Remembering our missing colleagues on Workers’ Memorial Day

The annual Workers’ Memorial Day Remembrance Service and Wreath-Laying Ceremony takes place this year on Thursday 28th April.  

It commemorates those who have been either killed or injured in workplace accidents and aims to raise awareness among employers of the importance of effective health and safety procedures.

The service will be held in the Christ Church (Hartlepool Art Gallery) in Church Square at 12.30pm and will conclude with the wreath-laying ceremony at the Workers’ Memorial in Church Square.

A lone Scottish piper will be playing at the Christ Church from 11.45am and will pipe people into the building at 12.20pm in time to take their seats for a one-minute silence at 12.30pm.

The speakers will include GMB National President Barbara Plant, NASUWT General Secretary Dr Patrick Roach, David King of the National Executive Committee of the RMT and Professor Vicki Stone of Heriot-Watt University.

Following the service, wreaths will be laid by organisations and members of the public attending the event, including the Deputy Ceremonial Mayor of Hartlepool Councillor Rob Cook.

The first wreath will be laid by the family of Stephen Summerside of Sunderland, who was killed in an industrial accident in Cornwall in January 2016.

The 44-year-old father of two and grandfather of two was crushed while he was carrying out lift inspections on a ferry undergoing a refit in Falmouth Docks.

His widow Donna Summerside will be present at the ceremony together with other members of their family including her husband’s parents Ethel and Sam, who himself lost his father Harry in a shipyard accident in the 1960s.

Donna Summerside said: “All men and women should be safe when they go to work to earn a living.

“Stephen was an ordinary working man doing his best for his family. We miss him so much – he has three grandchildren he has never seen.

“Workers’ Memorial Day is a very important and poignant day for everyone to remember.”

The ceremony will end at about 1.45pm. Tea and coffee will be provided before the event and there will be a light buffet afterwards.       

Edwin Jeffries, President of Hartlepool Trades Union Council, said: “Whether or not they have been affected by a tragedy at work, we hope that as many people as possible from across the region will join us to pay their respects and add their weight to the ongoing campaign to make all workplaces safe for workers.

“Once again, we will be providing individual flowers so that anybody attending the service can lay a flower in memory of a loved one.”

“On Workers’ Memorial Day, as our slogan for the event each year reminds us, we ‘Remember the Dead and Fight for the Living.’ ”

For more information about the event, please contact Edwin Jeffries on 07813 073186 or email ejeffries73@gmail.com

* Earlier in the day, at 11am, in a ceremony in front of Civic Centre, senior representatives of Hartlepool Borough Council and Hartlepool Joint Trade Union Committee will lower the flags, observe a minute’s silence and lay wreaths.