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Facts and Events
Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners' Advocate, Saturday 16 October 1897, page 5
| SERIOUS BLASTING ACCIDENT AT THE WALLSEND COLLIERY. A very serious accident occurred yesterday at the Wallsend Colliery to two shiftmen named John Conn (a resident of Pittown, Wallsend) and John Mawkes (Chinaman's Flat, Wallsend). It appears that the men, in company with two others, Mathew Baillie and John Rorby, were engaged lifting the bottom stone in a narrow place. Mawkes and Conn had just drilled a lifting hole, and were in the act of charging it with powder. One or two plugs had been placed in the hole, and whilst in the act of forcing another plug of powder down the hole with the regulation copper tamper the charge exploded. The tamper was driven close by the head of Conn with such force' as to strike the roof and become bent. The peculiarity of this accident is that there was no light near the hole. The men, in accordance with the instructions issued when charging holes with powder, had their lamps hung away from the place, and, in fact, it is understood, from the other workmen, that the cap and lamp of Mawkes are still, hanging some distance from the place. The men were at once removed outside and taken to the Wallsend Hospital and attended to by Drs. J. B. Nash, A. W. Nash, and J. Stapleton. John Conn has sustained serious injuries to both eyes, and at present the medical gentlemen are afraid that be will probably lose his eyesight. His face and head are also badly injured, as well as the right arm John Mawkes has his right hand smashed; he has also lost two fingers and a portion of the palm of the hand, his right wrist and the right forearm also are broken, and his eyes, too, are injured, but the doctors have hopes of saving his sight.
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Death Certificate: New South Wales Government Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages
| Registration Number | Last Name | Given Name(s) | Father's Given Name(s) | Mother's Given Name(s) | District
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| 14086/1936 | CONN | JOHN | JOHN | ELIZABETH TREADGOLD | WALLSEND
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Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners' Advocate , Saturday 15 August 1936, page 3
| MR. JOHN CONN. An old Wallsend citizen, Mr. John Conn, who died in Wallsend District Hospital, on August 8, at the age of 86, had been totally blind for almost 40 years. This was the result of a blasting accident in what were known as the Lambton headings of the Old Wallsend colliery. His working mate, John Mawkes, died as the result of the injuries he received. Mr. Conn's wife died four years ago. The members of the family are Messrs. J. P. Conn, J. W. Conn, G. K. Conn, and J. A. Conn, and Mesdames A. H. Roberts. J. McDonald, J. Dow, and M. T. Steel. Mr. Conn, who had lived at Wallsend for 71 years, was born at Shiny Row. Durham, England. He was 8 when he came to Australia with his parents. In 1860, the family left Adelaide and came to the Glebe. John was only 10 when he began work in the old Glebe mine as a trapper. When a move was made to Four Mile Creek, he worked as a miner. He was then 13. On moving to Wallsend, his father, who had been a shepherd in England, took up an area of five acres, for farming, next to a selection taken up by the late Dr. A. Nash, in what is now the Wallsend Upper Reserve. A move was later made to what is probably Wallsend's highest elevation - Conn's Hill. Following a spell at railway work at Lochinvar, John Conn returned to Wallsend and secured work in the Wallsend colliery, beginning as a waterbailer. Later, accompanying his father, he went to Bendigo gold diggings. He remained there for three years. On his return to Wallsend, he was again employed in Wallsend colliery in the capacities of miner; shiftman, and deputy. He was married at Wallsend in 1876. A service was held in the Seventh Day Adventist Church at Wallsend, and the interment was made in Wallsend Cemetery. Pastor. R. A. Salton officiated.
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