Story
William was born out of wedlock in 1856. His mother was Mary Whitaker, who married John Naylor on 7th September 1858 in Sherburn. As was common practice, William was given his father’s surname as his middle name to denote his father. Mary’s parents were Joseph Whitaker (1797-1858) and Jane Crosthwaite (1808-1880), who played an important role in raising William. Mary’s niece Selina Whitaker (1851-1920) married James Shillito who was killed in the Colliery Disaster. In 1871, William was living with his uncle Joseph Whitaker, and his grandmother Jane.
On 12th April 1884, William was acquitted of having a child out of wedlock himself. He was described as having a small blue cut on his forehead, and a cut on the end of his chin. He married Elizabeth Hannah Hodgson in 1885, and the couple lived with his uncle Joseph at 20 Blands Row. William was known as ‘Long Bill’ as he was 5 feet 11 inches tall. He had one child, and was Secretary of the local brass band and was heavily involved in charity fund raising.
On 30th April 1896, William set off on the short distance to work with his uncle Joseph. At the pit bottom, he met up with George William Benson, and they set off down the South Bords towards the Machine Face where they were working. They were 1,300 metres away from the explosion, and were the furthest away of any of the miners in the Beeston Bed. William and George left the Machine Face and headed back to No.3 South Bord. Although the explosion did not reach them, the Beeston Bed quickly filled with after damp gas. William crawled into the best area of ventilation and waited in hope to be rescued. George William Benson was with him but died at his feet. Thursday passed. On Friday night, William was almost found by an engineer and John Parkin, but afterdamp gas remained strong in the area, and the rescuers were forced to leave the mine before they could search No.3 South Bord. William was found on Saturday 2nd May by William Wilson, a rescuer who had worked in the Beeston Bed for 16 years, but had Thursday off. He found Whitaker crouched up in a corner of the workings, with his pipe firmly clenched in his hand. His only injury was a burn on his chin, which was caused as he fell unconscious against his miner’s lamp. William was brought out alive at 2:30pm to great excitement. When his elated rescuer William Wilson reached the pit bottom to send William Naylor Whitaker out of the pit, he saw the body of his own father, Joseph Wilson, who had been brought from the New North Road, and was waiting to be taken to the Joiner’s shop where the dead bodies were being laid out.
When William Naylor Whitaker was brought out alive, the Mining engineer Henry Slade Childe came running out and entered the temporary hospital with the news. Mr Childe won a bet he had made that a man would still be found alive. William was brought in on a stretcher and the doctors, Sydney Griesbach and John Scott Haldane, pumped compressed oxygen into him, and forced some brandy into him. William was unable to speak, but could just wearily move from side to side, roll his eyes, and frequently moan. The Chief Inspector of Mines, Frank Newby Wardell asked him: “How do you feel?”, but William could only look with gratitude at his rescuers.
A young boy known to William was asked to greet him, so shouted “Hullo, Bill” loudly. A bystander reported seeing a shade of recognition pass over William’s face, and he seemed to do well and respond to the treatment. At 4:10pm, William was put on the express train from Hull, and conveyed to Leeds General Infirmary, accompanied by Dr Sydney Griesbach, who stated that William’s “system was so impregnated with the poison that its elimination might be a somewhat slow process”, and he thought that if he recovered consciousness in a week, William should be considered to have done very well. However, William died at 10pm on Sunday 3rd May in the Leeds General Infirmary. William was the only one of the 63 victims of the disaster not to be identified at Micklefield. There was an inquest at Leeds for William, in which he was identified by Oliver Hodgson, of Half Acres, Castleford, who was his brother-in-law. William’s uncle Joseph Whitaker was also killed in the disaster. William’s rescue and subsequent death received widespread press coverage:
“Just when the exploring party and Micklefield had abandoned the hope of recovering any of the entombed miners alive, a surprise was sprung upon the gallant band in the finding of a man alive in the workings after having been entombed for 54 hours. He was found in what is known as the Swilley on the east side. At first the rescuers thought the man was dead, but he turned back his eyes and breathed. He was so weak, however, as to be unable to take stimulants, and he was removed with all speed to Leeds Infirmary, which was reached about 5 o’clock on Saturday evening.
One of the rescuing party in the course of an interview, says the man, whose name is William Naylor Whitaker, was found about half a mile distant from the shaft. He was heard moaning faintly, and was sitting against the wall near a gate, a place in which the men are in the habit of sitting. He was entirely unconscious, with a wound across his chin. Two more men not far off were both dead, but a pony not far away was alive. One of the men seemed as if he had been trying to reach the place where Whitaker was when the damp overpowered him. Whitaker had his pipe in his hand, tightly grasping it, when discovered, and his preservation is regarded on all sides as most wonderful. Mr. Wardell, Chief Inspector of Mines, does not think there is a possibility of anyone else being brought out alive.
The man rescued alive on Saturday, at Micklefield Colliery, and who was subsequently removed to Leeds infirmary, was on Sunday, reported to have made very fair progress, and the doctors have hopes that he will, with the special treatment he is undergoing, ultimately recover. His injuries are slight and consist of little more than a damaged chin. What he suffers from are the affects of gas poisoning.”
After losing both wage earners, William’s widow Elizabeth remarried later in the same year, to Zachariah Davis, from Wolverhampton who had been living in South Milford. By 1901, Elizabeth put herself down as a “widow” on the Census, and had left Micklefield. She was living with her widowed mother Mary in Whitwood, and her sister Ellen Thompson. However, her husband Zachariah was still living in Pontefract, so the marriage must not have worked, and they simply separated.
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 