Nicholas Fitzgerald

Nicholas Fitzgerald died in an accident at the Tudor mine in 1895. Historical accidents like his are partly why the modern mining and quarrying industry is so safety focussed.

17-year-old Fitzgerald was a “nipper” at the Tudor gold mine in Waverley, Halifax County, meaning he did general labour to help the miners.

On the evening of Saturday, November 23, 1895, Fitzgerald was 300 feet underground where he was given a load of tools and was told to take them to the surface. He left the miners behind as he carried the tools along the tunnel toward the shaft where he would wait for the cage (elevator) to be lowered so he could take them up.

No one was there to witness what happened, but Henry McEwen was at the 400-foot level, 100 feet below Fitzgerald, working in the bottom of the shaft. The Evening Mail wrote that McEwen “was horrified to hear and see a human form dashed on the rocky ground at his feet. Poor Fitzgerald, in some unaccountable way, had missed his footing and fallen head first down the shaft. McEwen hastily called assistance and kind hands raised the battered and bleeding form. They saw it was the well known helper ‘Nick’ Fitzgerald. The body was taken to his mother’s house.”

An inquest was held shortly after but with no witnesses to the accident, there was little evidence to consider. The inquest concluded that Fitzgerald had fallen accidentally and “no blame, as far as the jury could learn, attached to anybody,” according to the Evening Mail’s November 25 edition.

Fitzgerald’s mother was a widow. He and his brother, who was also working in the mine at the time of Nicholas’ accident, were her sole means of support.

Today, Nova Scotia’s mining and quarrying industry believes the most important thing to come out of a mine is the miner, and our modern safety record reflects this. Injury rates in the province’s mining and quarrying industry have been reduced 90% since the 1997 Westray public inquiry.

The Tudor mine.