Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 17 August 1912
Death of Mr. Thomas Barron.
Glass Bottle Manufacturer’s Demise
62 Years in Mexborough
We regret to announce the death of Mr Thomas Barron, which took place at his residence, Beachwood, Church Street, Mexborough, on Thursday evening and half past 10, in his 65th year.
For some time Mr. Barron has been in failing health, as the result of a paralytic seizure, and his death was the result of a second one which occurred on Tuesday. Dr. J. J. Huey and Dr. L. Ram attended him, but from the first there was little hope of his recovery, and he died as stated, leaving a widow and a large family to mourn their loss.
He will probably be interred in the Mexborough Cemetery on Sunday afternoon. The late Mr. Barron was a well-known glass-bottle manufacturer, and a leading member of a prosperous firm of manufacturers. From 1887 until Easter of this year, when he retired from business, he occupied the position of managing director of Thomas Barron and Sons, Phoenix Glass Bottle Works, which was acquired in the early 90s, by his father, the late Mr. Thomas Barron, and an uncle.
On the death of Mr. Thos. Barron, senior, the works were taken over by six brothers, four of whom. Thomas, Walter (deceased), Alexander, and Edgar, took active part in the management. The Barrons were originally a Hunslet family, and Mr. Thomas Barron, whose death is now recorded was born in Castleford, and brought to Mexborough when he was a baby. He has spent 62 years of his life in Mexboro’, and during that period bas played an important part in the public and social affairs of the town. He has been associated with it almost from its early industrial development. He worked in the Phoenix Works as a boy, and went through the whole routine of the production of glass bottles, so that before he was called upon to take a part in the management of the works he was a practical glass-bottle maker, as were all his brothers, and understood the business thoroughly. He had the reins during the most prosperous period of the English glass-bottle trade, when the Phoenix and other glass-bottle works represented almost the staple industry of the town, and during that time he gained the reputation of a reasonable and considerate employer and a large-hearted and generous man. On the death of his brother Walter, and the subsequent departure for South Africa of his brother Alexander, he and his remaining brother, Edgar, managed the works; but since Easter these two brothers have been living in retirement, and the business has been conducted by Mr. Alexander Barron and Mr. Joseph Barron, son of the late Mr. Walter Barron.
In his prime, the late Mr. Thomas Barron was a man of very considerable importance and influence in Mexborough. For some years he was a member of the Mexborough Urban District Council, though as a public man be never attempted great things. Still, he was a good, sound business man, and a very useful Councillor. In another department of public life, he was an active Conservative, and for a number of years President both of the Mexborough Conservative Club and the Mexborough Constitutional Club. At the time of his death he was vice president of the Club, and be also occupied for many years the position of treasurer of the Lily of the Valley Lodge of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows. His death will be greatly by many of the old workpeople who have kindly remembrances of him, and by the many friends he made during his long connection with the town. He was one of the heads of the largest and most widespread family in Mexborough and was himself the head of a large family of sons and daughters. He was twice married, the first time in Mexborough and in recent years in Doncaster.