Thomas, my paternal grandfather, was born on 24 September 1875 to William and Mary Thompson nee Foster in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. He was the third of their four children with an older brother, William, and sister, Emma, and a younger brother, Emmanuel. Sadly Thomas’s father died when he was just four years old and it would appear that his older brother William also did not live very long as he was not recorded on the 1881 census. By that time Emma, Thomas and Emmanuel are living with their widowed mother and two lodgers at Savells Square, Hoyland Nether, Barnsley.

Thomas’s parents were married on 20 May 1864 at St Pauls Catholic Church, Newton in the district of Ashton under Lyne, which is directly to the east of Manchester, in Lancashire. By the time Thomas was born William and Mary had moved to Barnsley, in South Yorkshire, where William was a Coal Miner. William died in 1880, aged just 45, as a consequence of Bronchitis, not unusual for a coal miner at that time.

Ten years later, in 1891, Thomas is living with his mother, siblings Emma and Emmanuel and their two lodgers. Thomas has already begun to work, aged 15, as a Lamp Cleaner. They are still living in Saville Square.

By 1901 Thomas has moved to work below ground as a Colliery Lamp Cleaner. Mary, Thomas and Emmanuel have moved, with one of their boarders, to 67 Hoyland Road. Mary doesn’t feature in the pictures I have available of Annie and Thomas’s wedding in 1906, although she was still alive at that time. Mary died a couple of years later in February 1908.

Thomas married Annie Ethel Watkinson on 11 August 1906 at the Ebenezer Chapel, Sheffield Road, Barnsley and then all went to the local photographer’s studio for the photographs. Thomas’s brother, Emmanuel, was one of the witnesses at his brother’s wedding.

Thomas and Annie had eight children, William, Nellie, Amy, Joseph, Ann, Sheila, Emma and Wilfred. They were born between 1908 and 1924. Although both Thomas and Annie’s mothers died before 1910, Thomas knew his father in law, Joseph Watkinson for the next twenty five years.

Sadly their sixth child, Sheila, died when just five weeks old and just a few days after the end of World War I. The family were faced with a funeral bill of £3.75. This all took place in Ynysddu, South Wales as the family moved there from Barnsley between the births of Joseph in July 1914 and Ann in January 1916, presumably for Thomas to continue his work as a miner. Below is a picture of Thomas’s miners lamp from his time in South Wales. This lamp still stimulated questions in 2018 when Thomas’s seven year old Great Great Grandson took the lamp into his school as the children were looking at mining as their subject.

The family would be in Ynysddu for more than twenty years before moving to Birmingham in 1937 when my dad, Wilfred was thirteen. It is interesting how much the family moved around, mainly to obtain work – South Yorkshire to South Wales to West Midlands.

Over the years Thomas and Annie’s children gave them eleven grandchildren before Thomas died in 1954, two more followed after his death. Below is a photo of Thomas and Annie with two of their first grandchildren, taken in November 1940.

Thomas and Annie were very involved in the life of Newbridge Baptist Church and Thomas was the first ‘life’ deacon ever appointed at the church. Below are pictures from the weddings of Thomas’s youngest two children, Emma in July 1941 and Wilfred in August 1949. In the first picture Thomas is on the extreme right of the picture and in the second he is central, but where is the bride … ?

Thomas died on 16 July 1954 and his death certificate records that the second cause of his death was Chronic Bronchitus, like his father who died seventy four years earlier. Being a miner was still a dangerous occupation. his funeral cost £15.13. His widow Annie lived for another sixteen years after Thomas’s death until she died in November 1970, aged 90.

The cost of Thomas’s funeral was £15.13. The cost of funerals is an interesting subject when looking at Thomas’s life. Using the average wage information for the years in question Sheila’s funeral in 1918 cost 1.3 weeks pay, Thomas’s in 1954 cost 1.75 weeks pay but someone who died in 2017 would have had to pay 6.5 weeks pay (average cost £3,311, average earnings £26,500).