In Memoriam – John Thomas, Maelor View, Johnstown.

In 1912, exactly 105 years ago, Mount Pleasant Church Officer John Evans’ (Victoria Street, Rhos) crafts a beautiful eulogy on the passing of his departed spiritual ‘brother’ John Thomas from Maelor View, Johnstown.

He dedicates his volume to Thomas’s widow Lydia and prints it at Roger’s Printers in Bridge Street, Wrexham.

John Thomas was Mount Pleasant’s ‘Second Edifice’ founder, trustee and treasurer. He was also the first person to be baptised there in 1892 aged 32. Notable is John’s praise of Thomas’s unswerving hard work and devotion to the Cause and above all his loving, tender character.

John also shares the story of visiting Thomas recovering in hospital following his operation, 3 years before his death in 1906. He gives him a signed Bible as a gift. Thomas is touched. During the three years that follow his health declines, he withdraws increasingly from church work and in spite of his illness keeps attending services and remains devoted to the church until his death in 1909 aged 44.

(Abu Hamzabaraa).