George Rollingson was born in Northumberland,
England, on April 10, 1881. He went to work in the
coal pits there as a boy of ten.

In the summer of 1903 George Rollingson and his
brother John, together with two friends, Dan Gill
and Bill Carr, all miners, decided to try their fortunes
in Canada. They were allowed to take one box per
passenger, free, so they put their clothes in one
and loaded the others with tools and machines of
their trade. Saying goodbye to parents and relatives,
they proceeded to the local railway station, where
they were agreeably surprised to find many of their
acquaintances, who had come to give them a hearty
send-off.

At Newcastle it was necessary to change trains; while
waiting for the one leaving at midnight for Liverpool
they visited a cousin of Bill Carr's where they were
provided with supper. At Liverpool a conveyance
was obtained to take them with their boxes to the dock,
stopping on the way at a money exchange, where they
got their funds changed to Canadian money. The boat
they were booked to sail on was anchored a mile
out from shore. It had arrived with a cargo of eight
hundred cattle and it was being cleaned to accommodate
the immigrants. While waiting to embark the four friends
went up into the city for breakfast. To board ship the
passengers and luggage were taken out by tender, and
when they sailed a training ship band played them off.

For a short while after sailing the two brothers and their
companions were assigned accommodation with people
who could not speak English, but following a complaint
to the captain they were transferred to quarters occupied
by Englishmen. The ocean voyage from Liverpool to
Quebec City required thirteen days. The third day out
they experienced heavy winds and torrential rain; George
became very seasick. John had been afflicted previously,
so both brothers were confined to their bunks until it was
time to be examined for vaccination, two days before landing.

After debarkation the four adventurers had breakfast in a
restaurant before boarding a Canadian Pacific train for the
west. Their accommodation was not a passenger coach,
but a car in which the seats were arranged for four people
on each side, sitting two facing two. An night the space
between the two seats was filled to make a bed for two,
while the other two got up on a shelf above the seats.
To retire the passengers just removed their boots and
slept fully dressed. Arrangements were such that one
could walk through the cars from the engine to the van
at the rear. they had a few hours stop-over in Montreal
and an hour in Winnipeg. At other stations where the
train stopped long enough for purchases to be made,
food was obtained to sustain them for their journey.

On a Friday morning, approximately seventeen days and
almost five thousand miles from Liverpool, they attained
their destination - Lethbridge, Northwest Territories.
Immediately following their arrival the four lads from
England went over to the pit head to have a look and
watched a lot of men going down the shaft. During this
observation the opportunity arose to have conversation
with an English speaking workman who apparently was
quitting the job; he advised them not to hire on.
Following receipt of this disheartening news, George
and his companions went to a boarding house and
arranged for accommodation for a day or two, then
returned to the station for their possessions.

At the station they took a job unloading timbers which
netted them six dollars each. While thus occupied they
heard of a farmer, living twelve miles out on the prairie,
who wanted a few men to start a pit mine for him, so
they went to a store and told one of the men there that
when the farmer came for his provisions he was to be
directed to their boarding house where four young
miners would like to see him. The farmer came on
Saturday night and the young men agreed to work for
him. He provided them with directions and the following
day they set out with their luggage to walk to his farm.

This was quite an experience for anyone fresh from
Englands countryside. There were no trees or hedges,
only a little bush here and there with berries which
prairie chicken fed on. There were yellow ground
squirrels popping up all over and the boys shot at
them with their revolvers just for practice. They
had covered about seven miles of their journey when
they saw the farmer coming to meet them with a
wagon and team. George noted that it was not a cart,
but a wagon with four wheels and that the horses were
unshod., On arrival at the farm their employer took them
into his house for tea, and arranged for them to sleep
there for two or three nights until a shack could be made
habitable for them Their bed at the farm house was on the
wooden floor upstairs with a large skin rug spread over
the four of them. Before going to bed that first night
they all took a short walk to where they were going to
start the pit, and on the way made the acquaintance
of a Mormon who was living in a dugout, and whose
only light was a Scotch pit lamp. He seemed quite
content with his rough abode.

The shack the new employees were going to live in had
been used as a shelter for cattle, and there were
mushrooms growing around the inside of it. While
cleaning it out they disturbed a grass snake about
three feet long, which escaped through a broken window,
George commented that it would be unpleasant to wake
up in the morning with something like that wrapped
around your neck, but the farmer assured him that it
was harmless and that once they had moved in the
snake would not come back. A wooden floor was put
in the shack and bunks were installed. Gill and Carr were
to have the lower bunk, about two feet from the floor,
and George and John would take the upper one, which
was about three feet higher and had a clearance of one
or two feet imder the roof. This lack of clearance provided
the brothers with many a bump on the head when rising in
the morning and in one incident George suffered from striking
his head on a nail protruding through the roof. Their
stove was large enough to hold eight or nine pans all
boiling together, contrasting greatly to the open fireplace
cooking at home. The shanty was ten yards from the pit
mouth, and a half mile from the St. Mary River, the source
of their water. Beyond the river was Indian territory. The
farmer's name was Russell, and he lived about a mile from
the shack. A trip into the village was made once a week
to get their mail and provisions; meat and bread were
supplied by Russell. Their bedding and utensils were
obtained on their first trip into town.

Bill Carr and George bought a double barrelled gun
between them, and George would often bring in a
couple of prairie chickens. Bill would skin them,
Dan would cut them up and clean them and John
would make the pie crust. Generally they took turns
cooking, one of their favorites being rice pudding
with currants, which Dan called black and white pudding.

The weather was fine for the first six weeks, then winter
set in. It was necessary then to take an axe when
going for water because the ice on the river was a foot
thick. The coal seam they worked was about three
and a half feet thick and the boys earned a dollar and
a quarter per ton - five shillings two and a half pence
in English currency. In addition to actually mining the
coal, they were required to make their own props out
of trees supplied by Russell, and do all their own
custodian work around the work space. After working
ten weeks a grievance with their employer developed,
and one day John, Dan, and George walked to a place
called Raymond to see about going home with a
shipment of cattle. On arrival they found that the
cattle had been shipped out the previous day. The
walk back to the shack is one which George will never
forget. By the time they had covered seven miles it
was too dark to follow any landmarks. A stop was
made at a farm to enquire how much farther it was to
Russell's mine. The farmhands who were loading corn
by lamplight didn't have an answer, and suggested that
the three wanderers should find a shack somewhere
and wait until morning. The three young miners
continued on, crossing a small river and walking another
five miles, only to find that they were back at the
same river. Dan and John lay down and said they
were going to stay there until daylight, but George
warned them they could freeze to death if they didn't
keep moving. Dan stated that he was sure the small
river flowed into the St. Mary about two miles below
their shack. George went to the river, put his finger
in to find which way it was flowing, then the three
walked three miles down stream until they saw a light.
This light turned out to be a lamp on their shack
that Bill Carr had hung up to guide them. It was
eleven thirty and Bill said he sure thought they
were never going to arrive.

After working an additional ten weeks John and
George had words with Russell, demanded their pay
and left, returning to England and home.

George Rollingson, continued to work in the coal mines
in the Old Country but found time to marry, Isabel Dobby
in 1904, and start a family with the birth of his son in 1906.
In 1913, probably sensing the opportunity for a better life,
he returned to Canada and to Lethbridge. Another son was
born in 1923.

He got a job as overman at the Malloy Mine near Picture
Butte, but he spent much of his time trying to get
started in a mine of his own. He secured a coal lease on
a tract of land in the Pothole district from rancher Wm.
D. (Curly) Whitney, paying him 50 cents per ton of coal
mined. And whenever he was able, he put in time trying to
develop the property. As soon as it looked as if the new
mine might be a commercial success, Rollingson left the
Malloy brothers and started on his own.

The new mine was located near the junction of the St. Mary
and Oldman Rivers. Rollingson registered the name of
the mine as "rhe Twin River Coulee Mine"and the brand
name "Whoop-Up Coal " for the product. The mines
branch assigned a number, Mine No. 738 to the property.
Although occasionally leased to others, this was
Rollingson's most important holding over many years.
He opened at least four entries along the length of
the outcrop on this lease.

Rollingson was involved with other mines over the years.
They included: Mine No. 55, which he and John had
worked from 1902 to 1904; Mine No. 977, held briefly by
Rollingson in 1922; and Mine No. 889, leased by Rollingson
and his son in 1950-56.

By the late 1950's, Rollingson had become a legend in the
Lethbridge coal fields. Mine inspectors pointed out that
he continued to operate low-producing mines because
he had always mined and it had become "force of habit".
They marvelled that, even when well into his seventies,
he could handle a miner's pick with the best of them.

When he finally retired in 1955 at age 74, George Rollingson
had put in 64 years in the coal mines, about 20 of those
years in England and 44 in the mines of the Lethbridge area.

In 1963, the Lethbridge Historical Society and the Lethbridge
Miners'Library Club unveiled a marker, called the "Miner's
Cairn"in the riverbottom. George Rollingson, along with
oldtimers Matt and Mike Homulos and J.A. (Jack) Foster,
played a prominent part in the ceremony. In 1988, the
cairn still stood in front of the Coalbanks Kiosk, the latter
a later tribute to the coal miners of the region.

George Rollingson died in Lethbridge on July 7, 1967.

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