Story
William was born in Aberford in 1862, and baptised there on 10th September 1862. He was the eldest of nine children born to Joseph Wilson (1827-1896) and Mary Nettleton (1840-1927), who married on 4th May 1861 in Sherburn. William started working with his father as a coal miner in the Beeston Bed at Peckfield Colliery in 1880. On 24th January 1885, William married Ada Lowe in Leeds. Ada was born in Leeds, but the couple returned to Aberford, and went on to have six children: Lily, Joe, George Edwin, Daisy, Gertrude and Jane.
With a family of his own, William did not live with his parents, but they all lived on Aberford Main Street, and usually William would have accompanied his father to work, but on 30th April 1896, it was a laik day and William had the day off, and Joseph, who was 59 years-old, walked the four miles to work, then walked a further mile to his place in the pit, which was 120 metres away from Goodall’s Gate where the explosion happened. Joseph was not killed by the blast, but was trapped by roof falls, and unable to escape, he died from afterdamp poisoning alongside David Shillito, Samuel James, and George Daniel Edwin Taylor.
On Friday 1st May, William Wilson accompanied Robert Routledge’s rescue party at 12:30 in the afternoon. They headed down No.4 Dip, and found the bodies of Amos Whitaker, Thomas Oakley, Elias Clark, Walter and Joseph Jackson, and William David Wilks. The following day, as part of the same party, William headed towards his father’s place of work. They came to within 80 metres of finding Joseph, before the gas forced them to retreat, having recovered the body of Edward Goodall. After recovering at the surface, they re-entered the mine. Another party was heading towards New North Road, so they headed in the opposite direction to the No.3 South Bord, where William discovered William Naylor Whitaker, who was still alive. They quickly headed back to the pit bottom and Whitaker was brought out of the pit alive, to great excitement. It was at this moment, when hopes had been raised, that William saw the dead body of his father at the pit bottom, which had been recovered by the other rescue party. The miner rescued by William also passed away at Leeds General Infirmary. William later formally identified his father’s body at the Inquest, and said his father’s appearance was quite natural.
William passed away in 1926, the same year as his wife Ada. William’s eldest daughter Lily (1891-1965) married John Thomas Connell on 11th November 1911, who also worked at Peckfield Colliery for over 50 years. On 17th November 1961, Lily and John were pictured in the Leeds Skyrack Express, celebrating their Golden wedding (below), and the article mentioned that Lily’s grandfather (Joseph Wilson) had been killed in the Peckfield Colliery Disaster:
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 