Wales of Old
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1905 Mining Disaster at Wattstown, Rhondda Fach, Glamorgan
Photograph submitted by Royden Jones of Rhondda, Glamorgan, Wales
On 11th July 1905, an underground explosion at the National Colliery, Wattstown, caused the death of 119 men.
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Above: Part of the funeral cortège for the victims of the mining disaster.
Royden Jones says, "The man with the spade beard on the leading hearse is my great-grandfather James Rees Jones (1835-1915). My grandfather, also named James Rees Jones (1876-1959), is walking alongside with the bowler hat and moustache."
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In 1865, James Rees Jones senior, Roy's great grandfather, emigrated to Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA, but he returned to Trealaw in the Rhondda in 1875. He was an undertaker and master carpenter, and he introduced the American burial casket to Wales.
He buried the victims of the Wattstown Colliery disaster of 1905. The funerals were so large they had to be held over three days. The cortège was reported to extend for five miles, such that when the leading carriages were pulling into Llethrddu Cemetery, Trealaw, the other end of the cortège was still in Wattstown.
At the latter end of his life, James Rees worked as a lay preacher. He fathered a child when he was sixty-five years old!
Acknowledgement
Many thanks to Roy Jones for allowing me to use his photograph and family details. To contact Roy, send him an e-mail.
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