Good grief. Words fail me. Why do people do such shitty things?
What a moving story – I didn’t know about this part of our history. And I can’t begin to imagine how Elizabeth must have felt…
Words fail me – what a despicable thing to do!!
I remember seeing this the first time you wrote it. It’s absolutely horrendous that someone could do something like this. I hope it is returned to it’s rightful place soon.
That’s a really disgusting thing to do! I hope it gets found and returned quickly.