Keith Price writes:
I notice they are in the process of changing the name of Tom Jones Street and thought you may find the history of Tom Jones of some interest.
Tom Jones was born in 1866 in Bagilt Holywell in Wales.
He emigrated to South Africa in 1894 and took a job as an engine winding driver at Van Ryn Estates Gold Mine.
The now Benoni Country Club was the original recreation club of Van Ryn Estates.
Jones signed up with the British Army and fought in the Boer War.
After the war he returned to work at Van Ryn Estates Gold Mine, leaving in 1908 to start a shop in the newly established town of Benoni.
He opened a tobacco and hairdressing shop in Market Street, next to the old Cecil Hotel.
Jones was mayor of Benoni in 1918/1919 and was a leader in the Labour Party.
He led the Labour Party in Benoni during the 1922 Miners’ Revolution and his house in Prince’s Avenue was partly blown up during the revolution.
With the formation of Benoni in 1907, Lord Bedford named two streets – one Bedford Avenue and the second Bedford Street.
This caused some confusion and Bedford Street was later renamed Tom Jones Street in 1919.
For interest, St Dunstan’s School was started in 1918 when Tom Jones was mayor and two of his great-great-great-grandchildren are fourth-generation learners at the school.
So there has been over 100 years of connection between the pioneer Tom Jones and Benoni.
Editor’s note: Local historian Glynis Cox Millett-Clay responded: Lord Bedford did not, in fact, name the streets, but Sir George Farrar did. Bedford Avenue was one of the avenues named by Farrar as he came from the town Bedford in England. The second Bedford (Street) was also named by him, but because it caused so much confusion between the avenue and street, Bedford Street was changed to Tom Jones Street in 1919. Farrar named many of the streets, which run north-south, and avenues, which run east-west, in honour of places and people of his fondest memories in and around his hometown Bedford in England.
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