Philip Clifford

Philip is a retired Local Government Officer and has a long-held fascination for history, mainly industrial and military, since studying the subject for GCE O Level at school.

Whilst undertaking family history research, he was delighted to learn that some of his ancestors had a distinguished career in the early years of the UK Mines Rescue Service. The lack of research material originally hampered his thirst for more information. The advent of the Internet presented an ideal opportunity to develop his research and, over the last 20 years or so, he has collected a great deal of information which paints a fascinating picture of the pioneers involved in the early development of mines rescue stations along with many stories of heroic deeds undertaken by the volunteers within the service.

Much of the documented material relating to mine disasters is found in public inquiry reports which, sadly, do not give much detail regarding the work carried out by the brave individuals who were involved in recovering both the miners and the mines. He hopes to rectify this with his book, so that the bravery and achievements of some of these individuals can be realised and celebrated.