Lights out in Britain for underground coal mining

Knottingley, England

TENS of thousands of British coal miners have lost their jobs in recent decades, during the steep decline of an industry that stoked the nation's industrial rise, sustained it through two world wars and once employed more than one million people.

Chris Jamieson will be one of the very last.

In December, his job is set to disappear when Kellingley Colliery, Britain's last deep coal mine, closes for good.

In the mine's empty parking lot, Mr Jamieson, 50, is already thinking abo…