Richard Tilden Smith was born in New South Wales, Australia, on 14th October 1865, as the descendant of a yeoman farmers, who travelled to Australia from Sussex. He was the son of a banker, who died while Richard was still a teenager, but left his an estate and land with gold deposits on 5 million acres of land and with 75,000 head of cattle. Richard first came to England after the Australian banking cross in 1893. He tried his luck later when he invested in the South African gold rush, when he refinanced derelict property. He became one of the founding members of the British Bank of Northern Commerce – later incorporated into Harms. By 1905, he was involved with one of Arthur Burr’s companies, Kent Collieries Ltd. and by 1910, a new company called Channel Collieries Trust Ltd was established, with particular interest in the Shakespeare (Dover) Colliery.
In 1915, Tilden Smith still had his sights on the development of the Kent Coalfield and made a bid to purchase Tilmanstone Colliery. By 1918, with a total subscribed share capital of £1 million, he formed the National Metal and Chemical Bank, which became his main holding company. He went ahead with selling his interests in the National Smelting Company and mines in Burma to the Bank in 1923, before setting up the Share Guarantee Trust. Through the Trust he then bought shares from the shareholders in the East Kent Colliery Company and at the end of 1924 the Share Guarantee Trust almost a third of the first mortgage debentures in the colliery. On 13th February 1925, the Official Receiver appointed Richard as the general manager of the colliery. As the colliery was at threat of closure the directors of the colliery company put forward a scheme, but no backer came forward.
Richard setup a new company, Tilmanstone (Kent) Collieries Limited, and then applied for permission to reconstruct the colliery, since he was already the manager. During his time as the manager of the colliery, he wanted to create better cooperation between the management and the workers. He devised plans to improve industrial relations by converting his Elvington Court mansion into a place of lodging for up to 150 miners, while also allowing the miners and their families to convert an adjacent barn into a recreational area with a gymnasium, dance floor and theatre with seating capacity for 750 people. The converted barn had the addition of electric lightning and hearing being installed. A miners representative was also provided.
In 1927, work also began on the expansion of Elvington, where there had originally only been 32 houses and a library, later the Elvington Working Men’s Club from around 1911. Richard had approached Pastry Rural District with his plans to erect more homes for the miners and their families, as many of the miners and other colliery workers were travelling to the colliery each shift from lodgings they had to find in local towns and villages. As a result, the Elvington Town Scheme was initiated and 230 houses were soon being built by R J Barwick Building Contractor, Dover, from 1927.
During his time as manager at the colliery, he became concerned with the increasing rates being charged by the railways, who were responsible for transporting coal out of the colliery. Richard felt the rates of transport were too high, which led to the construction of a 7.5 miles aerial ropeway, which carried coal between the colliery to Dover Harbour. In addition, Richard sought to increase profits at the colliery with the idea of new surface and coal cleaning plants costing £15,000, and a new boiler being installed to help with pulverising coal. This was introduced to deal with poor quality coal, which was crushed and moved with pitch. As a result, the mixture was ‘cooked’ using super-heated steam from 400 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, before being pressed into either rectangular industrial briquettes to ovoid shaped ‘Coaloid’ as it was commercially known.
While living in England, he also commissioned the construction of the pioneering steel-framed building, which became known as Adelaide House, situated on the north bank of the River Thames, beside London Bridge. This property was built for his National Metal and Chemical Bank company.
Plans had been made by Richard to see an ‘Industrial Eden created in East Kent’ with different industries being linked by the supply of coal from Tilmanstone Colliery to local power stations, brickworks, iron ore mines, cement works and a carbonisation plant, using the aerial ropeway to transport coal between each industry.
Richard had long argued for the government to create a Coal Board, under which all collieries in the country would be compulsorily amalgamated. He felt it would enable to coal industry to be put on a sound economic footing and also be more competitive with the increasing amounts of cheaper coal being imported from aboard. On 18th December 1929, Richard was at the House of Commons to lobby Parliament for the plan of a Coal Bill or Coal Board. The plans were under discussion and Richard put forward his argument for the plan. However, during lunch Richard suddenly collapsed and died. Richard died before the full length of the aerial ropeway was operating, so his eldest daughter Mrs Pip Eldridge opened the second section of the ropeway in January 1930.
News of his death was reported in the ‘Register News-Pictorial (Adelaide, South Australia) 1929-1931 – Saturday 8th February 1930’: –
“Mr. Tilden Smith leaves £330,433 – London, Thursday – Mr. Richard Tilden Smith, the colliery proprietor and financier, formerly of Sydney, who dropped dead at the House of Commons on December 18, left £330,433. Mr. Tilden Smith, who was 64, was proprietor of Tilmanstone Colliery in Kent, and a Director of the National Metal and Chemical Bank, and of the Guarantee and Underwriters’ Trust. He left a widow and four daughters.”
Colin Varrall
‘Give Me The Child – An Early Story of the Kent Coalfield’ by Brian Elks
Brian Elks book quotes this speech to the workforce at the Tilmanstone Colliery Fete by Richard Tilden Smith on the 1st August 1929: –
“Together, you and I, we have transformed this place. Since we set up the Joint Management Committee there has been a perceptible change to the whole atmosphere at our colliery. Men actually smile and wish me a good day! There was a time when I could not go there, the feeling of distrust, the anger, the lack of enthusiasm and uncoordinated effort were an affront to us all. But that has been transformed to my very great pleasure and pride, in only a few years. There is a fine future ahead of us. Let me say, we are not on opposite sides – we are on the same side in this venture. You are not my employees, you are my associates. We must work together for harmony and prosperity. Soon we will open the ropeway to take our coal to Dover. Think of that, within a few hours of the coal being dug out it will be entering a ship in Dover Harbour. We have in our coalfield three important ingredients, coal, chalk and clay. I am looking at the ways in which we can exploit this to create a cement manufacturing. Then there is gas. The new gas manufacturing process industry will allow us to provide all the gas that East Kent can consume. When we combine all these manufacturers with a new electricity generating plant we will attract industries from all over the country. That is my vision of the future. Together we will make it happen – by our example we will lead to a new era of expansion to ensure our future is bright and prosperous. Not just for ourselves but for the many out there who will progress from our vision and reap the benefits of joint enterprise, co-operation and harmony.”
Brian Elks wrote: ‘It was a great loss to the men of Tilmanstone when within four months of the fete, Tilden Smith died at the age of 64. The most harmonious relationship in the Kent coalfield, almost without precedent in the country, came to an end but his legacy in the form of the Joint Management Committee lived on for many years.’
Photographs for the article
Photo.1 – Richard Tilden Smith
Photo.2 – Richard speaking with miners in the grounds of Elvington Court
Photo.3 – A section of the aerial ropeway exiting the cliffs above Dover Harbour
Photo.4 – Elvington Court
Photo.5 – Some of the miners who lodged at Elvington Court
Photo.6 – London Bridge and Adelaide House
