Jimmy Thomas, the first Swindon Labour politician, served on three committees and became chairman of finance and law.

His interest in the watch committee and public pleasure spaces was one he relished, as he was responsible for many of the parks and gardens and street lighting.

His fear as a teenager running errands and knocking up railwaymen as a cleaner in the dark streets of Newport inspired him to ensure street lighting was prominent in the town.

He was a member of the electricity and tramways committee and was grateful to the council’s accountant AE Dean, who showed him the intricacies of financial management and budgeting.

Thomas said: “As a 24 shillings a week engine driver I was responsible for the town’s finances and introduced several budgets which embraced anything between £200,000 and £300,000.”

Thomas never rose above the lowest grade as a pilotman engine driver. He never drove passenger trains on any mainline network. His only passengers were the workers who used the works train from Highworth.

It did not appear to worry him. His fireman, George Couling, took control of the loco while Thomas was doing business with Ted Male, of the signalman’s union Couling was left to do the shunting and once braked too sharply, breaking a coupling, while Thomas was asleep on the footplate. It was reported and Jimmy was carpeted for it, but not dismissed.

He was promoted shortly afterwards and his salary increased to 33 shillings a week.

He supplemented his pay by charging five shillings for lectures and talks.

Thomas and his wife Agnes had a tragedy when their 18-month-old daughter Lily died.

Her death hit Thomas hard and, while he was still in the mourning period, James Keir Hardie, who was passing through Swindon, called on him to offer his condolences. Keir Hardy, the Scottish Socialist and Labour leader, was the first Independent Labour Member of Parliament.

Thomas was now known and respected by the Labour Party.

He worked hard as a councillor and took his duties seriously, campaigning to elect Labour councillors.

By 1905 he had 11 Labour members in his group out of 48 councillors.

At the same time Thomas was rising up the union ladder and, at 29, had become the youngest president of the union. Thomas visited Derby at every General Election since Richard Bell had been elected in 1895 to act as Bell’s promoter/propagandist.

Thomas was well known in Derby for his skills and public speaking. He was a charmer of the Lloyd George ilk and, after his union paid £50,000 in damages to the Taff Vale Railway, he managed to borrow £500 off one of the board members to pay for the defence of the union official involved in the dispute.

And, as promised, Thomas did pay it all back within six months, much to the surprise of the lender.

Thomas took a Bill to Parliament, as a Swindon councillor, to obtain municipal powers. While in London his stay in the luxury of the Westminster Palace Hotel did not turn his head, All he said afterwards was that he missed his bacon and eggs or steak cooked on the shovel in the firebox.