CAPTAIN THOMAS COWLING

In 1827 near the city of Truro in Cornwall, some twelve years after the Battle of Waterloo, when much of the misery that followed the Napoleonic war was still evident among the struggling and poorer classes in Cornwall, Thomas Cowling was born. His only schooling was at an old dame’s school held in the evenings after work where he learned the alphabet and the Lord’s Prayer. He started work in 1835 scaring the birds of a turnip field and before he turned nine was working as a ‘pick boy’ at the nearest tin mine. His father, a strong man, caught a chill during a shift in the mine and passed away at the age of 35, leaving a widow and three children, the youngest being three. Thomas’s mother was resourceful and the family managed well enough. Machinery became of great interest to Thomas and he learnt all he could from those who had charge of the winding and pumping plant. He also became friendly with a local cobbler who acquainted him with books and learning. His mother died before she was forty and the two boys and their sister went to live with their maternal uncle, Mr. William Axford.

In 1847/48 it was arranged that the whole family should emigrate to Australia, but somehow after first catching a boat from Falmouth to Plymouth from whence they were to leave, the ship they were to board sailed without the two boys! The boys decided to stay, and obtained work at the Drake Walls tin mine where Thomas made the acquaintance of Captain Matthew East, manager of the nearby Wheal Edward.
He improved his knowledge of engineering to the extent that he was appointed pitman at the Wheal Edward and in the same year he married Sarah Kitto in the Parish Church of Calstock. Shortly afterwards Thomas and others including his brother, were engaged to go to the copper mines near Lake Superior in the USA.
This stay was only for about two years, and Thomas returned to the Wheal Edward in Cornwall where another son, Dick, was born. Both Dick and the older son James, died the next year.

Early in 1862 Capt. East was appointed manager of the newly discovered mine at Kadina, South Australia, and because of their friendship, Thomas, then aged 35, travelled with him leaving Sarah and the boys at home in Cornwall. The mines in South Australia flourished and Thomas was appointed manager of the Wheal Hughes near Kadina. His family joined him in January 1867. Another son was born in 1868. Late in 1868 Thomas was moved from Wheal Hughes to the Yelta mine which became very productive to the delight of the shareholders. Fever became prevalent in the district in 1870, and Sarah died in June and is buried in the Moonta cemetery.

Thomas became adept in the art of mine surveying and engineering and he was appointed manager of several other mines.

In 1872, Thomas married Eliza JaneToms and in November 1873 a son, Albert Bright was born. In 1877 the low price of copper forced the closure of the Yelta mine, but before it closed, Thomas was appointed to the Hamley, where very rich ore necessitated the erection of a new engine house and the introduction of jigger and buttles of Thomas’s design that reduced the cost of dressing the ore. Thomas’s name and fame as a mine manager was second to none on the peninsular and local people always called him Captain Tom.
In 1891 the family retired to Queen St. Norwood where Thomas died in 1899.

(A book on the lives of other mining Captains, some of whom are buried in this cemetery, is in the Trust’s Library.)

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