b. ? 1851 Llantrisant, Glamorgan. d. 04/06/1896 Glamorgan.
DATE OF AM ACTION: 11/04/1877 Tynewydd Colliery, Porth, Glamorgan.
Isaiah was the second youngest of six children of Daniel and Margaret Thomas (nee Davies) who originally came from Llantrisant before moving into the Rhondda Coalfields where Daniel became a successful colliery owner. Two of Isaiah’s older brothers Edmund and Daniel followed their father and became colliery owners in their own right. Isaiah became a collier and alongside his two brothers was awarded the Albert Medal at Tynewydd Colliery. Isaiah married twice and had five children. He died in 1896 and was buried in the same churchyard as his brothers.
AM CITATION:
On the llth of April the Tynewydd Colliery, situated near Forth, 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 was in effecting the release of these latter five that those distinguished services were rendered which the conferring of the ” Albert Medal of the Second Class ” is intended to recognise. From Thursday, April the 12th, when the operations for the rescue were commenced, until Friday, April the 20th, when the intervening barrier of coal had been cut through and the imprisoned men released, the above-named eleven men were present at different times, and, while being of valuable service in the rescue, exposed their own lives to the great danger which would have attended an outburst of water and compressed air, or an explosion of the inflammable gas which at different times during the rescue escaped under great pressure and in dangerous quantities.
BURIAL LOCATION: CYMMER INDEPENDENT CHAPEL, CYMMER, GLAMORGAN.
SECTION N GRAVE 9.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WALES, CARDIFF, WALES.
ON LOAN TO THE BIG PIT MUSEUM, BLAENAVON.
Acknowledgement:
Paul Barnett – Image of Isaiah Thomas’ Grave.