PIT HERO’S PLIGHT

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19633, 20 July 1935, Page 14 (Supplement)

PIT HERO’S PLIGHT

Wife’s Four Cups of Tea in Four Days. His Family Practically Starving.

Once the hero of a pit disaster, in which many men lost their lives, a former Rhondda Valley miner stood in the dock at Wimbledon to answer a charge of theft. Then the tragic plight of the man’s family urns revealed. A plea that he stole a bicycle becauso he was starving was made by Ivor Hughes, 32, of Wimbledon. Hughes explained that he lost his employment as a miner when the colliery at Tonypandy closed down about 1928, and had only had a few weeks work in the last four years. He lost his dole by taking a job as a stoker-, which was not insurable. He was married with one child, aged eight, and the previous week he had only 9s. from the Public Assistance in the form of food tickets. The probation officer, Mr W. G. Robinson, told the Court that he believed all Hughes had said w-as true.

house were pawn tickets, for anything that could be pawned had been pledged, including the child’s clothing. The child needed very careful attention.

The family were living in two rooms and paid 13s fid a week rent, but what was left of the home was perfectly clean. The wife had been out to work, but she was not earning enough to keep body and soul together. She told him, Mr Robinson, that from Monday to Thursday she had no food except a cup of tea each day. While in the Artillery Hughes received a serious injury which was a great hindrance to his getting work. Hughes was remanded on bail to see what could be done for him.

In Search of Work.

Ho afterwards related that he came to London in search of work.

Family Practically Starving,

He visited the house and was certain tho family were practically starving. There was only a piece of bread, two bones, and some gravy, probably the residue of what the police had given the man when they discovered his plight. The most plentiful things in the

“We stayed at Marylebone for nearly 18 months, but still I could not get a job, Hughes declared. “Six weeks ago we came to Wimbledon. My wife has been able to do some laundering work, but most.weeks wo have had hardly a penny to keep the three of us. “Several weeks we have been almost starving.”