Stanley Boyd Roberts and Ralph William Askew

 

I never knew my grandfathers. Stanley Boyd Roberts died on 12th January 1937. My post of the 6th November 2009 describes his life. The last paragraph reads: 

 For the last six and a half years of his life, he was the conductor of the Sheffield Orpheus Male Voice Choir, and was involved in the Philharmonic Society. In 1936, he became organist and choirmaster at St Mathew's Church, Sheffield. Shortly before he died, he accompanied the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus in an arduous rehearsal of Berlioz's Te Deum. He died suddenly of pneumonia on 12 January 1937 at his home at 88 Ashdell Road in Sheffield. He was 47.

The photo above may be Stanley.

My other grandfather was Ralph William Askew. He was born on the 3rd August 1895 and died on the 13th April 1945 at the age of 49, just four months after I was born. I wrote about Ralph's history on my post of the 2nd November 2009. What prompted me to write this post was reading about a  new book called Black Gold by Jeremy Paxman, all about how coal made Britain. Ralph was a soldier during the first world war but joined his father and brothers at the pit after the war. He, like many others, sustained an injury, and received a small compensation. He married Edith Agnes Leather, my grandmother, in 1921. On his death certificate it says Ralph died of  a respiratory obstruction that led to a cardiac arrest. 

After Ralph died, Edith remarried. (See post of 4th February 2011).Her new husband was Harry Frost, He also had been a miner and had lost an arm in an accident at the pit. I remember him putting on his false arm when he went out. Except in the photo below.

So one grandfather and one step-grandfather, both being injured down the mine. I will definitely read Black Gold at some later date. Both my paternal and maternal grandfathers died in their forties. However, both their fathers lived to a ripe old age. Stanley's father Vincent Littlewood Roberts lived until he was 77 and Ralph's father George lived until he was 73 despite being still being a miner at 67.