Nellie Kershaw, Nellie 1891 - 1924

Nellie Kershaw was a textile worker whose death, due to pulmonary asbestosis – after prolonged exposure to asbestos fibres – was the first such case to be described in medical literature. Not long after leaving school, aged 12, she began working at Garsides Asbestos Mill in Rochdale. She later transferred to Turner Brothers Asbestos factory in 1917, where she was employed spinning raw asbestos fibre into yarn, a process led to her breathing in huge amounts of asbestos laden dust. At the time, Turner’s was the largest asbestos factory in the world – employing thousands and turning out a wide range of products.

Nellie’s symptoms first became apparent in 1920 and two years later she was certified by local doctor Walter Scott Joss as unfit to work due to "asbestos poisoning".

She died in March 1924 leaving a husband and daughter living in poverty. Not wanting to set a precedent, Turner Brothers refused to accept any liability for her death or pay any compensation to her family, including funeral expenses. As a result she was buried in an unmarked ‘pauper’s grave’. However, the subsequent publicity and inquiries into the case both raised the public awareness of the dangers of asbestos and led to the introduction of the first asbestos-related industry regulations in 1931.