AFTER a year of intense research an amateur historian is just one piece of information away from ending of his quest to honour the 168 victims of the region's worst pit disaster.

Bob Drake has identified for the first time the 56 men and boys who were buried in unmarked mass burial trenches and graves after the 1909 West Stanley Burns Pit explosion. But still the final resting place of just one victim, Thomas Killingback, remains unaccounted for. Mr Drake has managed to plug gaps in church and council burial records after a chance discovery of a hidden internment sheet. Now the names of those 56 men and boys will be revealed to the Stanley public for the first time in 94 years when they are given pride of place at a fund-raising exhibition at The Lamplight Theatre between Friday, February 14, and Sunday, February 16. Money raised will go towards an Advertiser appeal to erect a simple graveside tribute to those died in the disaster and lie in unmarked graves behind St Andrew's Church.

Mr Drake, a former Stanley pitman, spent last year continually checking council and church records and scouring graveyards, even arranging for trees to be dug up so he could inspect gravestones. He believes the gaps in the records was caused by the confusion of the funeral day when more than 200,000 mourners invaded the small town Eventually just two names, those of Thomas Killingback and William Brophy, remained unaccounted for. William Brophy was chalked off the missing list after Mr Drake was contacted by an old friend called Dave Brophy who told him William was buried in Swalwell cemetery up the road at Gateshead. The Advertiser campaign for a simple tribute follows on from the fantastic work of many people in the town to have a new memorial erected to all of the fallen in 1995.

To help the appeal contact Chris Webber on (01642) 513346. To contribute sent cheques payable to The Northern Echo's Stanley Pit Disaster Memorial Appeal to The Advertiser, PO Box 14, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF.

* Full details of the Lamplight Theatre exhibition in next week's paper.