[Rowlf]

My Grandfather was the President of Accrington & District Miners Federation and was the first ordinary miner to sit on the National Executive of the Miners Federation. He took over as president from his father. He worked tirelessly for the miners arguing for better pay and conditions for them. He never worked at Huncoat pit although that was where he lived. He worked at Altham and got them pit head baths but because he had fought so hard for them they moved him to Scaithcliffe and he never got to use them himself. He had been to Edinburgh to the TUC Comference the week before he died. He died of a heart attack down Scaithcliffe just as he finished his shift. He was only 40yrs old. He was very well respected as the page long report of his funeral in the Observer testifies. That was in 1934. My dad always said if it was up to him they would sell coal like boiled ham at so much a quarter as it was so hard to get it.