In memory of Frederick Joseph Trump

rhymney_frederick_trumpFrederick Joseph Trump was born to Henry Valentine Trump and Mary Trump. The family lived at Rhymney House while Henry was general manager of the Rhymney Iron Company. Later they lived in The Terrace.

Fred had three siblings. He was educated at Middle Rhymney School and became a surveyor for the Rhymney Iron Company. He also joined the Territorial Army, where he was promoted to Lieutenant.

In 1895 he passed exams in Cardiff to become a qualified colliery manager. He managed the Rhymney Collieries before the Home Office appointed him Assistant Inspector of Mines for Wales. He was injured by an explosion while undertaking an inspection deep underground at Pentwyn Colliery, Machen, in 1906. The blast threw him forwards and triggered a large fall of coal, which buried him. He was quickly pulled clear and treated in hospital for burns before returning to Penarth, where he and his widowed mother were then living.

Fred moved to South Africa in 1912 to take up a post as general manager of the Ferreira gold mine near Johannesburg, one of the largest gold producers in the world.

In 1915 he returned to Britain to join the war effort, serving with the Monmouthshire Regiment. Before the end of the year he was promoted to Temporary Major. In August 1916 he was given command of a territorial battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He received honours for his bravery, including the Distinguished Service Order and France’s Croix de Guerre.

He died in France on 2 December 1917. He was 45 years old. According to a roll of honour which is now in Ivor Davies School 3-18, he was “killed while asleep in his dugout”. He is buried Sailly-Labourse Communal Cemetery, near Lens.

One of his brothers, Captain HJ Trump, served with the Army Ordnance Department on the Western Front. His brother WH Trump was a solicitor, clerk to Rhymney Urban District Council and secretary of the committee which provided temporary homes in the town for refugees from German-occupied areas of Belgium.

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