Not Your Grandfathers Mining Industry, Nova Scotia, Canada

Thomas and Violet

The tale of Thomas Scurr and Violet Telford was described as a “pretty little romance.” It was also an example of how Nova Scotia’s historical mines attracted thousands of immigrants that helped build the province.

Scurr had worked as a coal miner in Cape Breton’s Old Bridgeport (now called Dominion) “for some time past,” according to the Evening Mail’s March 18, 1904, edition. However, he missed Violet, “a popular young lady from his native town of Cleatermoor, Cumberland County, England.”

The newspaper reported that “The young Englishman had evidently become lonesome living alone in Cape Breton, and not being able to spare the time to go home and be married, sent for his prospective bride to come out to Canada. This she consented to do, and is now speeding across the ocean on one of the Atlantic liners bound for Halifax. Yesterday Scurr took out a marriage license in Sydney and proceed to Halifax to-day, where he will meet his intended on the arrival of the steamer and be married as quietly as possible by the Bishop’s chaplain there.”

Violet’s steamer, the Tunisian, arrived in Halifax on Saturday, March 19. Violet was 25 years old.

The couple wasted no time before tying the knot. “The marriage took place at five o’clock Saturday evening in St. George’s rectory…This marriage was the consummation of a pretty little romance,” wrote the Evening Mail.

The happy couple left for Glace Bay within hours of their small wedding.

A 1908 article said Thomas had been elected as a union official at New Waterford’s Dominion No. 12 mine. We could find no other documentation about his and Violet’s life together.

Thousands of miners and their families came to Nova Scotia in the 1800s and early 1900s, mostly from Europe, drawn by the opportunity to work in Nova Scotia’s mines, our coal mines in particular. Today, countless Nova Scotians are descended from those immigrants who helped build our mining industry and province.

Thomas and Violet’s hometown, Cleatermoor, had a number of historical coal mines but it was best known for its iron deposits, which made it an important industrial hub in England during the Industrial Revolution. It is quite possible that Thomas gained experience as a miner in Cleatermoor before coming to Nova Scotia.

The Tunisian’s maiden voyage was from Liverpool to Halifax in 1900. It was a passenger ship of the Allan Line, a competitor to the Cunard Line, which was established by famous Nova Scotian Samuel Cunard. During World War One, the Tunisian served as a prisoner of war accommodation ship at Ryde, Isle of Wight, and later as a troop carrier. In 1917 it returned to commercial travel, serving Canada from Liverpool, London and Glasgow. The Tunisian was renamed Marburn in 1922 and scrapped in 1928.