Thomas Checkley (1834-1880)
1881 Obituary [1]
THOMAS CHECKLEY was born at Ettingshall, near Wolverhampton, on 7th June 1834, his father, Mr. William Checkley, being a mining engineer.
After being educated at Queen Mary's School, Walsall, he followed the same profession in that town, where he also took a prominent part in all public affairs, being twice elected mayor, and subsequently appointed one of the borough justices.
He was interested in several collieries in the neighbourhood, in the management of which he took a very active part.
In 1875, in reporting upon proposals made for sinking for the Thick Coal under the New Red Sandstone, on the Hamstead estate near Birmingham, he predicted that it would be found at a depth of about 600 yard.; and in 1880 it was so found at 615 yards, of a thickness between 20 and 30 feet; and this in a neighbourhood where no previous attempt had been made for its discovery.
At the inundation of the Pelsall Colliery he rendered great assistance in the efforts to extricate the men and to relieve the sufferers, and subsequently prepared a very able report on the disaster.
After a very painful illness he died at Walsall on 23rd September 1880, at the age of forty-six.
He became a Member of the Institution in 1869.