Cliff was a bit short of seventeen and a half years old when he walked off his last farm job, moved back home and started the second of his two stints in the mine. Since he was working alongside his father, this will be a good time to start introducing his family.

Some of the following is in the first person, written by him, some in the third person, written by me and based on two separate sets of his notes. I’ve summarised a bit in the interests of a clearer narrative. His original scanned notes fill in the (occasionally conflicting) detail and missing names. Like all his notes, I still retain the originals.