Story
Brothers Robert, Brian and George Pawson were sons of an agricultural labourer John Pawson (1825-1865) and Mary Pratt (1932-1917), who married in 1853. After the death of her husband, Mary re-married William Thompson in 1873.
The brothers were born in Walton, Boston Spa. Robert Pawson (1859-1939) was initially a Platelayer on railways, and lived in Newthorpe, before he became a coal miner at Peckfield Colliery. He married Sarah Gibson (1865-1933) in Hunslet on 9th February 1889, and they later moved to Sherburn-in-Elmet. Brian Pawson was born on 5th September 1861 and was the first of the brothers to become a coal miner at Peckfield Colliery. He lived at 11 New Row, 11 West View and finally 11 Bland’s Row. Brian Pawson married Sarah Emily Plumb (1861-1928) in 1887, and became a Colliery Deputy. He was killed on 12th July 1940 at the Bland’s Railway Crossing on the London & North Eastern Railway, at Micklefield. George Pawson was born 7th April 1864 (pictured below).
George was initially a servant at Scott House Farm, South Milford, before becoming a coal miner at Peckfield Colliery. He married Susan Tingle (1869-1933) in Castleford on 16th February 1895, and on 28th September 1895, they had their first daughter Emily Pawson. Emily married George Braithwaite in 1924, and 11 years before her death in 1982, she sent Samuel Cheesbrough the following letter, and enclosed a letter she had received from John Charles Ball who survived the Peckfield Colliery disaster, which details how her family were involved in the Colliery Disaster. Her father George went to live in Castleford with another of his married daughters Mary Carr (1901-1992), before he passed away in 1944:
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 