Diagnosis or cause of accident
John Thomas Ryan and John Douglas Hoar, were prospectors working the Champion Mine to the south in 1933. In October of that year, Ryan stated one morning he was walking north to some leases to take samples. Later in the morning Hoar saw a puff of smoke in the distance, but as the mine was near the railway line, thought nothing of it. Ryan had lit a candle with a match in the underground workings of the old Batavia mine. He threw the match to the ground, whereby it lit gunpowder and an explosion followed. At some point previously the drive had been used to store explosive magazines.

Ryan was burnt from head to foot. All his clothes had been burned off apart from his boots. Hoar saw a blackened figure screaming and running toward him. He got onto his bicycle and rode the 3 miles to Kookynie. From here he travelled back to the mine with help, and had arranged for the train to stop to take Ryan to the Kookynie hospital [Kalgoorlie Government Hospital]. They met Ryan walking towards town, having travelled some three miles in total by this stage from the scene of the accident. He died shortly after at the hospital.
- Source: https://www.mindat.org/loc-269330.html

MSW
Married

Father
Thomas RYAN

Mother
Elizabeth Charlotte VERNON

Place of marriage
Fremantle, WA, 1920.