Interview with Harry Dawes

Audio recording and transcript of Harry Dawes's 1979 interview with Bernard McNicholl for the Coal Tyee History Project. Dawes describes how his family came to Vancouver Island in 1912 after his father answered a call for coal miners. He talks about his family's experience in Bevan and Cumberland during the Vancouver Island Coal Miners' Strike, which started shortly after their arrival. Dawes explains how as a young boy he moved to Nanaimo to secure a home for the family to move into, and how at 14 he got a job at the Lantzville Mine, from which he was fired once his real age was revealed. During the interview, Dawes talks about many aspects of coal mining operations, including equipment, rates of pay, and jobs, and he talks about how mules were used in the mines. Dawes describes how his father was injured in the Lantzville Mine, and he also talks about seeing fossils in the mines.