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According to the book The Newport Docks
& Railway Company
A hero of the disaster was Thomas Lewis, a young lad of 16. When hope was still fresh in the
hearts of those whose men and sons were trapped, this lad risked his life to try to save them.
Thomas was a newspaper
boy whose father worked on the docks as a stevedore. The noise of steam whistles seemed to carry for miles, and Wallis Street,
where Thomas lived, was like many other streets near the docks soon filled with talk of the disaster.
An injured man,
Fred Bardill was found alive amongst the wreckage of broken beams and twisted metal, but the hole to reach him was narrow,
to narrow for the broad-shouldered men of the rescue teams. Young Thomas went down, twisting his body as he worked his way
through the fissure, crawling inch by inch until he finally reached the trapped man. With an effort in that maze of timber
he started to free him, but before he was able to lead him to safety another fall started. With timbers starting to move it
was all Thomas could do to scramble back upwards to safety before the narrow gap collapsed. However, Tom had managed to free
Fred's hand and foot and the gangers went down and pulled him to freedom.
As a mark of his heroism Thomas Lewis was
invited to tea at Buckingham Palace and while there he was awarded the Albert Medal, Britains highest award for civil bravery
in peace time. The inscription reads Gallantry in Saving Life on Land
Tom Lewis died in April 1969.
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