b. 25/05/1873 Ashton under Lyne, Lancashire. d. 1940 Oldham, Lancashire.
DATE OF EM ACTION: 03/07/1911 Shaw, Lancashire.
Thomas was born in May 1873 in Ashton under Lyne, the son of William Barker. On 24th July 1893 he married Sarah Davies in Heaton Norris. By 1911, Thomas and Sarah had eight children (5 boys and three girls) and lived in Alison Street, Shaw Lane, near the factory that he worked in. The next trace of Thomas is in 1939 when he was living in Crompton, Lancashire, with his wife and his three youngest children. He was now a minder in the cotton mill. He died the following year aged 67.
EM CITATION:
On th© 3rd July last a bobbin carrier named Whitehead, employed afc the Hawk Cotton Spinning Factory, Shaw, Lancashire, slippedwhile entering the hoist cage on the third floor and, clutching the starting chain, set the hoist in motion. Whitehead fell forward, and, the doors of the hoist having closed automatically, he became tightly wedged between the top of the doorway and the cage floor. Barker, a spinner, seeing what had happened, rushed to Whitehead’s assistance, but.found he could neither open nor shut the hoist doors. Squeezing through the small opening between the doors, Barker stood on a very narrow ledge where he ran a grave risk of falling down the open hoist-well, a depth at this landing of 60 feet. He managed to get hold of the chains, and by exercise of all his strength to lower the hoist cage until, with the aid of other helpers, Whitehead could be lifted away, though he afterwards succumbed to the serious injuries he had sustained.
BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
