The Lost Plaques: Goscombe John's plaques to the memory of Alderman Thomas Jones, ship owner, coal exporter and Mayor of Newport in 1892-3.
The Lost Plaques: Goscombe John's plaques to the memory of Alderman Thomas Jones, ship owner, coal exporter and Mayor of Newport in 1892-3. A newspaper drawing of Thomas Jones' memorial plaque When Thomas Jones died in New Zealand on October 18, 1903 his Welsh friends asked the Welsh artist Goscombe John to create two memorial plaques to commemorate his life in Wales. One of them was to be created in bronze. Questions come to mind. Who was Thomas Jones and why did he deserve this honour and where are the plaques today? However his story is relevant because just as we are trying to defeat Corona Virus he was trying to defeat tuberculosis a bacterial disease of which many people were dying in his lifetime. The disease had been known since ancient times but in the 18th and 19th centuries it increased due to the growth of industrialisation leading to large urban areas. It affected the rich and the poor and was not effectively defeated until and the BCG vaccine became available i