Mr Scrimshaw, from South Normanton, says that his father, who is pictured on the extreme left on the back row, was a member of the Blackwell Colliery Rescue Team for some 20 years.

He says: "This photograph would be of the rescue team doing a training day at Parkhouse Colliery."

He is not sure on the date the photograph was taken but says that his father was a reservist in the RAMC and was called up the day war broke out in 1939 and served the whole of the six years, finishing up as a sergeant major.

Reader Mrs Lois Gent, from North Wingfield, recognised another of the faces on the photograph — her late father-in-law William Allan Gent (1897 to 1969).

He is the man in the uniform in the centre of the photograph above.
Known as Allan, Mr Gent was the First Officer at the Chesterfield Mines Rescue Station on Infirmary Road.

"Part of their work involved training colliery rescue teams both at collieries and on the premises.

"They maintained breathing apparatus using liquid air made on the premises. The containers presumably contain this as Mr Findley assumed."