Our next meeting:
Newsletter:
Our February Newsletter is now available online and contains the following interesting articles:-
- Stanley House/47 The Walk, Tredegarville, Cardiff – its History Part 1 by Nicky Macartney
- Forewarned is Forearmed – the Royal Observer Corps in Cardiff during the Cold War by Jon Roberts
Our latest blog:
I wonder is King Charles recalls posing for his first portait? The painter was Margaret Lindsay Williams. To claim she was a Roath girl is probably stretching it a bit though she was born in Gordon Road, off Richmond Road but then her parents moved to Barry soon afterwards. She was a prolific and very talented artist. Read more about her life in our latest blog: Margaret Lindsay Williams – Royal Portrait Artist.
Latest Addition to the Roath Virtual War Memorial
WILLIAM ROBERT BLACK
Able Seaman, S.S. Clarissa Radcliffe, Merchant Navy
William ‘Bill’ Robert Black was born on 26 Mar 1902 in Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland to William Robert Black, an insurance agent, originally from Londonderry, Northern Ireland and Jane Kerr Black nèe Kerr, originally from Greenock, Renfrewshire. In 1928 he married Mary Margaret Morrison in Greenock. They moved to Reading, Berkshire and had two children together. Bill worked as an insurance agent and was a member of the local Caledonian Society. He was also a keen swimmer; the Berkshire one-mile swimming champion, Hon. Sec of the Lodden Swimming Club. In the late 1930s the family moved to Cardiff. At the time of the 1939 Register they are living at ‘Corrie’ Derwyn Rd, Cyncoed with Bill working as a manager at a District Industrial Insurance company. He died on 18 Mar 1943, aged 41, serving as an able seaman aboard S.S. Clarissa Radcliffe. The ship was part of an Atlantic convoy but had become a straggler in stormy conditions and is thought to have been torpedoed sunk in mid-Atlantic with all 53 people on board lost (some sources quote the S.S. Clarissa Radcliffe being lost on 9 Mar). His body was not recovered but he is remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial for Merchant Seamen and on a WWII Memorial in All Saints Church, Cyncoed. Commonwealth War Grave Commission record.
You may like to consider joining our new Roath Local History Society Facebook group. It is another way of sharing some of the fascinating history of the area and of advertising our society.
Just follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/roathlocalhistorysociety
You will be asked to answer one simple question on joining: ‘What city is Roath in?’ This may seem strange but it is to try and prevent robots joining the group.
Society Background:
Roath is a suburb of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Our area of interest is not just Roath as we know it today but all areas that were in the ancient parish of Roath. That includes the suburbs of Adamsdown, Splott, Tremorfa, Pengam, Plasnewydd, Penylan, parts of Cathays and Cyncoed as well as Roath itself.
Our lively and interesting meetings are held at 7.30pm on the second Wednesday of the month from September through to May. See Programme for details.
We meet at St Edward’s church, Westville Road, Pen-y-lan, Cardiff. CF23 5DE.
Annual membership is just £13 (membership form) and visitors are welcome to attend any meeting for £3.
In June and July we undertake a series of trips to places of historic interest in both Cardiff and the wider South Wales area.
We are now over 40 years old. More information on our activities can be found on the Society page. A Short History of Roath Local History Society has also recently been added and can be found on the Society page.
We have published a number of books about Roath history. These together with links to other books of interest can be found on the Publications page.
On our Links page we have listed websites that ma be of interest to people studying local history in the Cardiff and surrounding areas.
In our Local History section we have started to assemble articles on a whole range of topics connected to the old parish of Roath.
Finally, we draw your attention to our Blog. We hope you enjoy the posts and having a wander around the website.
Thanks for visiting.
Roath Local History Society 