David Alfred Thomas was born in Aberdare, Monmouthshire, South Wales, on 26th March 1856, the son of Samuel and Rachel Thomas (née Joseph). After secondary education, he went up to Cambridge and graduated with a B.A. in Mathematics in 1880. Whilst there, he was the University Lightweight Boxing Champion. He married his wife, Sybil Margaret Haig, on 27th June 1882.
He went on to become a proprietor of coal mines and senior partner of Thomas & Davey, Coal Sale Agents, although he first came to public prominence in the mining industry during the Welsh miners’ strike of 1898, during which he championed the cause of the miners, which was for a reformed wages scheme, despite being a mine owner himself. In two later disputes, however, in 1910-11 and 1912, David Thomas was leader of the Coalowners Association, in opposition to miners‘ rights. It was whilst managing director of the Cambrian Combine in South Wales that he became a millionaire.
He also represented the constituency of Merthyr, Glamorgan, as Member of Parliament from 1888 until January 1910 and then Cardiff, Glamorgan, from January 1910 until December of the same year, when he retired from Parliamentary life. He lived in Cardiff, in South Wales.
In 1913, he became a member of the Advisory Committee of the Board of Trade on Commercial Intelligence and in 1914; he acquired substantial coal interests in America. As a result, in March 1915, he decided to go there, accompanied by his secretary Mr. Arnold L. Rhys-Evans, to attend to those interests. His daughter Lady Margaret Mackworth, followed him out there a couple of weeks later. Having completed his business, he booked return saloon passage to South Wales, for the three of them, via Liverpool on the Lusitania.
Before he joined the Cunarder in New York, with ticket number 46043, he stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and once on board, he was allocated room B86, which was the personal responsibility of First Class Bedroom Steward Arthur Clegg who came from Aintree, a district of Liverpool. Lady Mackworth was in the room next to her father and Arnold Rhys-Jones in the one next to her.
When the liner was sunk, all his party survived, although he and Rhys-Evans became separated from his daughter.
He later gave an account of his feelings about the sinking to a reporter of The Western Mail, which was printed on 10th May 1915 and which stated: -
I prefer to avoid harrowing details as much as possible. I cannot, however, refrain from saying that it is so unnatural that the whole thing arouses me to a feeling of bitter rage at the ghastly and absolutely useless outrage. It was premeditated, brutal and cowardly murder. It would have probably brought merry laughter to the lips of the blasphemous lunatic who claims to the instrument of Divine providence, could he have heard the anguished cries of women for their lost children, or have seen in the mortuary the forty or fifty babies' bodies awaiting identification.
"Vengeance is Mine - I will repay" - although vengeance is reserved for a higher Power, it is only human for one to harbour the feeling of revenge for this dastardly crime. But the punishment should be preservative, rather than
punitive. However, when the terms of peace are arranged, it is not enough that the Hohenzollern Dynasty should be swept away for ever, but the despicable creature who is nominally, at any rate, if not actually the prime mover in these deliberate murders should be held directly responsible and made to suffer the usual fate meted out to murderers.
I cannot say from my own knowledge whether there were or were not any war munitions aboard, but it was rumoured among the passengers that there were special reasons, apart from the large number of passengers and the threat which had been made, why special precautions in the way of convoying should be taken to protect the Lusitania, as had been the case with the Transylvania, earlier.
Further, I cannot help feeling that though it would not be practicable to convoy all passenger steamers, there were good reasons on grounds of public policy why, after a boat had been singled out and threatened, she should have special protection, for the moral effect of allowing the enemy to make good their boast must be prejudicial to the cause of the Allies.
The impression I got before I went down to lunch was that she was steaming very slowly, but it is not easy for a layman to estimate with any degree of accuracy, the speed of a ship. She might have been going 15 knots at the time of which I speak. What I confess did puzzle me was the normal rate of speed on the homeward voyage. When I crossed in her on the previous voyage, she averaged about 25 knots an hour. But on this voyage her speed was only just over 20 knots. What puzzles me is, in a time like this, when speed means everything in escaping from submarines, that the Lusitania, of all boats, should slow down to the extent of 20 per cent of her average speed. The price of American coal is no higher than it was a year ago, and any consideration of price ought not to carry the slightest weight in circumstances of this kind. I feel sure that it does not. The rumour was that she slowed down so as not to reach Liverpool too soon. How far that is correct I cannot say. I am told that six of her boilers were not used at any time, on the voyage.
Again, what I fail to understand is how a couple of torpedo-boat destroyers did not meet her, as I understood was to be the case, immediately on her reaching the war zones. I am further credibly informed that the only two patrols on that part of the Irish coast were two small boats without any wireless installation, one between Queenstown and Kinsale, and the other to the west of Kinsale; and this in spite of the fact that the Lusitania had been officially threatened, and the further serious knowledge that there had been a German submarine in these waters for several days previously, as other boats had been sunk there before the Lusitania came upon the scene.
It was reported that the Lusitania was warned to take a course further south, but it is denied that any such message reached her. What she did was to take what is known as the middle course on the receipt of instructions, but from whom these instructions came I do not know.
In another, account of the disaster, which was published in The Westmorland Gazette on 15th May, Mr. Thomas was equally scathing in his condemnation of virtually everything to do with the sinking!: -
Mr. D.A. Thomas, the well known colliery proprietor, in an account of the disaster, stated that when he went on deck after the explosion, he did not suppose there was any real danger. Referring to what happened afterwards, he said : “There was no question of any bravery amongst the crew. There was no organisation and no discipline whatsoever. Both the first and the second boats that were put over the side collapsed, and the people were tumbled into the water. The port holes were not closed and no attempt was made to close them.
I could not get to my cabin immediately after the alarm, but I managed to do so later and then I found that the lifebelts were missing. One had, I believe been taken by my daughter but somebody else had walked off with the other. However, I found three lifebelts and keeping one, gave the others to officials who were asking for them.
Some of the stewardesses and some of the officers were very brave. I was on the deck and watched the loading of a boat into which sixty people got. Only one woman remained on deck among us and as she seemed afraid to jump, I gave her a push and she landed in the boat. The boat was still attached to the ship by the davit ropes and as the ship was then actually going down, it looked as if we should be dragged with her but someone cut the ropes just in time.
Then it seemed as though a funnel would strike us, or that some of the wires stretched between the mast would force us under. We managed to avoid them but we were not more than ten feet off when the ship went down and I think it was not more than twelve minutes after the torpedo struck her.
We rowed away and were picked up by a Manx fishing boat. It was 9.30 when we got to Queenstown and we were kept waiting at the landing stage for a quarter of an hour while they asked for instructions about us.
David Thomas was understandably mistaken about the time it took the liner to sink - it was actually twenty minutes, not twelve. The Manx fishing boat was the Wanderer, which was fishing in the area and was thus the first boat of any size to rescue survivors. The newspaper account continued: -
Speaking generally of the voyage, Mr. Thomas commented upon the apparent want of protection for the Lusitania. “There were in this neighbourhood,” he said, “only two small patrol boats and neither had Marconi apparatus. Why were we not protected?” he asked. “The Transylvania was protected a couple of months ago, and we were assured all along that there was no danger, and that we should have protection.”
Mr. Thomas also asserted that for a couple of days, the Lusitania had been going at an average speed of 20 or 20½ knots under full steam. “She could do 25. Why was she going so slowly? The coal was good American coal, but she was saving about 1,500 tons on the trip by going at four fifths of her speed. When she was struck, she was only going about 16 knots, or it might have been less.
Bedroom Steward Clegg who had looked after the Mackworth family and Mr. Rhys-Evans did not survive the sinking and never saw Aintree again.
Before returning to Cardiff, David Thomas and his daughter and valet stayed at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, until Lady Mackworth had recovered from bronchial pneumonia contracted as a result of her immersion in the sea, when they were able to make the journey home.
After his return to South Wales, David Thomas busied himself with war work and actually returned to America before the year was out, on behalf of the Ministry of Munitions. The return sea journey must have been very difficult for him in view of his experiences on the Lusitania.
In the New Year’s Honours List of January 1916, he was created Baron (later Viscount) Rhondda of Llanwern for his services to the war effort and afterwards became a member of the Government Committee appointed to consider commercial and industrial policy after the war, with special reference to the Economic Conference of the Allies, in 1916. He was also President of the Local Government Board established by the Ministry of Health and was Minister of Food Control in 1917.
He died at Llanwern, Monmouthshire, on 3rd July 1918, without knowing the successful outcome of the war for the Allies. In his will, he bequeathed the sum of £20,000 to Gonville and Gaius College, Cambridge, (to which he had been appointed an Hon. Fellow), for the establishment and maintenance of scholarships.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1861 Census of England & Wales, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1881 Census of England & Wales, Cunard Records, History of Gonville & Caius College, V., Holmfirth Express, Irish News, The Times, Western Mail, Westmorland Gazette, PRO 22/71, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/379(a), Graham Maddocks, James Maggs, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.