Wednesday 23 March 2016

I'm a union man

My family has a love affair with the name Thomas. Such was the magnificent obsession on my mother's side that her father rejoiced in being Thomas Thomas. My dad's father was called Thomas Jones, although to his children and grandchildren he was known as Dat.

He was an ardent socialist and Christian, although with no republican leanings as far as I can make out.

In 1916 at the age of 30, Dat was presented with this wonderful banner in celebration of his presidency of the British Steel Smelters Amalgamated Association, a trade union which he and others founded. A few years later this union merged with with Iron and  Steel trades Confederation.

Tuesday 22 March 2016

the reclining chair

In my family this chair is affectionately known as Dat's chair. Dat is an abbreviation of Datgu, one of the Welsh words for grandfather. Dat died just before my birth so I never got to meet him, but he lives on in our stories. He was born in 1880 in Ystalyfera, in the Swansea valley and the family moved to Gorseinon in 1886 in search of its tin plated gold streets. Even though his schooling was limited and his life spent in hard labour in the Grovesend tin works' rolling mill, he taught himself Greek and Hebrew. This chair was given to him by his brother, Davy, when he returned briefly from Gary Indiana after he'd migrated to America. 

Initially designed for the royal families of Europe, the reclining chair proved so popular that it was mass produced and ended up in 8 Loughor Common. It's where Dat sat after a gruelling shift, smoking a pipe in front of an open fire.

Thursday 17 March 2016

Salem by Sidney Curnow Vosper

'Salem' (1908) - Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool museums
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/collections/paintings/gallery4/salem.aspx



This painting by Vosper started its life as an artistic depiction of nineteenth century Welsh chapel life. Later purchased by Lever Brothers, thousands of prints were made and loyal Sunlight Soap customers hung the picture in parlours and bedrooms, happy participants in the first ever customer loyalty scheme. One of  these prints graced my grandparents' home and it later made its way into mine.

Sidney Curnow Vosper, ‘Salem’







Salem' (1908) - Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool museums
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/collections/paintings/gallery4/salem.aspx


Monday 14 March 2016

1983

Each chapter of Conchie begins with an object that tells some of my dad's back story. Pictures, pieces of furniture, books, photographs, walking sticks and a coat all yield their mute treasure but the first exhibit is a diary from 1983.


Dad was a great scribbler and writer; mostly sermons and ideas penned on sheets of paper, envelopes and the back of utility bills. But he also kept diaries intermittently over the span of his 92 years and the one he kept in 1983 kicks it all off. Unusually for dad there are pages he kept consecutively, commenting on current affairs and reflecting on his life. This was a really big year for him. It marked the end of his working life due to deteriorating health.

It was given to him as a gift by the women's meeting of the church he was pastoring in 1983.

      

Wednesday 2 March 2016

On 16 March 1916, my latest book will be out, published by Lion Hudson. It's called Conchie: what my father didn't do in the war and it's the old old story of a son trying to understand his father.

In many ways it's the other side of the literary coin to the book written about my mother's war time experiences in Bletchley Park - My Secret Life in Hut Six.



Mum fought in the battle of spin and intelligence whereas dad fought a different kind of  war altogether.Over the next few days, weeks and months I'm going to post pictures, stories and audio visual material referred to in Conchie.