Final farewell

Published on 5th April 2007 in News

Family and friends gathered last Friday to pay their last respects to a father-of-three from Hensall who died in a mining explosion in Russia.

Ian Robertson (55) died on March 20 while working in a coal mine in southern Siberia.

Mr Robertson was laid to rest after a ceremony at Snaith Parish Church.

Many of the mourners wore an item of red clothing, as this was Mr Robertson's favourite colour.

He leaves a wife, Andrea, and three grown-up children.

Speaking before the ceremony, Canon Cyril Roberts, parish priest of Great Snaith and a family friend, said Mr Robertson's family were finding it hard to come to terms with the scale of the tragedy.

"They are very shocked and it's very hard for them," he said.

Mr Robertson, a senior consultant with engineering consultants White Young Green International, was one of 108 people to die in what is thought to be Russia's worst mining disaster in a decade.

It occurred when methane gas exploded 270 metres below ground.