Thomas Tame of Long Wittenham, Abingdon, Berkshire

Thomas, born 1874, was the sixth child of Thomas and Eliza Tame of Long Wittenham, he emigrated to Australia, became a miner and sadly died in a mining accident aged 37 years.

I found this out from an Australian called Trica who sent this info:

Hi I am not a Tame but I have a photo (third one on this page) taken by my grandmother in 1970 of a headstone of a Thomas Tame.

Thomas died from being gassed after going down into the Wee McGregor Mine near Mt Isa in Queensland, Australia. The photo is of his headstone. He was born 30 Oct 1874 at Long Wittenham near Abingdon, Berkshire, England and died 15th Feb 1912. Why my gran had the photo is unknown to me. Cheers Trica

The story is that they set off the explosives whilst at 'smoko' (Coffee break) then came back after coffee when they thought it had cleared. Thomas went down but there was still gas around and all attempts to save him failed. He had been in Queensland for 4 years

The other photo's on this page have been supplied by Andy Moran who sent this note:

I have recently returned from a trip to Australia, during which we were exploring in the outback around 60km east of Mount Isa at the site of an abandonded mine cemetery in the bush.
The site of the former Wee McGregor mine is some way off the modern highway and only accessible by 4x4, but there is little evidence of the town. The small cemetery is maintained with a notice board with a brief history of the place. In its heyday it was a large community with a hotel and two schools, narrow and standard gauge railways.
Other information is available if you google Wee McGregor mine, including the narrow gauge steam railways, about the only evidence left on site. The picture of the grave stone you have (third picture below) is not from the mine site, traditionally the graves were marked with a shovel, this still exists ( see attached) Thomas's grave is the only one with any additional marker. I have checked with the cemeteries register and the head stone is not listed. The nearest cemetery is at Mount Isa approx 60km but this did not exist until the 1920s, at the moment this cemetery is closed as it is overrun by 100s of thousands of fruitbats. One of the graves is that of Thomas Tame of Long Wittenham Nr. Abingdon. I know the Tame family are from Marcham, ironically my grandfather settled and died there when he returned from Australia in the 1960s. I thought this is likely to be part of your family tree, so I attach the photographs, if I can give you any more information please let me know.

Many thanks to both of these contributors.

A spade marks the grave

A plaque records the name 

A headstone existed in 1970

But has been replaced by 2010 
with a small metal cross

Click on the pictures for a bigger version

Another picture showing the Grave of Thomas Tame is at This site

If you don't find it then try searching for Thomas Tame and Wee Mcgregor at This site

If you are interested in Australian family history and require help then you can contact Trica via the web site Gentree Australia.

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