Coal Miner Joseph Mairs – ‘Martyr to a Noble Cause’

A century ago, coal miner Joseph Mairs was hailed as a hero, a martyr. Is he remembered today? Yes, he is, in fact–by many…

A stroll through the Ladysmith cemetery can be a somewhat chilling experience, even on a summer day. On a windy, wet January Sunday, it’s even more so, figuratively and literally…

Coal mining was a risky business.

Back in the heyday of the ‘black diamond’ on Vancouver Island, an estimated 600-odd men died underground over a period of 90 years, making our record among the worst in Canada. You just have to visit this attractive cemetery on the 49^th parallel to confirm this. Headstone after headstone honours men who died in local mines, mostly at Extension.

Many of these unsung heroes share the same date as that on a striking memorial obelisk which recalls Oct. 5, 1909, when 32 men were trapped in No. 2 Mine.

There’s another stand-out monument.

This one’s dedicated to coal miner Joseph Mairs Jr., Feb. 4, 1892-Jan. 20, 1914. That makes him 22 years old when he died. But, unlike so many of his cemetery mates, Mairs was not killed by gas explosion, cave-in or flood. He died in prison in the aftermath of the so-called ‘Big Strike’ of the Island’s coal industry, 1912-14.

His memorial, erected by ‘his brothers of District 28, United Mine Workers of America,’ reads: “A martyr to a noble cause–the emancipation of his fellow men.’

It’s in honour of coal miner Joseph Mairs that dozens of people gather at the cemetery on the third Sunday of each January. Originally organized by the late Alastair Haythornthwaite, they begin the service in a nearby church with an outline of the extraordinary circumstances that led to armed militiamen patrolling Ladysmith streets and ultimately led to Mairs’s death in prison.

A photograph, taken from a postcard of the period, shows Joseph Mairs, who was an enthusiastic and competitive cyclist, with his bicycle. Bearing a brief, hand-lettered inscription that summarizes his death in Oakalla Penitentiary, the original postcard was sold by the 1000s to raise funds for striking coal miners.

It’s impossible to do justice to an event so historically significant as the strike which shut down much of Vancouver Island for more than a year in such a limited space as this.

As briefly as possible: Several attempts to unionize coal miners had failed, as had, in real terms, the first, tentative attempt to give miners some say in the state of the conditions under which they laboured. By the Coal Mines Regulation Act of 1911, a miner selected by his workmates as their representative had the legal right to raise safety issues with management.

Apparently, however, those who had the temerity to approach their supervisors often were treated as agitators and reassigned to less productive areas of the mine or soon laid off.

There were other grievances, such as wages and Chinese labourers who worked for half-pay. But it was on the key issue of safety–in this case, gas in No. 2 Mine, the same Extension mine which had experienced disaster just three years before–that one of two complainants found himself without work, even after relocating to Cumberland.

In sympathy, Cumberland miners declared a ‘holiday’ for Sept. 16, 1912. Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) Ltd. responded by locking them out unless they signed two-year contracts that didn’t recognize union demands.

The same scenario was played out at other Island collieries. When miners refused to accept these terms, Attorney-General William J. Bowser dispatched special police to Cumberland. As the situation steadily spread and deteriorated, what became known as the Big Strike began on April 30, 1913.

As the months dragged by and tensions increased, there were sporadic outbreaks of violence against the employers’ property and massive public protests against strike-breaking by imported miners. When an alarmed Nanaimo mayor John Shaw requested that the militia be ordered to maintain peace in the city, Bowser was quick to respond.

It’s one of our darker chapters in history.

Old photographs vividly capture the tensions of the time with their images of mounted artillery pieces arriving by train, and armed troopers marching through Ladysmith streets.

Ultimately, almost 200 miners were arrested and charged with rioting and unlawful assembly. Among the few who were convicted was coal miner Joseph Mairs. For him, as it turned out, it was a death sentence as he died in prison of tuberculosis, having (many believe) received no medical attention.

Fellow mining martyr Ginger Goodwin, shot dead by a special constable, is better remembered of the two.

But, for an hour on a sometimes chill and wet, sometimes sunny Sunday morning each January, labour sympathizers and history buffs gather to pay homage to this young miner who died—not underground as had so many of his workmates, but in a provincial prison.

His crime? That of having taken a stand against the harsh and unsafe working conditions of Vancouver Island coal mines.

See also: Explore an Abandoned Coal Mine? Me? Never!