Among the many Mendus family graves in Ramah cemetery, Brynhenllan, is one in memory of a sister and brother.
Adelaide Mendus,
daughter of Thomas and Martha Mendus
of Dyffryn
died on July 3rd 1895
aged 15 years.
Below her name is inscribed
also
Thomas P. Mendus
Their son aged 36 years
One of the victims of Senghenydd explosion October 14th 1914
[The correct date is 1913]
To locate the grave, turn left immediately on entering the burial ground and look for the conical white pillar which stands behind Adelaide and Thomas’s gravestone, which is among several other Mendus family graves.
The explosion at Universal Colliery Senghenydd remains Britain’s worst mining disaster, killing 439 miners when fire swept through the underground workings. A small number were rescued but the majority were taken out dead, burnt and barely recognizable. Among them were boys as young as 14. Around a thousand families were bereaved.
On the official death roll Thomas Propert Mendus is listed as living at 1 Francis Street Abertridwr, a village between Senghenydd and Caerphilly. Very likely he was rooming with other single men. Many had migrated from rural parts of Wales to earn better money in the collieries.
The cause of the explosion was attributed to fire damp (a mixture of methane and hydrogen) that had been ignited by a spark. Safety precautions were inadequate and legislation that ventilating fans should be equipped with reversible air flow had never been implemented – this could have saved lives. The inquiry into the disaster found the colliery owners and the manager negligent. They were fined £10 and £24 respectively, a paltry sum which contemporary newspapers pointed out was the equivalent of 1shilling, 1 penny and a farthing (about £6 today) for each victim’s life.
This year, 2023, will see the 110th anniversary of Thomas’s death on October 14th. The grave of Thomas and his sister is sadly neglected and is overgrown with weeds and brambles.. It would be a nice tribute to tidy it up. A self-sown birch tree that’s growing there could be left in situ – it seems an appropriate symbol of new life from the earth.
More information about the Senghenydd mining disaster can be found at the following sites:-
Aber Valley Heritage Group
Senghenydd Pit Disaster
Universal Pit Senghenydd
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In 2005 Rex Harries published his detailed guide to Ramah Cemetery in Dinas. This includes interments of 17 members of the Mendus family, from 1865-1965, who lived at Dyffryn, Ty Meini, Rose Hill and Fishguard. (see Dinas histories)
Thomas Mendus’s epitaph in Welsh and English (with thanks to Melanie Stark) :
Un o ddewr fwnwyr oedd ef yn eiddu dan y ddaer o gartref yn ngwys angau cadd dangnef drwy y nwy aeth adre i’r nef.
Which roughly translates as:
He was one of the brave miners who lived under the earth away from home, in the call of death he found peace through the gas, he went home to heaven.
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