Lily English is shown comforted by her sons, Jim (left) and Jerry (right) two days after her husband, Harry English was trapped by a cave-in on Jan. 6, 1954 at the Landsburg mine. Mrs. English clung to hopes that a miracle might spare his life while awaiting word on the fate of the lost coal miner. Co-workers of the 40-year-old miner continued digging through rubble and said they would not give up hope until his body was found. Included in the rescue crews were English’s father-in-law, Harold Lloyd, and brother-in-law, Harold Lloyd Jr. Another miner, Roy Coutts, working with English tumbled to a safe spot and was rescued the previous day lending hope that English may still be alive.
Harry English and Roy Coutts plunged when a brow of coal broke off the hanging wall from a mine level below where they worked. Coutts was miraculously spared, though fell a considerable distance on top of the coal. Different attempts were undertaken to find Harry English and continued for eight days. On Jan. 14, a meeting was held to determine what other actions might be taken to recover his body. However, the committee of eight including Sam Nicholls, Albert Donati, Frank Stebly, Clarence Holmes, Robert Pierce, Bud Simmons, E.J. Grillos, and Louis McGuire were unanimous in their decision to stop further recovery efforts due to the great endangerment facing English’s fellow workmen.
Harry English’s body was left, interred in the collapsed rubble of the Landsburg Mine, opened in 1941 by Palmer Coking Coal Co. Three months after the fatality, the initial plan to erect a tombstone above the accident site was abandoned by Lily English. Instead a lighted cross was presented to the Black Diamond Presbyterian Church on Lawson Street. Finding comfort in courage, Lily told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “But I’m not sad. I’m happy. I know this is the way Harry would have wanted it.” This United Press International photo comes courtesy of JoAnne Matsumura, an Issaquah historian.
