This memorial stone was laid March 13th 1905 by
William ‘Mabon’ Abraham Esq, M.P.

Rhondda’s first M.P. William ‘Mabon’ Abraham
Rhondda Labour Party is celebrating its Jubilee of Parliamentary representation. Rhondda has a great Labour history dating from 1885 when Mabon won the Rhondda seat from a coalowner candidate Mr F.L. Davies and ever since there has been unbroken alliance to the party. When Mabon tried for the seat the first time in 1885 the account of poll that came out was in favour of F.L. Davies that he had won the seat and his supporters in their joy took the horses out of the carriage and brought them all the way up to Maerdy to tell the people in Maerdy that he had won. But what a disappointment he had when he returned to Ferndale and heard that the counting of the papers was wrong. They had mislaid the box containing the Maerdy votes. This box turned the tables in favour of Mabon and Mabon always thought a great deal of Maerdy people; he loved them so well that he always called them his children.
William ‘Mabon’ Abraham M.P. and first president of the South Wales Miners’ Federation commenced mining as an underground ‘door boy’. In 1870 he was elected a miners’ agent. From 1892 to 1898 the South Wales miners did not work on the first Monday of each month, a scheme to limit output in order to maintain wages, it also gave opportunities for holding miners’ meetings). This was known as ‘Mabon’s Monday’ and known in Mardy Colliery when we had a day off as ‘Mabon’s Day’.