Philip Yates

[1] He left Counden Church School in Bishop Auckland at the age of 13 to work as an undertaker's assistant, in 1927 he became a coal miner.

[1] On 24 November 1931 there was a huge underground explosion at Bentley Colliery near Doncaster, Yorkshire, caused by firedamp, of the 47 miners working at the coal face 45 were to die, some later.

His engine was in a recess close to the coalface where the explosion occurred, but escaped because two ventilation doors in front of him took the force of the blast; even his lamp remained alight.

Yates with his colleagues Richard Darker, Oliver Soulsby and Frank Sykes, went to the area of the explosion and without regard to the dangers they extricated the injured miners and moved them to safety, this involved carrying them two miles underground to the main shaft, they were under constant danger of more explosions.

Yates retired to South Yorkshire with his wife and two children and in 1987 he became the last survivor of those awarded the George Cross in the disaster.