The East Window is Dedicated to the Glory of God and in Memory of:

JOHN KENNETH AINSLEY

Second Lieutenant, 77 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery (Service Number 189933)

John Kenneth Ainsley was born in Cardiff in 1910 to Thomas Liddle Ainsley, a marine compass adjuster, and Evelyn Hetta Ainsley nee Spencer. He was baptised on August 21st at St Andrew & St Teilo in Cathays.  The family home in the 1911 census was Column Road in the centre of Cardiff.  The Ainsley family later moved to Lake Road West.  John Ainsley married Barbara  Mary Allin in 1937 in Cardiff and they had one child together living at the Allin family home in Cyncoed Crescent.  John joins the Royal Artillery TA in 1938 based at Maindy Barracks, Cardiff.  The 77 HAA Regiment RA sailed from the Clyde bound for the Middle East on 6^th December 1941.   By the time they reached Durban, South Africa early in Jan 1942 their destination had been changed to Singapore.  Their destination was changed again to Batavia (now called Djakarta).  They arrived at Batavia on board the Empress of Australia on 4^th Feb 1942.  In the early hours of 6 Feb 1942 a troop train carrying part of 77 HAA Regiment RA was involved in a rail accident just outside Soerabaja when it smashed into an ammunition train on a single track on a bridge over a ravine.  Some thirty members of 77 HAA Regiment RA, including John Kenneth Ainsley, were killed in the accident and nearly one hundred were injured.  He died aged 31 and is buried/remembered at Jakarta War Cemetery (ref: Mem. 5. E. 14).  He is also remembered on the war memorial plaque in St Ederyn’s church, Cardiff and All Saints Church, Cyncoed.  Commonwealth War Grave Commission record.   A memorial board to the dead of 77th (Welsh) HAA Regiment was carved with a penknife by a prisoner of war in Changi POW Camp, and hung in a church built by the POWs. The church was destroyed by the Japanese, but the memorial was later found and re-hung in the Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Chapel, Cardiff.

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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.

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Idris E Bolton

Robert J Cadwallader

Paul Clompus

Brian H Evans

Francis W Gaccon

Colin C Hill

Vivian Hobbs

John N L Isaac

Robert J Merrett

D Vaughan Phillips

Kenneth J Regan

Denys Graeme Temple Richard

Denis P Smith

Basil Taylor

Denzil V Thomas

Peter A J Watts

Kingston J E Webb

Derek G Williams

Gordon W Williams

From this Parish and District Who Gave Their Lives In The World War 1939 – 1945