Day 7: Praying for the emergency services (1880)

Join with Salvationists of the Wales Division for Day 7 of 150 days of prayer.

• ‘So I will thank the Lord because he does what is right. The Lord is the Most High God, so I will sing to praise his name!’ (Psalm 7:17 EasyEnglish Bible). 

1880

A headline in the first issue of the War Cry (27 December 1879) declared: ‘Seize North Wales!’ The article included an instruction from the General to George Scott Railton: ‘I authorise you to raise a special force for the salvation of Wales, to be called “The Mountainers” … to commence by seizing the counties of Flint and Denbigh as soon as possible.’ 

Railton’s response was also recorded: ‘Thanks, have already 20 volunteers eager for marching orders. Hope soon for 200 names from which I will select sufficient to sweep the principality.’

By February 1880 Railton had been reappointed to take a small party of young women officers and fly the Army flag in the USA. A very different story would have unfolded in both North Wales and the US if that reappointment had not taken place.

The 30 December War Cry included the headline, ‘The Terrible Colliery Explosion at Penygrang [Penygraig], South Wales’, and a vivid summary: ‘Two pits fired – 101 lives lost – groans of bereaved relatives – gallant rescue work – four men found at once – the rescue of one collier after thirty-eight hours in the jaws of death.’

The report that followed was by Major Blandy:

‘Knowing we had a large number of our folk just on the spot, I at once proceeded to Trealaw to see Captain Crouch, and soon discovered that none of our soldiers were in the pit, but hoping to be of some service to some of the sorrowing ones.

‘Sunday, the 12th, was a day never to be forgotten in Trealow and Penygrang. Services were held all over the place in cottages by the religious societies. Our soldiers mustered very strongly from all stations in the Rhondda and a few from distant places. The prayer meeting at Trealow was a time of power, and we met and marched in silence to the pit and commenced an open-air close to the scene of the disaster, and there were tens of thousands present that day.’

Prayer

• Pray for our emergency services – those who go out with the division’s support vehicle.
• Pray for those who follow up by visiting and supporting the traumatised.
• Pray for our internal support structures, for those involved with major disasters that help to mitigate long-term issues in the lives of those affected by what they witness.