Robert "Bob" Saint (20 November 1905 – 15 December 1950) was a British

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, musician and animal welfare activist from

Hebburn Hebburn is a town in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It governed under the borough of South Tyneside; formerly governed under the county of Durham until 1974 with its own urban district from 1894 until 1974. It is on the south ...

South Tyneside South Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, North East England. It is bordered by all four other boroughs in Tyne and Wear – Gateshead to the west, Sunderland in the south, North Tyneside to the nor ...

, best known for his 1930s brass band composition "Gresford", about the

Gresford disaster The Gresford disaster occurred on 22 September 1934 at Gresford Colliery, near Wrexham, Denbighshire, when an explosion and underground fire killed 266 men. Gresford is one of Britain's worst coal mining disasters: a controversial inquiry into ...

and known as "The Miners' Hymn". Saint was also a significant campaigner for animal welfare, particularly of

pit ponies A pit pony, otherwise known as a mining horse, was a horse, pony or mule commonly used underground in mines from the mid-18th until the mid-20th century. The term "pony" was sometimes broadly applied to any equine working underground.English ...

Biography

Born on 20 November 1905, Saint came from a family of

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

s, including his father, whom he joined working in an accident-prone mine at

at the age of 14 after leaving school. While working there, he campaigned for lower hours and better treatment of

, small horses used in mines during the time period. Saint was employed as a "putter", working the carts around the mine until its closure in 1932. This left him unemployed in the era of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, though Saint also earned money by giving music lessons and performing in a dance orchestra. He also formed his own band, the Kensington Dance Orchestra, which he led on

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

. When Saint learned of the

in 1934, it had a lasting impression on him. In response, he composed "Gresford", which biographer

Robert Colls Robert Colls is Professor of Cultural History at De Montfort University, Leicester. Before that he was Professor of English History at Leicester University. He is married with two adult children. Personal History He was born in 1949 in South Shi ...

described as a tune "

iving Iving may refer to: *Intravenous therapy Intravenous therapy (abbreviated as IV therapy) is a medical technique that administers fluids, medications and nutrients directly into a person's vein. The intravenous route of administration is commonly ...

mining communities something to say at the end". The next year, he joined the

Royal Northumberland Fusiliers The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Raised in 1674 as one of three 'English' units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, it accompanied William III to England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution an ...

as an army bandsman, playing the

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

. Saint's composition for the Gresford disaster was first performed publicly in 1938, during the

Durham Miners' Gala The Durham Miners' Gala, founded by Pete Doherty, is a large annual gathering and labour festival held on the second Saturday in July in the city of Durham, England. It is associated with the coal mining heritage (and particularly that of miners ...

. All of the

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

he gained from "Gresford" were donated to the National Union of Mineworkers. Saint was discharged from service for medical reasons in 1939, and took up a brief job as a labourmen in a shipyard. In 1940, he met a representative for a charity known as The National Equine (and Smaller Animals) Defence League. Relating his own experiences campaigning for pit ponies, Saint became an inspector for the League and drove an animal ambulance by 1946. He eventually became a regional organizer for the group. After his initial recruitment, the League gave Saint an animal refuge, which was simply a shed in his backyard with kennels and veterinary equipment. Saint became known to locals as "the poor people's vet", and would humanely euthanize sick and dying pets upon request, free of charge. Saint spoke at local schools, encouraging children to be kind to animals and promoting an Animals' Guardians club. In 1948, the League bought a five-acre farm for Saint, comprising a large home, stables, and other outbuildings. Saint was known as a unique individual in the area, and kept ponies in his home parlor at the farm. Peter Crookston, writing about Saint's life in ''The Pitmen's Requiem'', suspected that Saint and the League had a private "falling out" somewhere between 1949 and 1950, based on financial reports and the fact that they provided no obituary for him in their 1951 annual report.

Personal life and death

Saint was married to Doris Taylor, and had two sons, Ronnie and Stanley. He died of heart failure, asthma and chronic bronchitis on 15 December 1950. Saint was a heavy smoker of Woodbine cigarettes on top of suffering from chronic industrial disease, contributing to his death at the age of 45.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint, Robert 1905 births 1950 deaths 20th-century British male musicians 20th-century saxophonists British animal welfare workers British composers British male saxophonists British trombonists