Preece Family Tree

Thomas Griffiths, Maesgwyn

While, apart from the very early days, a rise from the ranks to coalownership was comparatively rare, the same was not true of a rise from the ranks to a professional managership in the heydey of the mining valleys. Here, the progression from doorboy to manager was still comparatively common. Philip Jones, for example, who became manager of that vast enterprise the Albion Colliery Cilfynydd, had started work at a doorboy when seven years old. John Thomas Fernbank started work underground when nine years old, became a fireman, then achieved a manager's certificate before becoming manager and agent of Standard Collieries Ynyshir. But Thomas Griffiths's was the most remarkable of such careers. He achieved enormous influence on the life of the valleys, in a wide variety of rules.

He was born in 1849 at Bettws near Bridgend. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Hafod, just south-east of Porth. When he left school at the age of 11 in 1860, Griffiths started in Insole's Cymmer Colliery as a doorboy. Thereafter, he worked for ten years at the coalface, becoming a fireman in 1869. He had already determined to better himself, however, and to that end undertook part-time study, becoming a qualified mining engineer and securing a manager's certificate by examination.

In the early 1870s, he moved away from the area, but returned to Cymmer in 1875 as engineer for the sinking of the Cymmer Old Pit to the steam-coal levels. Within two years he was the manager of the Cymmer collieries. His managerial qualification had served him in good stead, because the Mines Regulation Act 1872 had made this a stipulation for new managers.

By the 1880s, he was heavily involved in the whole Insole mining business, of which he had become a director. While continuing to serve them as a mining engineer (it was he who sank their new pit at Abertridwr, the Windsor Colliery, in the 1890s), he was also involved in their strategic thinking. Meanwhile, in Porth, he rapidly gained the reputation of one of the leading figures in local society. He lived in a large house called Maesgwyn. For over 40 years he was a close friend and associate of W. H. Mathais, and was part of the Welsh-speaking society which was at the centre of Porth life. In 1882, he became a member of the Ystradyfodwg Urban Sanitary Authority, of which he was to remain a member, under its various guises culminating in the Rhondda Urban District Council, for about 40 years, and on which he was to exert enormous influence.

His role had long exceeded that of a manager and became in part that of an owner. His influence stretched throughout south Wales. By 1911, he was president of the South Wales and Monmouthshire Coalowners Association, and playing a leading part in the strike negotiatons of that year. He also became a life member of the South Wales Institute of Engineers.

In 1924, he retired to the Gower, where he died three years later at the age of 78.

In 1877 the Cymmer colliery had a new manager, who satisfied the spirit and the letter of the Mines Regulation Act 1872 by having secured a manager's certificate by examination. Thomas Griffiths was a professional mining engineer, who succeeded Jabez Thomas when he retired. Jabez Thomas had served the Insoles for nearly fifty years from George Insole's first ventures on the canal wharf at Cardiff. It was probably his knowledge of coal mining, albeit without any formal qualifications, which made him useful to his employers; he seems, however, to have been both insensitive in his handling of subordinate managers and workers and slipshod in his supervision and administration. On two events, he bears responsibility for a serious industrial dispute and a mining disaster. He was a founder and leading member of Bethlehem, the Calvinistic Methodist chapel in Cymmer, whose first congregation came with him from Maesmawr to Cymmer in 1844. After his retirement he continued to live next to the colliery office in a house in Three-quarters Row, with his wife Ann, who was some nine years his junior and, like him, came from the Vale of Glamorgan. He died in 1885 at the age of 87.

Thomas Griffiths was a different type of man; he was born in 1849 at Bettws near Bridgend but, by the time he left school in 1860, his family had moved to Hafod. He started work at Cymmer as a door-boy and worked for ten years at the coal-face. He became a fireman in 1869 and so started a professional career, which saw him rise to the positions of overman and agent and to the acquisition of a manager's certificate, through part-time education and private study. He had left Cymmer in the course of his progress but in 1872 he married the daughter of John Williams of Pen Rhos and he returned to work at Cymmer in 1875, possibly as engineer for the sinking of Cymmer Old to the steam coals. He was a member of the South Wales Institute of Engineers and of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society, whom he entertained at Cymmer in 1885. By that time he had been elected to the Ystradyfodwg Urban Sanitary Authority, so starting a long career of public service in local government. He was to be involved not only in colliery management but also in the direction of the Insole mining businesses over the next forty years. The Insole's management of their collieries was always more distant than the control of their sales office and both Jabez Thomas and Thomas Griffiths enjoyed a considerable measure of freedom and delegated authority in running them. Griffiths was an early beneficiary of improvements in the professional education of engineers in South Wales, which had been fostered by the South Wales Institute of Engineers.[1]

[1] Walters, South Wales Steam Coal Industry, pp. 181-4.

It may be indicative of North Lewis's standing in the coal industry that in 1919, when the Prince of Wales visited South Wales, he came to Cymmer colliery where he was welcomed by North Lewis and, having been taken underground, allowed a newly worked district to be named after him.

Tom Griffiths was also present for the royal visit but he was by this time one of the veterans of the company and on 24 January 1924 he retired at the age of 74. As one who had started work as a door boy, he had come a long way. By the time of his retirement he was a director of Insoles Ltd and the Windsor Steam Coal Co. Ltd, a member of the Conciliation Board, a past president of the South Wales Coal Owner's Association and a life member of the South Wales Institute of Engineers. He was particularly well known, trusted and admired for his work in colliery rescues and disaster explorations; he was at the Pentre disaster in 1871 and, after becoming manager at Cymmer, led the following rescues (the number of men who had been killed is shown in brackets):

1879 Dinas (3)
1880 Naval, Penygraig (96)
1883 Gelli (4)
1885 Naval (14)
1885 Mardy (81)
1887 Wattstown/Ynyshir (37)
1892 Park Ship (110)
1892 Great Western (58)
1894 Albion, Cilfynydd (276)
1896 Tylerstown (57)
1899 Llest, Garw (19)
1901 Senghenydd (82)
1905 Clydach Vale (31)
1905 Wattstown (0)

In 1906 he retired from rescue work and was presented with a full-length portrait and a silver plate for his role in rescues and his public service by 'all classes' in the Rhondda Valleys. He was a Liberal member of the Rhondda Local Board and its successor, the urban district counsil, of which he was the second chairman in 1891-2. He was also a JP, known for his 'kindness on the bench', and a governor of the University of Wales.

Griffiths was Welsh speaking and his early experience underground had helped him to gain the confidence of the men, being known for his fairness, understanding and sound judgement. According to Col. Watts Morgan MP DSO he was once asked to become the miners' agent. He retired to West Cross on the Gower where he died three years later on 11 February 1927. His funeral, conducted by the Congregational minister at the cemetery, was attended by Eric Insole and Arthur North Lewis.[1] He was succeeded by William B. Davies, the son of a county alderman from Pentre, who had been his deputy. Before coming to Cymmer Davies had a varied industrial career and had qualified as a civil, electrical and mining engineer. Davies's three brothers were a Cardiff doctor, a Harley Street specialist and a major in the Territorial Army, a very different background from both of his predecessors, Jabez Thomas and Tom Griffiths.

[1] South Wales Daily News, 25 Jan. 1924, 13 Feb. 1927; Colliery Guardian, 18 Feb. 1927.

OBITUARY.

Mr. Thomas Griffiths, J.P., who died on Monday, aged 77 years, had a distinguished career, both in personal advancement and in conspicuous rescue work. He was formely a director of Insole's Cymmer collieries, in the Rhondda, and retired a few years ago from the position of general manager, which he had held for over 40 years. So far back as 1860 he commenced work in that colliery as door boy, and won his way forward by determined effort and signal ability. His personal association with the wormen, and their confidence in his fairness and judgment, gave him enormous influence with them, both in colliery control and in rescue operation, where the presence of "Griffiths, Cymmer" evoked the heartiest of co-operation. He had served as chairman of the Coal Owner's Association, and also taken prominent part in the proceedings of the Conciliaton Board; and amongst his other distinctions was 40 years membership first of Rhondda local board and afterwards in its successor, the urban council. He has repeatedly been called to give evidence on Royal Commissions and on similar inquiries that necessitated expert testimony, was a governor of the Welsh University, a life member of the Institute of Engineers, and in 1906 had a public presentation of a portrait and silver plate in recognition of his rescue work and public service. His life story would embody romance of the South Wales coal field, as can be indicated by a bald record of some of the principal colliery accidents with which he was associated in rescue work - namely, Pentre in 1871, Penygraig 1880, Gelli 1883, Naval 1885, Mardy in the same year, Wattstown 1887, Park Slip 1892, Great Weslam in the same year, Albion 1894, Tylorstown 1896, Senghenydd 1901, Clydach Vale and Wattsown 1905. His experiences in the prolonged efforts due to the underground fire at Clydach were exceptional in a remarkable degree, and he always recalled that as the most difficult exploration work undertaken. He was a widower, and leaves one son and two daughters - Mr. W. T. Griffiths, mineral valuer for South Wales to the Inland Revenue Department, Mrs. Thomas, wife of the agent to Powell Duffryn Co., and Mrs. Rhys Morgan.