b. 1851 Shortwood, Gloucestershire. d. 11/04/1897 Trealaw, Glamorgan.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 11/04/1877 Tynewydd Colliery, Porth, South Wales.
Isaac Pride AM
Isaac was the youngest of five children of Isaac and Sarah Pride (nee Williams). His siblings were Sarah Ann, Mary, Richard, and Hannah. In 1872, he married Jennet Elizabeth Morley in Cardiff and they had two sons and two daughters. Tragically, on giving birth to their daughter Jennet Elizabeth, his wife died leaving him a widower. He soon re-married to Matilda Freke from Bristol and they had three daughters and a son. Sadly, Isaac died twenty years to the day from the Tynewydd Colliery incident, in another coal mining accident. He is buried in Trealaw Cemetery.
AM CITATION:
On the llth of April, the Tynewydd Colliery, situated near Porth, in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales, was inundated with water from the old workings of the adjoining Cymmer Colliery. At the time of the inundation there were fourteen men in the pit, of whom four were unfortunately, drowned, and one killed by compressed air, leaving nine men imprisoned by the water ; of. this number four. were released after eighteen hours’ imprisonment, and five after nine days’ imprisonment. It wasjin effecting the release of these latter five that those distinguished services were rendered which the conferring of the ” Albert Medal of the First Class ” is intended to recognize. The rescuing operations consisted in driving through the barrier of coal ‘thirty-eight yards in length, which intervened between the imprisoned men and the rescuers, and kept back a large quantity of water and compressed air. This task was commenced on Monday, April the 16th, and was carried on until Thursday, April the 19th, without any great amount of danger being incurred by the rescuers ; but about one o’clock P.M. on that day, when only a few yards of barrier remained, the danger from an irruption of water, gas, and compressed air was so great as to cause the colliers to falter. It was at this juncture that the abovementioned four men volunteered to resume the rescuing operations, the danger of which had been greatly increased by an outburst of inflammable gas under great pressure, and in such quantities, as to extinguish the Davy lamps which were being used. The danger from gas continued at intervals until half-past three on the following morning, and from that time the above four men at great peril to their own lives continued the rescuing operations until three o’clock P.M., when the five imprisoned men were safely released.
BURIAL LOCATION: TREALAW CEMETERY, GLAMORGAN, WALES.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: ON LOAN TO THE BIG PIT MUSEUM, BLAENAVON, WALES.
Acknowledgement:
Allan Stanistreet – Image of Isaac Pride AM.