Always on
This project successfully funded on 12th February 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Repair Local Hero Robert Moodie's Gravestone
Prestonpans, East Lothian, United Kingdom
Aim
Restore the gravestone of local hero Robert Moodie who gave his life 100 years ago trying to rescue a pal who had fallen into a burning pit.
On the 21st December 1925, local miners Robert Moodie and James Peden had been ordered by their bosses at Prestonlinks Colliery, Prestonpans, to empty railway hutches filled with “redd” on top of a smouldering bing, located beside the coastal pit. This material was the combustible, but ultimately unsaleable, coal dust and mixed mining debris that was created when sifting the mined coal for more economic pieces and it was highly flammable.
Unbeknownst to the two men, the shoreside mountain of burning coal waste had been dramatically undermined by the high winter waves that battered against its base during high tides. The mound collapsed on one side, just as the unfortunate colliers were emptying their latest load on top, exposing a fiery pit of red hot coals, embers and ash below their feet.
James lost his balance and was thrown head-long into this conflagration, with Robert looking down helplessly upon his screaming friend, as he tumbled into this vision of hell. He called to other colleagues for help and, without a thought for his own safety, he raced down into the flaming pit far below to try and rescue his burning pal.
Sadly, such was the intensity of the heat and the chaos of the collapsing bing that Robert couldn’t reach James and both men crawled and rolled agonisingly 30ft across the shingle into the cooling waters of the Forth to try and extinguish their burning clothes and sooth their charred skin.
An ambulance ferried the two men to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where 30 year old James eventually recovered from the extensive burns to his face, arms and body. Unfortunately, such was the severity of the external burns to his body and the internal damage to his lungs, 49 year old Robert very sadly succumbed to his injuries on the 1st January 1926.
An official fatal accident inquiry was held in Haddington in March that year into Robert’s death. The jury formally found that he had died while going to James’s assistance and this was duly noted in his amended death certificate. The official HM Inspector of Mines, Edgar Hamilton Frazer, was also in attendance at the inquiry and committed to bring Robert’s actions to the attention of the trustees of the Carnegie Hero Fund in hope that his heroism would be formally recognised by the organisation.
Unmarried Robert had lived alone with his unmarried sister Mary, not far from the colliery, in a small house at 16 Kirk Street, in Prestonpans. In July 1926 Mary raised an action at Haddington Sheriff Court against the Edinburgh Collieries Company Ltd, owners of the Prestonlinks Colliery. She sought £294 17s in compensation for his death, claiming she was reliant on Robert’s earnings to keep their house.
The Wallyford-based company admitted full liability for his death, but they denied that Mary was Robert’s dependant and refused to pay, offering £15 instead to cover his funeral expenses. Many witnesses were called to testify that Mary was indeed dependent on Robert and after lengthy cross-examination Sheriff Jamieson concluded that she was indeed reliant on her brother’s earnings, but only to the extent of five shillings per week. The judge instructed the colliery to pay her £39 in compensation, on top of the £15 already offered, and to pay her legal expenses. According to the Bank of England historic inflation calculator, £54 in 1926 is the equivalent today of around £2879, not exactly a great deal of money, then or now, for causing the death of a fellow human being.
In September 1926, the Trustees of the Carnegie Hero Fund listed Robert as one of six Scottish recipients of heroism awards, five of which were awarded posthumously. Mary was given a certificate recognising his courage and this national recognition of his bravery was listed on the gravestone she raised over his remains in Prestonpans Cemetery. Mary joined Robert, under that simple cross she had commissioned to his memory, after she died in 1941 in her Kirk Street home aged 69, though her name was never added.
A century after it was raised, that gravestone has sadly collapsed and fallen into disrepair and now requires some work by a monumental mason to restore it, so that future generations will remember Robert Moodie’s name and learn of his heroic sacrifice. Prestonpans Community Council has sought quotes from local stonemasons and needs to raise just over £1000 to cover the costs of the repairs. Can you help?
All donations, whatever the amount, very gratefully received. Anything raised over and above the final repair cost will be spent on bulbs, plants and shrubs to brighten this corner of the cemetery.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made