Story
Samuel was born on 29th August 1879 in Somercotes, Derbyshire, and was the son of John Godber (1850-1900) and Sarah Ramsden (1858-1934) who married in 1873. Samuel was their third son. The family moved to Micklefield around 1885, and John was a coal miner.
On the day of the disaster, the Godbers were living at 44 Crescent, Micklefield and Samuel set off for work at 6:40am. His father was not working that day, but his uncle Josiah Godber, who was also the village Postmaster, was mining. Samuel was 16 years-old, and was a Pony Driver in the Beeston Bed. He was not found with a pony, so either hadn’t collected it from the stable, or it had bolted free when the explosion occurred and is likely to have been the pony found alive near William Naylor Whitaker. Samuel had been walking along the East Level, and would have passed his Deputy James Shillito. He was about 280 metres from the Main Shaft when the disaster occurred. The explosion gathered intensity in the West Level, before devastating the Main Shaft. The explosion continued travelling into the East Level and up the No.1 Rise Bord, where it caused the most damage. The force of the blast was so strong it decapitated James Shillito, and Samuel, who was around 180 metres from his deputy, was killed in the fire.
The extent of Samuel’s injuries can be seen from the diary entry of Robert Routledge who discovered him. He and three men “proceeded to explore the East level. Here I found a deputy by name Shillito who had been killed 100 yards from the bottom. He was lying on his back face inbye. Then going forward found another man named Gorbury [Godber], also dead. This man was lying with his head in-bye, nothing on but boots and part of his singlet badly burnt.”
One of the three other men in the search party may have been Samuel’s father, John, according to the family. Samuel was the first deceased miner to be removed from the pit, at 3am on 1st May. He was identified in the Joiner’s shop by his father John at 10am, who confirmed that his son’s face had been burnt. John passed away 4 years later at the age of 50. His brother Josiah survived the disaster. Newspapers reported that Samuel was a descendant of the well-known Blacksmith and local Preacher Sammy Hick (1758-1829). He was the second youngest victim of the disaster, behind Fred Benson, who was 14 years of age.
After the death of her husband in 1900, Sarah Godber re-married a coal miner, William Wadsworth from Brotherton in 1902, and moved to Leeds. She passed away in Allerton Bywater in 1934. Her younger sister Mary Jane Ramsden was married to one of the rescuers, William Honniball. Samuel’s oldest brother Joseph emigrated to America in 1922, and passed away in Seattle at the age of 81.
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 