Ian Ball said:
Caving Fatalities in the UK
Following an enquiry concerning a possible caving fatality in the 1930s, it proved surprisingly difficult to pull together data for all known incidents, including those that pre-dated the formation of the cave rescue teams. Here is the result of the research.
Not that I am being rude, but perhaps the difficulty mentioned in the Descent 198 synopsis is a cause of the issue?
I think that those problems have been largely resolved. The main difficulty has been in identifying the deaths early in the twentieth century. But since access to contemporaneous accounts has been made so much easier with the internet the problem has been much reduced. If one takes Chris's example of the doubts about the fatalities in the Alderley Edge mines, for example, I have searched the relevant newspapers for that area, and found only one fatality that wasn't in the Descent list (Leslie Hunt, 1948). There may still be missing incidents, but over time they will be identified.
I have also been able to associate names with all those incidents that Chris was unable to.
The 1989 Lancaster Hole incident, however, should be easier. To some of us, it wasn't so long ago. But when no one who was around at the time remembers it, and it didn't appear in Descent, and it doesn't readily pop up in contemporaneous newspaper reports, one can only scratch one's head.
Anyway, I have now asked Chris if he has a reference, although I was hoping not to bother him (we all want Descent out on time). He says he'll have a look after his latest deadlines.
It won't appear in the Wikipedia list until it has been verified.