<\/p>
Two factors in Marion Nash\u2019s life prompted her to start her family tree<\/a> \u2013 the birth of her grandson Tim, and the advent of the worldwide web: \u201cSuddenly I felt a need to find out more about my family.\u201d<\/p> \u201cMy grandmother Marion McCabe lived in the Stanrigg and Airdrie areas of North Lanarkshire in Scotland<\/a>,\u201d she continues. \u201cI began researching the McCabes there, and found a book in Airdrie Library about a disaster at a coal mine that mentioned the surname.\u201d<\/p> The book also revealed that Marion\u2019s distant cousin John McCabe had performed an act of heroism. Naturally, she began researching him. He was born on 6 December 1901 at Longriggend, just a few miles from Stanrigg.<\/p> When John left school he became a miner<\/a>, like his father Joseph. He worked at the Stanrigg and Arbuckle Pit with his brothers Thomas and Joseph junior.\u00a0<\/p> On the morning of 9 July 1918, the weather was dreadful. It had rained heavily for two weeks and the mossy ground covering the pit was sodden, making it unstable.<\/p> John, Thomas and Joseph junior assembled for the 6.45am shift with 70 other men working the \u2018Humph\u2019 and \u2018Virgin\u2019 seams. John was a drawer, which involved pulling heavy carts of coal to collection points.<\/p> After 10am, there was a breach in the clay roof and black, heavy liquefied moss flooded in towards the Humph seam. At 10.30am, John had reached the bottom of Number 3 pit with a full load of coal. He would have heard the dreaded cry \u201cMoss, moss, moss\u201d, alerting him to danger. The three men and two boys with him escaped up the shaft.\u00a0<\/p> Black, heavy liquefied moss flooded in towards the seam<\/p><\/blockquote> \u201cJohn, who was only 16, knew that other miners, including his brothers at the Virgin seam, had not been warned. They would be suffocated by the moss.<\/p> \u201cHe raced a quarter of a mile down the dark, low passages towards the coalface. He could have been killed at any moment.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cJohn managed to reach his brothers and the 48 men working alongside them, and they all escaped up another shaft.\u201d<\/p> It was later confirmed that 19 men and boys at the Humph seam had been trapped and died.<\/p> \u201cAt the inquest John was asked, \u2018Could you have gone up the pit, if you liked?\u2019 John replied, \u2018Yes, but I thought it better to go to the face to fetch the men out.\u2019 The courtroom burst into applause.\u201d<\/p> Marion was thrilled to discover that John received a citation to appear before George V to be presented with the Edward Medal, bestowed upon miners and quarrymen who endangered their lives to save others. John was among its youngest recipients.<\/p> \u201cLater, John\u2019s Edward Medal was replaced by the George Cross<\/a> at his own request.\u201d<\/p> Despite his experiences, John returned to work as a miner. \u201cHe married Annie Dowdalls and they had a family. I was delighted to discover that he lived until 1974.<\/p> \u201cI read of John\u2019s bravery with love and admiration in my heart for a boy who so treasured his family that he didn\u2019t think of his own safety. His impulse saved many lives that day.\u201d<\/p>