John Thomas

JT started his working life as an ironworker at the local firm of Robert Heath & Co. which expanded rapidly to become the largest manufacturer of bar iron in the world . By dint of sheer hard work and ambition JT rose through the ranks to become foreman and eventually works manager.He started his married life in High St.,Brindley Ford then moved to The Oaklands at Mill Hayes (where Bert and Millie were born) before having a very substantial house built at Bemersley called The Homestead. By this time his father and mother had both died -so JT and Emily took in his young brother Noel (1 yr. older than Len) and brought him up. In 1914 JT took up an offer of a lucrative offer as works manager at a West Midlands ironworks. He stayed in this role for the duration of the war living in a rented house with a housekeeper(Allan Buckley's mother-a distant relative). Noel joined him as an apprentice while the rest of the family stayed with mother at the Homestead while they finished off their schooling.After the end of the war ,demand for steel products fell away and the company rebuffed JT's demands for an increased salary - so JT retired at 47 to live off the capital he had accumulated. He invested in whole streets of Victorian back-to-back property in Brindley Ford besides providing the capital for his son's fledgling haulage business from which he derived a considerable income for the next 25 years. JT was very much in the Victorian tradition and had a stern disposition. He had his own small orchestra and all his children were required to learn the violin. He bought Stanleyfields farm and used to shoot rabbits.He could drive a pony-and-trap but never mastered the art of driving a car.He was a keen gardener with a half-acre plot -but after the age of 75 it became too difficult to manage.