The war memorial stood outside Roath Road Wesleyan Methodist Chapel.  When the chapel was bombed in WWII the memorial survived and can be seen in pictures of the bomb-damaged chapel.

The church was badly damaged during an air raid on March 3rd 1941. It was demolished in 1955.  Roath Road was renamed Newport Road in the early 1880s but the church kept its original name.

In a recollection shared on social media, Tony McCarthy recalls being involved when the war memorial was dismantled around about 1955, put on a porters trolley “borrowed” from the Infirmary, towed by pick-up van to  Trinity church on the corner of Piercefield Place and Newport Road and re-erected in it’s forecourt.  The memorial is believed to have fallen into a state of disrepair and eventually sadly disposed of.

The names on the memorial were recorded in an edition of the Roath Road church magazine Roath Road Roamer.  The names that were on the memorial are listed below.  Ian Walton, former Steward and Treasurer at Trinity Methodist, has carried out some   diligent research into the names of the fallen which he has kindly shared here.

George Wilfred Abbott

Private, 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards (Service Number 2506)

George Abbott was born in Abertillery, Monmouthshire in 1893 to Edwin Abbott and Emily Margaret Abbott née Collier.  By 1901 the family had moved to Roath and George’s father Edwin was working as a wood sawyer but he dies in 1903 leaving Emily to bring up the three sons.  In the 1911 census we find George working as a weights and measures assistant for the city council and the family living at 64 Cottrell Road, Roath.  George is killed in action on 25th September 1916 at the battle of the Somme.  He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial in France.  He was also remembered on the Roath Park Weslyan Church memorial.  Commonwealth War Graves Commission record.

Tom O Bailey

George Briggs

Willie (William) Brown:-

WILLIAM BROWN

Private, 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards (Service Number: 1661)

William ‘Willie’ Brown was born on 13 Oct 1898 to Frank Anthony Brown, an engineer, and Jane Alice Brown nee Chapman, originally from Bridlington, Yorks. William’s birth was registered in Cardiff but his army records state he was born in Ilfracombe. He was baptised on 29 Nov 1898 in Roath and their address given as 38 Coedcae Street, Grangetown. By 1901 they had settled in Roath and were living at 89 Donald Street. In 1911, when William is admitted to Gladstone School, the Brown family are living at 69 Arabella Street, Roath. He left school in Jan 1913 and his father died in 1915.  William was a member of the Roath Road Wesleyan Methodist church.  He enlisted in the army in Cardiff and was a member of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards.  He died of wounds on 6 Dec 1917 aged 19 and is buried at Etaples Military Cemetery in France (grave XXXI.B.19). He was remembered on the Roath Road church memorial (now lost). He is also possibly the William Brown on the Clifton Street chapel memorial. Commonwealth War Graves Commission record.

Evan Charles Cutter

Sidney Dare

A Ernest Davies

William Percy (Percival) Deyes

Tudor Eglwysbach Evans

George Arthur Henry (Harry) Godfrey

Fred W Greenfield

John Albert Guy

Leonard Holmes Haime

Joe (Joseph) William Hatherdale

Albert Heath

Fred  Hoare

Ernest Harold James

Gilbert Aneurin Jenkins

Philip Arthur Jones

Oswald Reed Knapp

Hiram  Lewis

Will (William) James Lydiard

Herbert John Morrisey

Will (William) John Owen

Alec (Alexander)  Owen MM

Hector John Page

Arthur Baden Page

Alec (Alexander)  Patten

Joe (Joseph)  Patten

Will (William)  Poyner

Ernest Vivian Radcliffe

Charlie Richards

Fred (Frederick)  Richards

William J Ring

Willie (William) Henry Seager:-

WILLIAM HENRY SEAGER

Second Lieutenant, 10th Battalion, South Wales Borderers

William ‘Willie’ Henry Seager was born in Cardiff on 28 Jan 1893 to William Henry Seager, originally from Cardiff and Margaret Annie Seager née Elliot originally from South Shields, County Durham.  His father was a prominent ship-owner and ship’s chandler who was knighted in 1918 who was also the Liberal MP for Cardiff East between 1918 and 1928. In 1901 the Seager family lived at Pitman Street, Riverside but moved to 203 Newport Road shortly afterwards. Willie spent three years at Cardiff High School from 15 Jan 1903 until 1906.  He then completed his education at Queen’s College, Taunton.  He was an active member of the Roath Road Wesleyan Chapel and was closely involved with the Sunday School there.  He was first employed with the Cardiff ship-owners and coal exporters Lambert Brothers Ltd.  After gaining experience in the shipping trade with them, when he was 21, he joined his father’s firm W.H. Seager and Co on 14 Feb 1914 and was later made a director while in the Army.  At the outbreak of war, he attempted to enlist but was rejected twice as medically unfit.  However, he persisted and was finally accepted at the third attempt.  His address then was given as 60 Newport Rd.  By Dec 1914.he was serving as a private in No. 2 Company 21st Battalion Royal Fusiliers (4th Public Schools) which was then in training at Ashstead, Surrey. That month, however, he applied for a commission in the Welsh Army Corps and  he was eventually commissioned second lieutenant on 4 May 1915, joining the 10th Battalion (1st Gwent) South Wales Borderers who were at  Colwyn Bay.  After further training near Winchester at Hursley Park and Hazely Down, the 10th South Wales Borderers went out to France with the rest of the 38th (Welsh) Division in Dec 1915, landing at Le Havre on the 4th. The Welsh Division spent the next few weeks training and by mid-January they were deemed ready to take over part of the front line themselves near Neuve Chapelle.  At this time, it was a fairly quiet area, apart from snipers and shellfire. Very shortly afterwards, however, while Willie was supervising the repair of a trench which had been damaged by shellfire, he was hit in the chest by sniper-fire.  After only a few weeks in the front line, Second Lieutenant William Seager was killed in action at Neuve Chapelle on 7 Feb 1916. He was 23. His company commander wrote: “By his unbounded generosity, joviality and capability he has endeared himself to every officer and man of the company. The men have lost a brilliant leader, and I – well, I have lost a brother who was my right-hand man.”  He was buried by his comrades nearby at what is now St. Vaast Post Military Cemetery, Richebourg L’Avoué, six miles north-east of Béthune (grave II. O. 11). Commonwealth War Graves Commission record.  He is commemorated on the Cardiff High School memorial plaque, Queen’s College Taunton memorial, Roath Road Wesleyan Church war memorial and Cardiff Coal Exchange war memorial.  Within months of his death, his parents donated funds in his name for a new operating theatre at the Cardiff Royal Infirmary and a special memorial plaque was placed there.  A similar plaque existed in Whitchurch Hospital.  They also endowed a bed in his memory at the Royal Hamadryad Seamen’s Hospital in the Docks.  In addition, his parents dedicated two stained glass windows to his memory: one at Conway Road Methodist Church in Canton; and the other at Roath Road Wesleyan Chapel, which was located at the junction of City Road and Newport Road but destroyed by bombing during the Blitz.  In 1939, the Willie Seager Memorial Trust was established to build and manage ten homes in Newport Road for retired seamen and their wives.  In 1995, the Trustees replaced these with ten new homes in Westville Place, Penylan. Exactly a hundred years to the day after his death, in a special centenary service, the Willie Seager Trust dedicated a memorial stone at St. Edward’s Church in Roath to his memory, now outside the houses in Westville Place.  Cardiff schoolchildren also used to compete annually for the Seager Baseball Cup. Finally, he is remembered on the Seager family grave at Cathays cemetery.

Arthur Llewellyn Small

Herbert J Stone

John Clement Taylor

Arthur L Thornley

Alfred Henry Warden:-

Air Mechanic 2nd Class, No.12 Training Depot Station, Royal Air Force (Service Number 125427)

Alfred Henry Warden was born in Cardiff in late 1898/early 1899 to Alfred James Warden, a carpenter, originally from Devonport, Devon, and Emily Elizabeth Warden nee Ellis, originally from Bristol.  He was baptised in St Andrew’s parish church on 28 Jan 1899.  The family lived at 45 Donald Street, Roath.  After leaving school he followed his father into the carpentry trade and joined the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters & Joiners when he was 16. He joined the RAF on 2 Jul 1917 and was promoted to Air Mechanic 2nd Class on 26 Jan 1918. His job in the RAF was an aero rigger.  He died on 25 Sep 1918 at Andover, Hampshire aged 19.  He is buried at Cathays Cemetery (grave EA. 2163).  His brother John fell in France and is remembered at the foot of Alfred’s headstone at Cathays.  Alfred was also listed on the Roath Road Wesleyan Methodist church memorial which has since been lost. Commonwealth War Graves Commission record.

Albert Watson

Harry Thomas Winstone