There were several McCulloch males who died in the Blantyre Pit Disaster. Whilst a John McCulloch and his father John McCulloch died, there was also a Thomas McCulloch, but he was not the brother of John (despite John actually having a brother named Thomas). However, there is more than a hint in the ancestry of Thomas that he may have been related to the other McCulloch’s who died, perhaps a nephew or cousin? I have paid to retrieve documents to confirm the facts and dates of this article.
As we approach another anniversary of the disaster, I’m again adding to the stories of the individuals and this time it is the turn of Thomas McCulloch, a young man who lost his life in the Pit Disaster in 1877.
Thomas McCulloch was born in 1853, the son of Thomas McCulloch (coal miner) and Barbara Marshall.
The family moved from Holytown to Bellshill in the 1860s, then on to Rutherglen by the late 1860s.
By 1871, his father had died, and Barbara was noted as being the head of the household aged 48 when the family were living at Rutherglen. Thomas by then aged 18, had a younger brother Paul McCulloch (15) and there was a Marshall family member boarding with them, as well as Barbara’s 1 year old granddaughter Eliza. Interestingly, Barbara McCulloch (nee Marshall) was born in Edinburgh Castle, which surely must have a separate story to be told!
In 1876 Thomas was still living at 4 Farm Loan Road, Rutherglen and like his brother, employed as a coal miner. On 14th July 1876, at Mill Street, Rutherglen, 23 year old Thomas McCulloch married Mary Cleghorn, an 18 year old factory worker. The couple married at the home of Mary. Being unable to read/write, Mary signed her name on the marriage certificate with a ‘x’.
With Thomas’s father deceased by the time of the marriage, a Robert Hart was witness, which may have had links to what happened next, for the newly weds immediately moved to Blantyre to the north side of Glasgow Road at the newly constructed ‘Hart’s Land’ tenements. (roughly where the front of the Sports Centre is today). Harts land is pictured in the 1970s.
However, before the move to Blantyre, just 4 weeks after the marriage, Mary McCulloch gave birth to a daughter on 15th August 1876. Born in Rutherglen, she took the name of her mother, also Mary. As such, there is a good chance Mary was heavily pregnant at the time of her wedding. Now with a family, there was a need to move out.
The move to Blantyre after September 1876 was surely prompted not just by marriage, but by the coal mining work available at Dixon’s Pits in High Blantyre and perhaps due to recommendations from other McCulloch family members. It was not a choice which would work out well for this family. As Thomas settled down to begin family life in Blantyre, it is thought he was only ever there for just over a year.
Though Hart’s Land was a fairly new building, conditions would still have been tough. The building had several other families living there, but the accommodation was generally above the standards of miners rows nearby. They would have been renting no more than 1 or 2 rooms, living on the upper floor of the building above either showrooms or shops. As part of the Stonefield area, this decade was one of expansion and opportunity in Blantyre and there would have been a hustle and bustle about the place, especially immediately outside their home in the busy streets. A new school had just opened the previous year across the road, and this could also have been on the minds of the newlyweds.
On the morning of 22nd October, a huge explosion took place in Dixon’s Pit 2 and 3, killing 216 men and boys. Thomas Died in Pit 3 on Monday, 22 Oct 1877 – Blantyre, Lanarkshire. Age 25. Being in a difficult place to retrieve, his body was not brought up until 10th November 1877 and interred the same day. He is noted as being a Coal Miner and was buried in High Blantyre Cemetery. Section A. Lair 1015. Strangely, his death certificate says father and mother unknown. Thomas is remembered specifically by name on the new memorial stones in High Blantyre Cemetery.
We have to spare a thought for his wife Mary. A newlywed at only 19 years old, with a 1 year old daughter, Mary had lost her husband, a means to support herself and terribly, also lost her brother Turnbull Cleghorn, bottomer, single, also of Harts Land. (20 years old). Also brought up 10th Nov 1877.
