Charles Baynham AM

b. 08/12/1845 Cirencester, Gloucestershire.  d. 05/03/1924 Llwynypia, Rhondda Cynon Taf.

DATE OF AM ACTION: 16-20/04/1877 Tynewydd Colliery, near Forth, South Wales.

Charles Baynham AM

Charles was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, the son of Edward and Mary Baynham, and grew up in Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, before moving to the valleys of South Wales as a young man. He married Ann Hague in 1864, and she and Charles had eight children, four boys and four girls, and was the last surviving recipient of the Albert Medallists from Tynewydd Colliery, in the Rhondda Valley.

 

AM CITATION:

On the 11th of April the Tynewydd Colliery, situate 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 recognize.

During the five days from April the 16th to April the 20th the above-named eleven men were at various times engaged in cutting through the barrier of coal separating them from the five imprisoned men, and while exposing their own lives to the great danger which would have resulted from an outburst of compressed air and water, and to the danger which actually existed from the presence of large quantities of inflammable gas, continued to perform their work until the five men were safely rescued.

 

BURIAL LOCATION: TREALAW CEMETERY, TREALAW, WALES.

LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.