The re-imagined story …
A report in yesterday’s Advertiser both shocked and saddened me. It began – An old man named James Amos, aged 75, a boiler maker at the GWR works, committed suicide…
Mr Amos was one of the first members of the Boilermakers Society. He joined at Bristol in 1836 before moving to Swindon.
He was one of the first practising trade unionists in our town, campaigning for better and safer working conditions for men in the railway factory.
As a young apprentice in V Shop, Mr Amos took me under his wing. Management was not much impressed by the trade unionist members and we have a lot for which to thank those early, pioneering members. The example of Mr Amos encouraged me to join the union and I remain a member to this day.
James Amos had a tragic and lonely end; and he was so much more than just ‘an old man.’
The facts …
Suicide – An old man named James Amos, aged 75, a boiler maker at the GWR works, committed suicide, on Thursday morning, at 41 Regent-street. He had been in ill health during the past two months, and never seemed to have recovered from the effects of the death of his wife several years since. He lived alone, but was attended to by Mrs Poole, a niece who lived next door. She went into the house that morning, and was shocked to find Amos hanging from the bannisters. P.C. Crook was immediately called in, and the body was cut down, but life was found to be extinct. Dr Johnson was also in attendance, and gave it as his opinion that deceased had been dead some time.
Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, Saturday, November 17, 1888
Radnor Street Cemetery 