Almost 110 years ago a 17-year-old boy from Newport became a hero. Dan Barnes looks at what happened on the day of the Newport Docks disaster

SHORTLY before the end of the working day, 111 years ago in Newport’s docks, 39 men were to lose their lives in a disaster which would become an infamous part of the history of the city.

On July 2, 1909, the walls of the new lock connecting the dock to open water collapsed, trapping or crushing scores of men.

Some of the men near the top of the workings were able to scramble to safety and others were later rescued.

However, for men near the bottom escape was impossible as 13-inch timbers snapped like matchsticks and the sides of the 45-foot deep trench caved in. Hundreds of thousands of tons of earth engulfed them.

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It is thought that saturation from the bed of the nearby River Ebbw combined with high summer rainfall could have contributed towards the worst peacetime disaster ever to occur in Newport.

Back in 2009, at the stroke of 5pm on July 2, 100 to the minute of when the accident happened, Tom Lewis, grandson of Tom ‘Toya’ Lewis – known as the boy hero of the docks disaster – dropped a ceremonial wreath into the water at the spot at which the men had lost their lives.

Speaking at the time, he recalled his grandfather’s actions on that fateful day.

He said: “My grandfather, who was 17 at the time and a slip of a lad, went down into the collapsed workings to help a man called Bardill whose arm was trapped by a 12-inch beam.

South Wales Argus:

Tom Lewis, grandson of Tom ‘Toya’ lays a wreath into the dock where the men perished in the Newport Docks disaster on the 100th anniversary of that fateful day

“He had been cutting a tunnel round the arm and had almost finished when he was called up to the surface because they thought the rest was going to cave in.”

Thanks largely to Mr Lewis’ work, Bardill was rescued and escaped serious injury. He was the last man to be rescued.

He recalled how his grandfather had struggled to come to terms with what he saw that day and would become emotional if anyone mentioned the disaster for many years after the event.

Mr Lewis was presented with the Albert Medal by King Edward VII after volunteering to be lowered into the collapsed trench.

It is not known exactly how many bodies were unrecovered.

Those accounted for were put in a mass grave at St Woolos cemetery, but up to 16 men would never emerge from where they met their end.

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An enquiry was carried out but, rather than let any blame reach the top of the chain of command, culpability was rounded instead upon a site supervisor named Ratcliffe, who only sustained minor injuries in the disaster but perished a few days later.

In 2013, following the attempted theft of one of two plaques unveiled to commemorate the victims of the disaster, a new memorial was created.

The plaques had been located at St Woolos cemetery, but were the target of a suspected metal theft. However, the stolen plaque was later found dumped in a hedge, most likely due to its extreme weight.

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The memorials were moved to St Marks Church in Newport as a measure of safeguarding and preservation by the Harbour Commissioners, who also paid for their mounting in the building. Plastic replicas were to be placed on the monument in the cemetery.

One plaque commemorates the 39 people who died in the Newport Docks disaster in 1909 and the other reproduces the poem, ‘Soldiers of Industry’ written by WJ Collins, who was an editor at the South Wales Argus.

In the August of 2013, a special dedication and thanksgiving ceremony to the memorial was held, led by the Reverend Cannon Andrew Willie.

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A year later, an error which had remained undetected on the memorial plaque since it was first placed at the church was discovered by a relative who was researching their family history.

John Hathway, from Rogerstone, discovered the mistake while researching his family tree.

He had found the memorial in Bassaleg’s St Woolos Cemetery and among the names was an FF Hathaway.

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Mr Hathway was curious about this, as his own name is frequently mis-spelled as Hathaway when in fact the second ‘a’ should be omitted.

After researching FF Hathaway he discovered the name referred to father-of-two Frederick Francis Merthyr Hathway, a 27-year-old crane driver when he was killed.

Although Mr Hathway realised it would be difficult to change the actual wording, he hoped a small additional plaque could be displayed at the foot of the memorial with the correct details.

South Wales Argus:

John and Avril Hathway lost a relative in the Newport Docks Disaster, Frederick Francis Methyr Hathway. His name has been misspelled as Hathaway. Pictured is John Hathway with the plaque containing the spelling mistake

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He contacted the Harbour Commission, which had replaced the plaques after the originals were targeted by metal thieves, to ask if this would be possible.

But he said the commission told him that replacing the plaque would “change the history of Newport”.

In a letter to the late Paul Flynn, then MP for Newport West, the Harbour Commission’s clerk to the commissioners Jill Lloyd wrote: “It is important to note that the error was made in 1912 and not 2012

South Wales Argus:

One of the plaques commemorating the victims of the Newport Docks disaster in 1909

“The replicas are a faithful and accurate copy of the originals.

“The error has been present on the plaques for over 100 years — nobody has ever noticed or reported any errors in all that time.”