Sir George Lewis – where is he?

Posted on March 29, 2023 by roathhistory

Can you help us track down Sir George Lewis. He’s been reported missing.

A recent enquiry into our website asked if we knew of his whereabouts. It came from Steve Parlanti whose ancestors owned Parlanti Bronze Foundries in London. Steve has been busy piecing together the history of the foundry and tracking down the bronze casts that were made there. He’s put his findings together on an interesting website.

Of the many pieces of art made by Parlanti foundries, three are here in Cardiff, all close to each other. There are:

Boer War memorial by Cardiff City Hall. In his book of 1953, ‘Casting A Torso In Bronze’, Ercole J Parlanti wrote about the direct lost wax method, and mentioned how it was used for the casting in bronze of a small tree fixed in the hand of a Figure of Victory, part of the Cardiff War memorial. A real tree was used in this case, the brick-dust mixture applied to it, the wood burned out in the baking, and the molten metal run in its place. The casting was successful.

The Scott memorial plaque is in the City Hall. This was designed by a young sculptor W.W.Wagstaffe. The tablet had a troubled creation. Cardiff donated generously towards Scott’s expedition to the Antarctic but it seems were far less generous when it came to establishing a Memorial Fund to him. Wagstaffe claimed the tablet ended up costing him more to have made than he was paid. Delivery of the tablet was also delayed because the foundry had been ordered to temporarily suspend all artistic work for the production of vital munitions.

Morpheus by the sculptor William Goscombe John made in 1890 in the National Museum of Wales. This figure was modelled in Paris during the studentship which followed the sculptor’s winning of the Royal Academy Gold Medal of 1889. Goscombe John frequented Rodin’s studio and the pose of this figure recalls Rodin’s Age of Bronze. At the Royal Academy in 1891 it was exhibited with the poetic caption ‘Drown’d in drowsy sleep of nothing he takes keep’. When I tried to visit Morpheus at the museum recently I was told he’d been removed because of Covid. Here’s wishing him a speedy recovery.

Parlanti castings in Cardiff: Boer War memorial, the Scott memorial plaque and Morpheus.

What we are looking for is a fourth casting. In the West London Observer of 31 Aug 1900 there is a list of pieces made at the Alexander Parlanti foundry including “Sir George Lewis for Cardiff”. Given the dates the foundry existed it is believed this must have been referring to a cast made some time between 1890 and 1900.

A quick internet search throws up two people called Sir George Lewis of notoriety.

Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863). He was born in Radnorshire and later became MP for Herefordshire and held senior positions in government including Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He is best known for preserving neutrality in 1862 when the British cabinet debated intervention in the American Civil War. He is remembered in New Radnor with a striking stone monument erected in 1864. Sir George Lewis is also remembered in Hereford with a statue which was unveiled also in 1864 some 35 years prior to the one referred to in the newspaper article so not the one we are looking for. There is also a bust of him by Henry Weekes in Westminster Abbey.

Sir George Cornewall Lewis, the New Radnor monument and statue in Hereford.

The other Sir George Lewis (1833-1911) was a lawyer from London. On the face of it he has no obvious association with Cardiff. It would also be relatively unusual for a statue to be commissioned of someone still alive though one of Cardiff’s statues bucks that trend.

So where is the missing statue of Sir George Lewis? Can you help find him please.

William Erbery – Founder of the first non-conformist church in Cardiff

Posted on January 20, 2023 by roathhistory

Wales is known for its history of non-conformity and abundance of chapels.

The first Nonconformists in Cardiff were probably the heretics, who, after the Reformation, were hanged or burnt at the stake for their faith. New ideas were a threat to the authority of the Church and the stability of society.

In Cardiff, two men were burnt for their beliefs: Thomas Capper in 1542 and Rawlins White in 1555. Rawlins White was a local fisherman. He was executed in 1555 in the centre of Cardiff for his protestant beliefs. He is said to have been given opportunity to escape and renounce his beliefs but refused to. When his time came to be executed he asked his wife to bring him his wedding outfit so he would look his best. It is even said he helped neatly build up the wood around his feet. There is a plaque to him in the old Bethany Baptist Church which has now been subsumed into the House of Frasier department store.

These were individuals and founded no new church, but in the 1630s all that was to change with William Erbery. It was his followers who set up the first non-conformist church in Cardiff, Trinity chapel in Womanby Street, opposite the castle, in 1697. William had been dead 45 years by that stage but his followers and their descendants are thought to have continued to meet in secret after his death, until in 1697 they were given the freedom to build their own church.

Life of William Erbery

William Erbery was born in Roath in 1604 or more precisely Roath Dogfield. His father, Thomas Erbery, was a merchant who had probably come across from the West Country of England to establish an iron foundry in the Merthyr Valley before moving to Cardiff. It is probable that Thomas married Elizabeth, daughter of Rees David, a Cardiff cordwainer.

William entered Brasenose College, Oxford in 1619, graduated in 1623 and proceeded to Queens’ College, Cambridge where he earned a second degree in 1626. He subscribed for deacon’s orders in the diocese of Bristol a December 23rd 1626 and became curate in St Woolos in Newport in 1630.

He remained at Newport until 1633 when he became vicar of St Mary’s in Cardiff. He had been presented with the living by Sir Thomas Lewis of Penmarc, a member of the influential Puritan Lewis family of Y Fan. The Lewis family were patrons of William Wroth and business associates of Erbery’s father.

He became vicar at St Mary’s in August, 1633. St Mary’s church is no longer standing. The church was badly damaged when the River Taff flooded in 1607 with bones and coffins from its graveyard being washed out to sea. Accounts state a mini tsunami swept up the Bristol Channel! Saint Mary’s was finally abandoned in 1701. The church gave its name to nearby St Mary’s Street. A new St Mary’s church was later built on Bute Street, south of the railway station. The current Prince of Wales pub now stands on this church’s original site. On the side of the pub on Gt. Western lane entrance is an unusual outline of the original Saint Mary’s church.

Immediately after becoming vicar of St Mary’s William Erbery expressed his Puritan convictions. The ‘Book of Sports’ was issued on October 18th, 1633 and all clergy were instructed to read the King’s commands in Sunday worship. One of the aims of the Act was to root out ‘Puritans and precise people’ who would object to the playing games and sports on the Sabbath. Erbery refused to read out the ‘Book of Sports’, and as a result he was summoned to appear before William Murray, Bishop of Llandaff and subsequently before the Court of High Commission at Lambeth. The Bishop of Llandaff had branded him a schismatic After a long process he resigned his living in 1638.

The Archbishop wrote to Charles I saying that the vicar of St Mary’s in Cardiff was very disobedient to your Majesty’s instructions.

Erbery’s refusal to read the ‘Book of Sports’ led to a lengthy struggle between him and William Murray, Bishop of Llandaf. The controversy may have begun with Murray, but it soon reached the ear of Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and even the King. In his annual reports to Charles, Laud referred to his struggles with the schismatic Erbery. Ultimately Erbery was summoned to appear before Laud at the Court of High Commission at Lambeth. Laud’s reports to the King present important and intriguing reading.

REPORT FOR 1634

The Bishop of Landaff certifies. That this last Year he Visited in Person: and found that William Erbury, Vicar of St. Maries in Cardiff, and Walter Cradocke his Curate, have been very disobedient to your Majesty’s Instructions, and have Preached very Schismatically and Dangerously to the People. That for this he hath given the Vicar a Judicial Admonition, and will farther proceed, if he do not submit, And for his Curate, being a bold ignorant young Fellow, he hath Suspended him, and taken away his License to serve the Cure. Among other things he used this base and Unchristian passage in the Pulpit, that God so loved the world, that for it he sent his Son to live like a Slave, and dye like a Beast.

In 1638 William Erbery was deprived of his occupation for refusing to read “The Book of Sports” and along with similar minded members of the congregation of St Mary’s. He preached for some years in secret in various parts of England and Wales, and on his return to Cardiff in the latter part of 1639.

Around 1640, or at the end of the previous year, the radical cleric Rev William Erbery set up his own church with his followers but in the Civil Wars was about to start.

His Cardiff property was plundered by the Royalists though it is unclear whether this was his house in Roath or a vicarage in St Mary’s parish.

Like his fellow Puritans in south-east Wales, Erbery was forced to flee from the Royalist forces because ‘the sword scattered us all into England’. Erbery made his way to Windsor Castle where he sought help from Christopher Love who was serving as chaplain tan Venn, Governor of the castle. s parish.

Erbery played a role in petitioning the House of Commons about the need for a godly ministry in Wales:-

The first indication of the Welsh radicals pressing their case for reform came in December 1640, when William Erbery submitted a petition to the Commons… he, and the clique of Puritan ministers associated with him, saw his role to be that of a spokesman for the whole of Wales… It was noted on the surviving copy of this petition that it was granted on 12 January 1641, and liberty was given by the Commons to a closely-associated group of Welsh radicals – quite possibly those mentioned as attending on parliament – to preach throughout Wales. They were Erbery himself, Walter Cradock, Henry Walter, Ambrose Mostyn and Richard Symonds.”

He became chaplain, when the English Civil War broke out in 1642, to the regiment of Philip Skippon in the Parliamentary Army.

Erbery played a key role in the Oxford Disputations. He was a prime cause of the growth of sectarianism amongst students and soldiers (a heady mix!) in the city. Oxford had fallen to the parliamentary Army in the summer of 1646, and Erbery was there soon after the city’s liberation/capture. His lectures and preaching created such a ferment in the city that parliament sent six Presbyterian ministers to maintain the orthodox line. The visitors reported to parliament that ‘they found the University and City much corrupted’. Five separate accounts have survived of the debates between the Presbyterians and Erbery. They make fascinating reading and provide a contemporary picture of a critical struggle between those, like Erbery, who were ‘enquiring only, and seeking the Lord our God’, and those, like Francis Cheynell, who feared that ‘a licentious spreading of damnable doctrines would be disturbing the civill peace and power’.

When Oxford fell to the parliamentary forces, Erbery was in the limelight in instructing and supporting the rebellious students and soldiers. He defended his position vigorously against six Presbyterian visitors sent by parliament to force Erbery and his followers to submit to orthodoxy. He was obliged to leave the city at the instruction of General Fairfax.

Erbery wrote a letter to Oliver Cromwell in 1652. The letter’s survival is remarkable. Found in the political papers of John Milton, it was first published by John Nickolls in his collection of Cromwell’s letters and papers of state in 1743.

Mr. William Erberry, to the Lord General Cromwell.

SIR,

Greate thinges God has done by you in warr, and good things men expect from you in peace; to breake in pieces the oppressor, to ease the oppressed of their burdens, to release the prisoners of their bandes, and to relieve poore familys with bread, by raisinge a publique stocke out of the estates of the unrighteous rich ones, or parliamentary delinquents and from the ruines of most unjust courts, judicatures and judges, brought in by the conqueror, and embondaging the commonweale; as alsoe the tythes of the preists, the fees of the lawyers, whom the whole land has longe cry’d out and complain’d against, besides the many unnecessary clerks offices, with the attendants to law, who are more oppressive and numerous then the prelates and their clergicall cathedrall company, whom (from the highest to the lowest, and least Querister) God in judgment has rooted out; by whose fall, as some have bin raysed, and many enriched, so now the poare of the nation are waiting at your gates, beseeching your Excellency to move effectually our present Governors, to hasten | a publique treasury for them, from those, that there be noe begger in Israel, nor base covetousness among Christians; but that it may be punished as double idolatry by the magistrate, as the primitive ministers of Christ did excommunicate the covetous (amonge the worst of men) out of the churches. If this virgin commonwealth could I bee preserved chast and pure, if the oppressed, the prisoner, and the poore might bee speedily heard and helped, how would the most high God bee praysed, and men pray for you, and your most unworthy servant professe himselfe in truth, Sir,

Yours for ever in the Lord,

and in all Christian service,

WILLIAM ERBERRY

London, the 19th of July, 1652.

After this he preached for some time at Christ Church, Newgate Street. London, until he was summoned before the Committee for Plundered Ministers at Westminster in 1652 to explain the strange tenets held and the hetercdox doctrines preached by him. He published many books, one of which has an odd title : “Jack Pudding, or the Minister made of Black Pudding.” “Presented to R. Farmer, parson of Nicholas Church, at Bristol. 1654.” He was also a voluminous writer of pamphlets and tracts on religious subjects, and after his death an anonymous pamphlet was issued entitled “A small Mite in Memory of the late deceased and never to be forgotten Will Erbery.”

Finally in 1653, he was accused and tried for heresy at Westminster before a congregation of 500. This man of Roath, Cardiff did not live a quiet life. The last twenty years of his life often saw him hit the headlines, but after his death, he has been quietly forgotten.

He died in 1654 and believed to be buried in London.

Trinity Church

The original Trinity church Trinity burnt down in 1847 but was replaced soon afterwards with a fine classical frontage, the name ‘Trinity’ incised into the stonework.

A number of daughter churches were created including Charles Street Congregational and Llandaff Road. John Bachelor was a member of Trinity church. In 1888 Trinity Church was amalgamated with Llandaff Road Church and the Charity Commissioners approved the sale of Womanby Street Church, the proceeds of which were used to erect a new church in Cowbridge Road for the united congregation. The united congregation met in Llandaff Road Church until the new church, known as New Trinity Church, was opened on Cowbridge Road. The chapel on Womanby street was demolished and looks at one stage to have been a garage and when that was demolished more recently it was being used as a car park. It is now the beer garden for the Fuel Rock Club. I wonder what William would have thought of that.

Old view of Trinity Chapel, Womanby Street, Cardiff

References

This article quotes heavily from two sources:-

Cardiff Churches through Time – Jean Rose (see list of publications on our website)

and

The Honest Heretique – The Life and Work of William Erbery – John I Morgans – published by y Llolfa (2012) ISBN: 978 184771 485 5.

This is a very thorough and well researched book and recommended for anyone wanting to read more of the writings of William Erbery.

Back cover of this reference reads:-

Born in Roath, Cardiff, William Erbery (1604-1654) was a graduate of Oxford and Cambridge universities. He served as curate of St Woolos, Newport, and vicar of St Mary’s and St John’s in Cardiff. He was tried for his Puritanism at Lambeth Palace and resigned as a priest of the Church of England.

Erbery was the founder of the first Independent Church in Cardiff, and a chaplain in the parliamentary Army. He resigned as an Independent minister and was a forerunner of Quakerism. He was accused of heresy at St Mary’s, Oxford in 1646, and at Westminster in 1652. Although acquitted, he was stigmatised by his enemies as a ‘madman’. This stigma followed him into the second half of the twentieth century.

The Honest Heretique lets Erbery speak for himself. Containing 500 extracts from all of Erbery’s writings, the book presents the background to Erbery’s life and thoughts, introduces each of his tracts, and takes note of recent scholarship.

———

Mini-review by Professor M. Wynn Thomas, Swansea University of above reference on back of book:

William Erbery is one of Wales’ hidden writers. So unorthodox and daring a theological thinker was he, and so controversial was his social outlook, that many of his own and later times dismissed him as mentally unbalanced. His rebellious originality of mind has, however, proved altogether more intriguing to recent scholarship and a full-scale ‘rehabilitation’ of him, such as that attempted in Dr Morgans’ ground-breaking study, is as welcome as it is overdue.

——————————————————————–

Womanby Street, Cardiff – site of former Trinity Church

Brian Josephson – Nobel Prize winner

Posted on January 16, 2021 by roathhistory

There can’t be many people who win a Nobel Prize for something they discover as a 22-year old student. Brian Josephson from Pen-y-lan is the only Welshman so far to have won a Nobel Prize in Physics.

Family Background

Brian David Josephson was born on 4 Jan 1940 in Cardiff. He grew up in 26 Earl’s Court Road, Pen-y-lan, an only-child of Jewish parents. His father, Abraham Josephson, was a teacher at nearby Howardian High School. Abraham Josephson had been born in Salford to David and Betsy Josephson who had immigrated from Russia. Brian’s mother was Minnie ‘Mimi’ Josephson née Weisbard who was born in Swansea, to parents who had immigrated from Russia. Mimi had various jobs including teaching gifted children and as a reporter. She once interviewed Dylan Thomas. Brian has published a number of her poems.

Earl’s Court Road, Cardiff, the childhood home of Brian Josephson

School Days

Brian attended Marlborough Road Junior School before moving onto Cardiff High School. He credits Emrys Jones, his physics teacher at Cardiff High, with introducing him to the subject of theoretical physics. In the evenings he sometimes attended Pen-y-lan observatory that was on Cyncoed Road in what is now Cyncoed Gardens. In 1955, aged just 15 he was awarded a mathematics scholarship for Trinity College, Cambridge, having already obtained distinctions in pure and applied maths A-level. Despite being awarded the scholarship he decided not to go to Cambridge until 1957.

Undergraduate Days

He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1957 and received his BA in physics in 1960. He initially read maths at Cambridge but later switched to read physics. This was in the days when computers were the size of a whole room and built using valves. He published his first paper, dealing with aspects of the special theory of relativity and the Mössbauer effect, while still an undergraduate. All I can tell you about the Mössbauer effect is that it is to do with certain atomic nuclei bound in a crystal that emit gamma rays The story goes that Brian attended a lecture on the recently discovered Mössbauer effect and went away and did some calculations. He sent them to the Government’s Harwell Laboratory and so impressed were they that they sent a car with a uniformed chauffeur to pick him up at his Cambridge college and take him to Harwell to discuss the calculations further.

PhD Student

He chose to do a PhD at Cambridge in the Cavendish laboratory under Prof Brian Pippard. It was whilst studying for this PhD that he developed a theory that became known as the Josephson Effect. It is associated with superconductivity and his work came shortly after the phenomena had been explained.

So what is superconductivity? When electricity travels from the power station to your house quite a lot is ‘lost’ along the way. Think of it as a leaking hosepipe. With superconductivity none is lost along the way meaning there would be fewer power stations needed. Although many advances have been made in the understanding of superconductivity over the years it is not yet in everyday use in our homes.

Superconductors based on the Josephson Effect have however come into being and found wide usage in the scientific world. Perhaps the most widespread use is in superconducting quantum interference devices which have the wonderful abbreviation of SQUIDS and measure extremely small changes in magnetic fields.

For his prediction of the Josephson Effect he was awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize for Physics. The official citation from the Nobel Committee explains he was awarded the prize:

“for his theoretical predictions of the properties of a supercurrent through a tunnel barrier, in particular those phenomena which are generally known as the Josephson effects.”

which the Nobel website explains by:

In quantum physics matter is described as both waves and particles. One result of this is the tunneling phenomenon, which means that particles can pass through barriers that they should not be able to squeeze through according to classic physics. In 1962 Brian Josephson predicted unexpected results with superconductors, material that at low temperatures lacks electrical resistance. Without superimposed voltage, a current can result between two superconductors that are separated by a thin insulator. If a rectified voltage is added, on the other hand, an alternating current can result.

After his PhD, Josephson served as a research professor at the University of Illinois, USA, from 1965–66 and in 1967 he returned to Cambridge University as assistant director of research.

Brian Josephson and the Josephson Effect sketch – by Volker Steger

Pioneer of the paranormal

Ever since returning to Cambridge he has tended to work outside what people would consider as mainstream physics. Indeed, it could be said that he works in areas that are anathema to most physicists. He started studying the relationship between music, language and mind and in the early 1970s, started practising transcendental meditation and trying to find a scientific basis for telepathy. He has studied the brain and the paranormal for over 30 years.

In the 1970s he witnessed first-hand the metal-bending skills of Matthew Manning (similar skills to those of Uri Geller) and was intrigued by what he saw. He is quoted as saying “I think we are on the verge of discoveries which may be extremely important for physics. We are dealing with a new kind of energy. This force must be subject to laws. I believe ordinary methods of scientific investigation will tell us a lot more about psychic phenomena”.

He worked out of a cluttered office on the top floor of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge.

He describes himself as ‘the resident heretic’. Brian Josephson certainly has a reputation for being notoriously brilliant but also for taking on controversial subjects such as telepathy and the relation of mind and matter.

He retired in 2007 as a professor at Cambridge and is now emeritus professor, still based in the city. Presently he serves as director of the mind–matter unification project in the Theory of Condensed Matter research group. It is safe to say that he still goes by his guiding principle of ‘nullius in verba’ – take nobody’s word for it.

Brian married Carol Olivier in Cambridge in 1976 and they have one daughter Miranda Josephson. Brian’s abilities are not only in physics. He can also play music and has been known to compose pieces, so why not sit back and listen to his composition and see if it inspires you to come up with a new theory.

Brian Josephson plaque, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge

Brian Josephson plaque on the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.

Jan 2022 Update: Brian Josephson has kindly added some more information and clarification to the above article – see below in the comments section.

Roath Park Hotel

Posted on October 23, 2020 by roathhistory

The Roath Park Hotel on the corner of City Road and Kincraig Street dates back to 1886.

As of Oct 2020 it is currently under threat of being demolished and replaced with flats.

The three storey stone built property with a roof top platform surrounded by railings is the last remaining Victorian pub on City Road, or Castle Road as it was called when the hotel was built.

Castle Road, Roath, Cardiff with the Roath Park Hotel on the right.

it was built on land owned by the Mackintosh Estate. Urban development on the Mackintosh Estate began in 1886, but Wright’s Directory of Cardiff 1886 does not list Kincraig Street, so possibly the Roath Park Hotel was not in existence until 1887. An amended plan for some business premises at the junction in 1886 may refer to the building of the Roath Park Hotel, but would need to be examined in the Glamorgan archives (BC/S/1/5933).

We know that the Roath Park Hotel was in existence by 1889 at a time when the Sunday Closing (Wales) Act was in force and was the listed in the Cardiff Directories as being at 170 Castle Rd. It was the last of the Victorian hotels or public houses to be erected in City Rd the earliest being the Gardener’s Arms in what was then Plucca Lane in 1855 which was renamed as the Military Canteen by 1871 . Richard Steward was the first manager of the Roath Park Hotel until 1904.

By 1905 the Roath Park Hotel was under the management of Enoch D Howells who remained there until 1911, during which time a ban on children under 14 being allowed access to licensed premises was introduced in 1908. He was succeeded by Charles Kyd until 1913, who was in turn followed by Percy A Lewin from 1914 to 1920. From the Electoral Register we know that he lived on the premises with his wife Mary and a lodger(?), Jane Rossatt, a blouse maker. During World War I 1914 – 1918, early morning, afternoon and evening closing hours were introduced to combat the perceived evil effects of drinking on the war effort.

Edward J Lloyd was the manager in 1924 (WMCD). Plans exist of the hotel premises in police records between 1926 and 1955 and again can be found in the Glamorgan Archives (DCONC/6/11 a – c), By 1927 Samuel Davey had become the manager.. Photographs of him appear in the Cardiff Yesterday series, vol 8, photographs 55 and 56. The Cardiff Yesterday series can be seen in the Cardiff Heritage Library located in the Cathays Branch Library.

Samuel Davey, landlord of the Roath Park

The hotel mainly manages to keep itself out of the newspapers apart from the usual arguments about liquor licences in the 1890s, the occasional person walking in and dropping dead from natural causes and Mr Naish, a greengrocer, being accused was accused of regularly taking bets in there in 1936.

The 1939 Register shows the occupants as Douglas Buckner (hotel manager), Iris Buckner (hotel manageress), Phyliss Edwards (barmaid) and Ada Selt 9barmaid).

During the 1930’s and after World War II, many young people under 25 preferred the dance hall or the cinema, but fashion changes and in the 1960’s the ‘pub’ was once again in favour only to lose out to bars and clubs in the early 2000’s. Drinking habits, particularly in the evenings tended to revolve around the playing of darts and or skittles and in some public houses singing around a piano. Men would generally drink beer, often Brain’s Dark (the original). Drinkers of Bitter beer were in a minority. Women drank ‘shorts’ such as Gin and tonic or Gin and It (Italian Vermouth).

From 1949 the Roath Park Hotel continues to be listed in the Western Mail Cardiff Directory (WMCD), but the names of managers are no longer given. By 1971, the Electoral Register tells us that David Magee is the manager living in the flat above with his wife Anne. Babycham and Cinazano have now become the preferred drink for women. By the 1980’s the lager revolution was in full swing for both men and women. For drinking habits generally see The Little book of Cardiff by D Collins and G Bennett, 2015.

The Electoral Register still refers to the Roath Park Hotel when Melvyn E Evans was living on the premises from 2003 to 2004, but by 2009 it had become simply the Roath Park. Legislation in 2003 had transferred licensing powers from Magistrates to Local Authorities and in 2005 new licensing laws in England and Wales aimed to encourage a continental style café culture and introduced 24 hour licenses. As a result more people spread their drinking throughout the night and public houses continued to close.

An interesting assortment in the windows (photo credit: Sarah Louise on Flickr)

The Roath Park is the last Victorian public house to survive in City Road, there being I believe 8 in 1889. I do realise that fashion and economics are against its survival as a public house, but given the horrendous change in the topography of City Road, I think that a Victorian building is worth preserving even if put to other uses. An application should be made for listed building status and perhaps an approach made to the National Trust or the Landmark Trust. As King Edward VIII once famously said in South Wales, “Something must be done”.

Local councillors have organised a petition against the demolition of the Roath Park.

It had a skittle alley that was still there in the mid-1980s

. This history of the pub has just been added to the Roath Local History Society ‘Pubs’ page.

History researched by Malcolm Ranson & Ted Richards

John Vipond Davies – good at making connections

Posted on August 27, 2020 by roathhistory

Sometime last year I was flicking through the pages of a booklet that my late father had written ‘Welsh Expatriate Engineers of the 19th Century’, looking for any that may have had a connection to the Roath Area. I came across John Vipond Davies, a pioneering civil engineer. He wasn’t born in Cardiff but the Davies family did move here from Swansea. I started some research but must have got distracted and put it aside, as is often the case. Had it not been for a recent enquiry from his granddaughter asking about the family tree I had started to assemble on Ancestry, I may never have gone back to it. I’m glad I did as it’s another fascinating story.

John Vipond Davies was born in Swansea on 13 Oct 1862 to Andrew Davies, a surgeon and JP originally from Haverfordwest, and Emily Davies née Edmonds originally from Wantage, Berkshire.

The young J Vipond Davies with his mother Emily.

In the 1881 census the Davies family had moved to 2 Haswell Terrace on Newport Road, near the junction with West Grove. Dr Andrew Davies was working as a physician, possibly at the nearby Infirmary on Newport Road, the building which later became the University.

By 1881 John Vipond Davies had already been educated at Wesleyan College, Taunton, now called Queens College, before attending London University. In the 1881 census in Cardiff he is described as a student of Mechanical Engineering.

Newport Road, Cardiff with West Grove leading off to the left and the Davies house at 2 Haswell Terrace marked

Before we embark on looking at his impressive engineering career let’s step aside and look at something else I stumbled across. He played rugby for Cardiff. Not only that but there is a wonderfully clear photograph of him and the team from the 1881 season. Records aren’t necessarily all that complete from those early years of rugby. Cardiff RFC was only formed in 1876. We know he played at least six times for Cardiff including at half back in the Cup Final against Llanelli in March 1881, played at Neath. The match was scoreless at full time and went into extra time. When Cardiff scored a try in the second period of extra time the crowd invaded the pitch rendering further play impossible and Cardiff were declared the winners. It sounds like it was a boisterous affair, with a disputed try, claims of bias against the Cardiff official and a spot of crowd trouble. On their return the Cardiff team were met at station by a large crowd and carried shoulder high to the Queen’s Hotel where I guess a night of revelry ensued.

The 1881 Cardiff Rugby Football club cup winning team with Vipond Davies seated left (Photo: Cardiff Rugby Museum)

Getting back to Vipond’s engineering accomplishments, we are lucky to be able to refer to his application to join the Institution of Civil Engineers in which he detailed his early career in some depth. Between 1880 and 1884 he was apprenticed to Parfitt and Jenkins Engineers in Cardiff. These years would have been a busy time for an engineering company in Cardiff as industry, employment and the population all expanded rapidly centred on the coal exporting taking place in Cardiff docks. Parfitt and Jenkins Engineers had a foundry in Tyndall Street and were involved in manufacturing a range of things including locomotives, marine and stationary engines and boilers, points, crossings, turntables, cranes and railway bridges.

John Vipond Davies’s Apprentice Certificate still in the family and displayed on the office wall of his great grandson, also an engineer.

We also learn from a newspaper cutting of 1883 that Vipond was one of a group of Cardiff students to gain a distinction in an Cambridge Extension examination at the end of a course studying electricity.

After completing his training he embarks on a variety of roles in the South Wales area. His first job was to prepare plans for a fuel briquetting works for Charles M Jacobs. It was this association with C M Jacobs that took him to America but not for another five or so years. In between he gained experience working for the Blaenavon Coal and Iron Company designing blast furnaces, rolling mills and coke ovens. He also works for a time as a mine surveyor for the family business John Vipond & Co at Varteg.

In 1888 his career takes a different turn when he serves eight months as the 3rd Engineer on the newly built SS Argus, built in Newcastle but registered in Melbourne, Australia. The SS Argus was launched in 1889 so it is unclear if Vipond Davies was just involved in the construction and commissioning or whether he sailed on board too.

It appears to be in 1889 when John Vipond Davies left Wales for America with Charles M Jacobs that his career really took off. In 1892 he was Chief Assistant Engineer to Charles M Jacobs working on an 11 foot diameter railroad tunnel under the East River of New York. The project must have gone well for in 1894 he became a partner in the with C M Jacobs Engineering Company. He worked on railroads and water supply pipelines in Detroit, Ohio, West Virginia and Tennessee. In 1895 C M Jacobs also designed a 11,000 ft bridge to connect Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Perhaps his most prestigious project of the time was the Hudson River Tunnel Project for the Hudson and Manhattan Rail Road company, estimated in 1910 to have cost $60,000,000. The boroughs of New York are separated by rivers and it is perhaps interesting to think the key part Welshman Vipond Davies had in its development.

After achieving much in New York he moved on to design the Moffat Tunnel through the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

The Moffat Tunnel in Colorado (photo: W R Berg Jr)

He also ventured to the West Coast and designed the bridge and tunnel across San Francisco Bay and also a bridge over the Mississippi in New Orleans.

His work was not confined to within USA. He was consulting engineer on twenty six aqueduct tunnels in Mexico and a bit closer to home he designed and supervised the building of the Paris Metro tunnel under the Seine and across the Place de la Concorde.

You too can find out how to build a tunnel if you track down a copy of a book he co-authored and published called Modern Tunnelling in 1923.

Perhaps the only time his career slowed was in 1907 when he broke his hip bravely arresting a team of runaway horses heading towards a group of school children. He was in Flushing on his way to catch an early morning train to Long Island when the horses took fright of a passing automobile. Vipond was clinging to the bridle when he was thrown against a tree, fell to the ground and was run over by a passing van.

In 1914 he was awarded the Telford Gold Medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers in UK. He also became President of the American Engineering Society in New York. An interesting insight into the status engineering at the time is obtained from an address he gave to the memory of engineer and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1920.

One paper reports that as a retirement present his employees presented him with a gold-handled silk umbrella. I wonder what his former team mates at Cardiff RFC would have thought about that. I suspect much banter would have ensued.

Family Life

He married Ruth Ramsey of Pottsville, Pennsylvania in 1895 and they went on to have three children, John Vipond Jr, Muriel and Margaret, the offspring of which still live in USA today but are proud of their Welsh roots.

A lovely Davies family bookplate depicting the family residence and a tunnel entrance.

His death at Flushing, New York on 4 Oct 1939 at the age of 76 announced him as one of the foremost civil engineers in USA. He is buried alongside his wife at the Presbyterian Cemetery in Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.

Acknowledgements:

Thank you to the Davies family for information and images shared.

Thank you to Gwyn Prescott and Cardiff Rugby Museum for information and the image of Vipond Davies’s playing career.

References & further reading:

Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History

Institution of Civil Engineers Obituary

Uptown Hudson Tubes

The Newport Road Skeleton

Posted on August 5, 2020 by roathhistory

Newport Road isn’t where I was expecting to see a skeleton. There I was relaxing on the upper deck of the bus when I spotted it out of the window on Cardiff University Engineering Department. It’s on the stone facade above the doors and looking very Gothic indeed. The rest of the stone facade looked interesting too, comprising of two statues and four relief stone carvings of distinguished scientists.

I did a bit of research, didn’t find a great deal, so went back and took some photos on a dank morning. An ideal topic for a blog post I thought. Four sculptured busts of scientists, Jenner, Lister, Hunter and Pasteur. I could write a bit about each. Then I did some more painstaking research and found a couple of blog posts. One from Bob Speel looked at the sculptures in terms of the sculptor and style, the other from Pat English does pretty much what I going to do and looks at the scientists themselves. Both blog sites are very good and I would recommend them. I’ve little doubt that I can’t hope to add much to their blog posts in terms of knowledge.

The building in question is Cardiff University Queen’s buildings on Newport Road. Much of the building is of modern construction but the old tower dates back to 1915. To give it it’s proper description it is gothic Revival tower-facade retaining high-quality sculpture and I’m glad to see is a listed building. There are two plaques on either side of the oak doors that indicate the first stone was laid in 1915 and then the building was opened in 1921 by the then Prince of Wales. I say oak doors but that’s a guess but they are decorated with what appears acorns, so hardly likely to be eucalyptus.

So if it’s the engineering building, then why is it adorned with the statues and sculptures of four non-engineering scientists. Apparently the building was originally the Medical school which makes sense as it is close to the Royal Infirmary up the road. That would also explain the two life sized statues which are part of the Bath stone facade; Asclepius, Greek god of Medicine and I’d swear an oath that the other one is Hippocrates. Asclepius is holding his staff and two cocks stand at his feet. It was traditional to sacrifice a cock to thank Asclepius for being healed. I would happily sacrifice a chicken or good piece of tofu if only I could get an appointment with my doctor.

There’s so much on this facade to help keep you or your kids entertained if you are ever passing by on a bus or waiting at the bus stop. Get them to see how many carved animals that can spot just above the doorway. Among them I spotted a squirrel, lizard and mouse. And there’s probably a live pigeon hiding away in there too.

John Hunter

And so the scientists. Perhaps the least known is the 18th century Scottish surgeon John Hunter. Now here’s and interesting character.

Throughout his career he collected many thousands animal and human corpses. It is said that his collection of live animals from around the world at his home in London may have led to the inspiration for the story of Doctor Dolittle. On the other hand his brother who obtained many of the human corpses for him has been accused of grave robbing and even worse, calling into question whether Hunter was more like Dr Jekyll than Doctor Dolittle. To the top right of Hunter is a patient in a bed being watched over closely by a young man and a skeleton. Presumably this is to represent Hunter pioneering the importance of observations in medicine. But why the skeleton? I still don’t know.

Louis Pasteur

Representing France is Louis Pasteur. People no doubt know Pasteur mainly for his work as a microbiologist but he started his career as a chemist and even obtained his first professorship in that field in the University of Strasbourg. His list of achievements are pretty staggering; vaccines for rabies and anthrax, inventing pasteurisation and an understanding of fermentation. After he died in 1895 he was buried in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, but his remains were reinterred in the Pasteur Institute in Paris. I’m not convinced that’s a move for the better if you ask me. Would I want to be taken back to work after I die? Before passing he asked for his laboratory notebook to be kept in the family and not shared. Only recently have historians gained access to them and are divided in what is revealed but seem to agree on the fact that a good summary would be “In spite of his genius, Pasteur had some faults”. If I had an epitaph like that I’d be pretty happy.

Joseph Lister

Joseph Lister was born in Upton House, West Ham, London. I bet I can guess which football team he supported. He’s the man who realised that washing your hands is so important. If he were alive in these days of Covid-19 I’m sure he’d be features on many public service advertisement. As the ‘father of disinfection’ he hailed the use of carbolic acid to sterilise everything in sight. Initially Lister’s ideas were mocked by others in the health field who proudly wore their blood stained aprons as a badge of honour. The medical journal The Lancet warned the entire medical profession against his progressive ideas. Next time I smell the phenolic odour of Laphroig whiskey I will think of Joseph Lister and drink to him as a testament to his ingenuity.

Edward Jenner

I suppose it’s a sign of the times that when you put Jenner into a popular search engine everything that turns up is about Caitlyn Jenner, who is apparently an American sex-reassigned ex-athlete and now TV personality. A couple of pages down you come across our man, Edward Jenner, from the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire. His work on the smallpox vaccine has led to the much used quote that he ‘saved more lives than any other human’ and earned him the title ‘the father of immunology’.

The Unanswered Questions

And so we have it, what is probably a unique collection of sculptures of these four heroic scientists, Jenner, Pasteur, Lister and Hunter all in the same place. Other than the outstanding question of the skeleton I have one other query. Why is it called the Queen’s Buildings?

Lynn Davies – A leap away from Roath.

Posted on May 19, 2020 by roathhistory

I admit it is borderline whether we should include Lynn Davies as a person from Roath. I was lucky enough to have a quick chat with him recently and by just by virtue of the fact that he is a thoroughly nice man I think we should do our best to include him.

The Olympic gold medal long jump winner in the Tokyo 1964 games was born in Nantmoel, near Bridgend in 1942. The son of a coal miner, he went to Ogmore Grammar School before moving to Cardiff in 1961 to attend Cardiff Training College in Cyncoed. He joined Roath Harriers which later merged with Birchgrove Harriers to become Cardiff Amateur Athletic Club with its base at Maindy Stadium, the history of which was covered in our last blog.

Lynn Davies with coach Ron Pickering (pic GettyImage)

His training runs took in the streets of the area including Roth Park. His coach and mentor was Ron Pickering, the Welsh national coach, who soon identified Lynn’s athletic skills. Prior to that he’d had a promising career as a footballer and had had a trial with Cardiff City. Lyn said of his time in Cyncoed that “Suddenly I was in a place which had a running track, gym and excellent lecturers who helped me. At the end of those three years in May 1964 I was the fittest I had ever been.”

Lynn Davies winning gold in Tokyo 1964

Ron Pickering urged him to concentrate on long jumping and the rest as they say is history. He won an Olympic gold medal in the long jump in 1964 with a jump of 8.07 metres (26 ft 6 in), making him first Welshman to ever win an individual Olympic gold medal. He was the only British man to win Long Jump gold at the Olympics till Greg Rutherford won gold in 2012.

Since winning gold Lynn Davies has had the nickname “Lynn the Leap”. At the 1964 Olympics he also ran in the 100 metres and was a member of the relay team which reached the 4x100m final. And let’s not forget h was a Roath Harrier at the time. Lynn competed in the next two Olympics in Mexico City and Munich and in Mexico was flag bearer for the British team at the opening ceremony.

Lynn Davies holding the gold medal he won in Tokyo 1964 (Pic: Western Mail)

So what of his non-Olympic achievements? Davies was the 1966 European champion in the long jump and was the silver medalist three years later. He was also twice the Commonwealth Games champion, winning titles in 1966 and 1970, becoming the first man to win that title twice. He thereby became the first athlete to hold Olympic, European and Commonwealth titles at the same time.

Lynn Davies on his way to win a 100 meters invitation race at the British Games, 1966 held at White City, London (pic: London Illustrated News)

His personal bests were: 100 meters – 10.51s (1967); Long Jump – 27′-0″ (8.23m) (1968). Lynn Davies’ long jump best of 8.23m, set in Berne in June 1968, is still the fourth best long jump of all-time by a British athlete – despite the improved facilities of today, where all-weather run-ups have replaced the soggy loose cinders that Lynn mostly competed on. It is also still the longest ever jump by a Welsh athlete.

Lynn Davies was twice a winner of the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year award, taking the honour in 1964 and 1966.

After retiring from competitions in 1973 he became technical director of Canadian athletics until 1976 before returning to live in the Cardiff area where he has lived ever since. He became British athletics team manager and took up broadcasting career with BBC Wales.

Davies was created a CBE on 17 June 2006, having previously received an MBE in 1967.

He’s always been regarded as one of the sport’s finest ambassadors which no doubt led him to becoming President of UK Athletics, the governing body of the sport in Great Britain, a position he only stepped down from in 2015.

The college in Cyncoed where Lynn Davies started his athletics career was new in 1961 having previously been at the Heath. It has undergone many name changes over the years but he has maintained a strong association with it. Not only was he a student there but has also been a Senior Lecturer and an ambassador.

Cardiff Met Cyncoed campus Lynn Davies Photo credit - Peter Creighton

The refectory wall at UWIC Cyncoed campus pays tribute to one of its former students.

I think but am not certain that the name changes have been: 1976 it became part of the South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education, then in 1990 Cardiff Institute of Higher Education, in 1996 University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) and finally in 2009 Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Lynn Davies in 2018 (photo Dai Sport)

So why so I say its borderline whether he is famous Roath man? Well, the Cyncoed campus sits literally just outside the border of the old Parish of Roath. Lynn, with one of his famous jumps could have leapt over the border and into Roath, and probably still can. We will therefore include him on our Roath People page.

The WAAF Balloon Squadron casualties

Posted on January 22, 2020 by roathhistory

A couple of months ago I published a blog post on the Pen-y-lan Road blitz victims. Shortly after that I was put in touch with someone who remembered the night clearly and told me about another group who lost their lives that night. They were members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) who were living in the newly built Lady Margaret’s school caretaker’s house on Colchester Avenue and managing a barrage balloon tethered nearby. They were killed when the house took a direct hit from a German bomb.

Much Googling later and I had failed to turn up any details. The internet seemed to be devoid of any information about the incident. The casualties don’t seem to be on any Cardiff memorials and neither could I find them mentioned in the newspapers, which isn’t too surprising given the censorship in place at the time. The civilian casualties of the Cardiff blitz bombings are listed but of course these were military victims and don’t appear on that list. I tried looking at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) records but again drew a blank. Then, last weekend I happened upon a folder on the Cardiff blitz in Cathays library and in there was a copy of a letter to the South Wales Echo in 1997 recalling the same incident.

The letter provided a lot of leads. It pretty much mirrored what I had been told a few months earlier but not only did it list the names of the casualties and the injured but also information about a book written by a WAAF officer, Muriel Pusham, who was stationed at Cardiff Castle and one of the first on the scene afterwards.

Training session for the WAAF balloon operators.

Now armed with names I could do a lot more research. Three of the four women named in the letter I found listed on the CWGC website. It soon became clear why I hadn’t found them earlier. There was no mention of Cardiff on their records. I discovered that their bodies, rather than being buried at Cathays cemetery, were transported back to their home towns and buried there. Also, having found their names I could find their squadrons and more information about what happened on the night. This is what I discovered:

18/5 02.31
The barrage was flying at 500′ when a “stand-by” followed by a “shine” at 02.34 was received from the Balloon Officer, 10 Fighter Group.
18/5 02.41 to 03.35
E/A attacked at varying heights from 1000′ to 10,000′ dropping flares, IB and HE. At approximately 03.10 hours site 53/18 received a direct hit from an HE bomb which killed three WAAF balloon operators. Mary Askell (sic), Betty Stannard and Paddy (sic) Brand and wounded four others, Terry David, Cpl Lilian Ellis, Marjorie Oates and Betty Reynolds. These were the first war casualties sustained by the Squadron.
20TH MAY 1943
The remains of three casualties, left for their respective homes. Each coffin accompanied by a W.A.A.F. Officer and N.C.O.

This is what I have been able to find out about the victims:

HELEN ROSS BRAND

Aircraftwoman 1st Class, 953 Balloon Squadron, Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (Service Number 2116411)

Helen Ross Brand was born in 1922 in Keith, Scotland to John Brand and Jessie Ross Brand nee Lobban. She died aged 20. She is buried in Keith (Broomhill) cemetery in Scotland (section B, grave 28). She is also remembered on the Keith War Memorial. The newspaper article reporting her death wrote she was due to be married in three weeks to a RAF Cadet.

MARY MACASKILL

Leading Aircraftwoman, 953 Balloon Squadron, Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (Service No: 2045888)

Mary MacAskill was born in c1921 to Norman and Joan MacAskill of Culrain, Scotland. Prior to enlising in 1942 she was training to be a nurse. She died aged 22. She is buried at Kincardine Cemetery, Ross and Cromarty (grave 166) in Scotland. She is also remembered on the Ardgay War Memorial.

BETTY MARY STANNARD

Leading Aircraftwoman, 953 Balloon Squadron, Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (Service Number 2068971)

Betty Mary Stannard was born in Kent in 1922 to Albert James Stannard, an Estate worker from Monkton, Kent, and Mary Eleanor Stannard nee Williams. (Her father Albert worked on the estate belonging to Collingwood ‘Cherry’ Ingram, ornithologist and plant collector and son of Sir William Ingram, owner of London Illustrated News). She died aged 21. She is buried at St George’s in Benenden, Kent (grave reference : Row 13. Grave 59). Betty Mary Stannard is commemorated on the Benenden War Memorial in Kent.

I have added their names to the Roath ‘Virtual’ War Memorial which now has almost 100 names on it, but a lot more to add.

Location

I examined old maps to see if I could work out exactly where the incident occurred. I recall the caretaker’s house in Lady Margaret’s / Howardian school but it wasn’t necessarily rebuilt in the same place as the one that had been bombed. On one of the old maps there are ‘ruins’ mentioned. I wonder if this was the site. If that’s the case then it would be on what is now Hammond Way, not far from the Colchester Avenue junction. I am guessing this barrage balloon site was chosen to try and protect Roath Power Station from being bombed.

Cardiff had quite a lot of barrage balloon sites across the city. They were also flown from Splott park, Cathays park and Roath park recreation ground. I have read recently that the balloons were made and maintained at a base in Ely.

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Barrage balloon flying over Roath Park Recreation Ground – 1939

We All Wore Blue: Experiences in the WAAF by Muriel Gane Pushman

This book adds some interesting memories to the incident described above though also contains some mysteries and be warned some gory bits. The author was stationed in various parts of the country during her WAAF career so not all the book is about her time in Cardiff.

She describes there being eight balloon sites in Cardiff, ‘one being in the centre of the docks, the famous Tiger Bay area.’

‘….our headquarters were in the stables at Cardiff Castle’ ‘….. a solitary balloon was flying stoically from the keep.’

‘…..the men were responsible for the maintenance of the balloons and winches, and we were in charge of the girl operators.’

She describes the night of a raid and writes:

‘It was not until daybreak that the full horror became known. One of our balloon sites up on a bill on the far side of the city had received a direct hit, blowing the Nissen hut to smithereens and instantly killing several of the girls. The pretty young corporal in charge had her arm and shoulder blown off and suffered dreadful damage to one side of her face. in this appalling condition, she had managed to crawl to the Pioneer Corps position – nearly a quarter of a mile away – to raise the alarm. She had only been married the previous week, …..’
‘Now, as I stood with the other officers while the parts of the bodies were collected, I found myself shivering despite the warm sunshine.’

She also describes attending the funerals:

‘The next week was a blur. Nothing seemed quite real. We were called upon to accompany the bodies to their respective home town and attend the funerals alongside the families.’
‘I had never been to a funeral before and having to attend so many was physically and emotionally draining.’
‘……. when the other WAAF officers returned from the funerals in Scotland’.

There were a couple of odd things that stuck me about the information in these quotes. I don’t think I would describe the Colchester Avenue site as being ‘on a bill’. Also she describes never having been to so many funerals before and the other WAAF officers returning from the funerals in Scotland. The three WAAF casualties I have identified, two were in Scotland and one in Kent. So does that mean there are some not yet identified? There is one more name in the letter that appeared in the Echo that I have not been able to trace but there may sadly have been more than that.

Barrage Balloons

A barrage balloon was three times the size of a cricket pitch. The balloons consisted of several panels of very tight fabric, at the back were three fins. The top of the balloon was filled with hydrogen, the bottom half was left empty, so when it was put up at a certain height it filled with natural air. If there wasn’t enough wind, the tail fins looked floppy but in time they filled with air. Balloons lost a certain amount of hydrogen when flying so they had to be topped up every day at the sites.

The barrage balloon at Crown Gardens (Cathays Park) in 1939.

Balloons were held by cables which were fixed to winches on lorries. Cables were more important than the balloons as an aircraft had only to touch a cable and it would be destroyed straight away. If the balloon was shot it exploded, taking the aircraft with it.
The bombers had to fly over the balloons, so they couldn’t get any accuracy with their bombing, and they couldn’t dive bomb. It was dangerous to be near a cable if a balloon was shot down as the falling cable could kill a person. The winch has an altimeter which told you how high to fly the balloon, as they were flown at different heights. It was a hazardous job when you were winching up in a confined space, in wind and rain. If there was a strong wind the balloon would take itself off. It had to be handled with care because of the hydrogen.
The rope attachments consisted of metal rings which secured the balloon when it was down. Because of wear and tear the ropes were becoming dangerous so they were replaced with wire, and the metal rings were put on the wire.

There were over 15,000 WAAF barrage balloon operators throughout the country, operating 1400 balloons.

Memorial to the Barrage Balloon Squadrons at the National Memorial Arboretum

(The photographs used in this article are not from the Colchester Avenue location.)

It would be interesting to hear from anyone who recalls this tragic incident.

Postscript:

Steve Duffy, journalist and local historian, who has researched the Grangetown WWI victims, has turned up the following information in newspaper reports regarding a heroine from that night:

HEROINE When a bomb hit a balloon site during raid, killing three others, Leading Aircraftwoman Lilian Sarah Ellis, although seriously injured herself, organised relief parties and undoubtedly saved the life of at least one airwoman.” Throughout the raid,” says the citation accompanying the award to her the B.E.M. “she displayed outstanding leadership, coolness and courage.”

Liverpool Express, May 20th: When bombs fell near barrage balloon site in South Wales on Monday night killing three WAAF. crew and wounding others, Corporal Ellis, Waaf in charge, who was herself injured, refused to accept assistance until attention had been given to her comrades, says Air Ministry News Service. When the raid started Corpl. Ellis ordered all the airwomen she could spare to shelter and had just put down the telephone after reporting to Headquarters when a bomb fell a few feet away, killing three airwomen wounding four, including Corpl. Ellis. Two airwomen who were injured went to the help of the others, although bombs were still falling. Men of the Pioneer Corps rendered first aid.

Another paper reported she had refused first aid herself, until the others had been attended to.

There are no clues in the reports as to who Lilian Sarah Ellis was or where she was from – one possible, a woman who had got married in the previous summer to a Charles Ellis – Lilian Sarah Humphrys and would have been 22 at the time and was from London.

Norman Biggs – Welsh rugby international killed by a poisoned arrow.

Posted on November 23, 2019 by roathhistory

Headlines

There are so many headlines I could have used for this article such as ‘Wales’s youngest rugby international‘ or ‘The fastest man in the world?‘ or ‘Where’s his missing memorial?‘. I was spoilt for choice.

I’ve been researching Norman Biggs now for a couple of years – a fascinating character. It’s not just him – there’s a story to tell about the whole of the Biggs family, but let’s concentrate on Norman for now.

Norman’s early life

Norman Witchell Biggs was his full name. Yes, I thought it was a misprint too and it should have been Mitchell, but no, it really was Witchell. He was born in 1870 in St Andrew’s Place in the middle of Cardiff, to John Biggs, owner of the South Wales Brewery and Emily Sophia Biggs née Clark. Norman was baptised a few months later in St Mary the Virgin church on Bute Street. This confused me for a while as it’s not the nearest Anglican church to St Andrew’s Place until I found out that the Biggs family had strong associations with the church; there is a plaque in the church to Norman’s grandparents John and Eliza Biggs. Perhaps they were benefactors when the church was being built.

In the 1881 census we find Norman Biggs in Lewinsdale School, Weston-Super-Mare. I’m always amazed by how much travel there seemed to be between Cardiff and Somerset 150 years ago. There is no sign of the school there nowadays, just Lewinsdale Lodge, now a B&B.

When Norman Biggs returns to live in Cardiff he attends Cardiff Proprietary School, also confusingly known as Cardiff College. I say confusingly because the building was on Dumfries Place, and later went on the become part of the University and later still the Student’s Union.

Cardiff College building on Dumfries Place, later became part of the University and later still the Student’s union (Pic credit: Cardiff Libraries)

Norman’s sporting prowess started to show though at a young age. In 1884, aged just 13, he is playing for Cardiff College (Cardiff Preparatory School) against the University 2nd team and scores two tries. A year later the paper reports Norman, aged 14, playing cricket for Cardiff College versus Llwynypia 2nd XI.

International debut

In 1887 Norman Biggs plays first match for Cardiff on March 9^th 1887, aged just 16 years 4 months and scores a try. His speed makes him a natural winger. He had a meteoric rise and a year later, he is picked to play for Wales against New Zealand. He becomes the youngest player to play for Wales aged 18 years 1 month 19 days. He held that record for 120 years until Tom Prydie made his Wales debut in 2010 at age of 18 years and 25 days.

Norman Biggs in Wales jersey (pic credit: Wikipedia)

Norman’s first game for Wales didn’t go well. Although Wales won Biggs was ‘palpably nervous’. The game was held in Swansea where the crowd was hostile towards Wales players from Cardiff and the east of Wales. Newspaper quotes include: ‘The crowd positively pooh-poohed Biggs’, ‘Biggs I am bound to admit disappointed me’, ‘He is a rattling good man, next to George Morgan, the best in Wales’.

A week later, on 29th December 1888, Norman Biggs faced the same tourists, this time as part of the Cardiff team. Biggs had been disappointing in his international debut, but regained his form on the pitch at the Cardiff Arms Park. Within 90 seconds of the start of the match, Biggs scored a ‘sparkling try’. Biggs should have scored again, but dropped the ball after crossing the line in the slippery conditions. Cardiff won by a goal and a try to one try.

1888-89 New Zealand Native team

In January 1889 Norman is picked again to play for Wales, this time against Scotland, but pulls out as part of the ongoing dispute between east and west Wales clubs.

In March 1889 the papers report on Norman taking part in a debate at Cardiff University on smoking, speaking on the side that smoking causes harm and winning. That’s pretty insightful considering it was 60 years before the link between smoking and ill health was proven scientifically.

On March 2nd 1889 he plays again for Wales in Swansea, this time against Ireland. Wales lost with Ireland scoring two unconverted tries. Biggs had a bad game being at fault for at least one of the Ireland tries when an overhead pass of his was intercepted. Wales finished bottom of the table that year; bottom of three – England didn’t participate that season.

Let’s take another break from the rugby now for this story that demonstrates the athletic ability of Norman Biggs. It is reporting on the Cardiff University sports day on May 11th 1889: ‘The lion of the day was Norman Biggs, well-known Cardiff Football player who pulled off the 100 yds, 220 yds, the quarter, the hurdles, the high jump, the prize for throwing the cricket ball, and then crowned a phenomenally successful day by bringing himself and partner in first at the three-legged race’. How many modern day rugby internationals would take part in a three-legged race!

Reports of him partaking in a fun three-legged race are somewhat contradicted by his appearance in team photos. He always seems somewhat grumpy and surly.

Cardiff 1888-89 team Norman Biggs, middle row 2nd from left. perching on a backwards facing chair (pic credit: Cardiff Rugby Museum)

Fastest man in the world?

Watching Norman Biggs sprint down the wing with ball in hand must have been an exhilarating experience given his outstanding pace. There’s even an argument for saying he could have been the fastest man in the world. In 1889 Norman Biggs goes Cambridge University. It is not clear what he studied or whether he ever graduated. Here’s an extract from an obituary of Norman Biggs:

“Leaving the Cardiff College he graduated at Cardiff and took up his residence at Trinity Hall. Here one of his first accidents occurred. In playing football he had a couple of ribs broken and the necessary rest robbed him of his blue. He however made a name in sprinting and it is on the record that he did the 100 yds in even time. He had against him such fine flyers as Monypenny. It was a remarkable thing that in the 100 yds Norman could beat Monypenny but in the 120 yds the latter could always reach the line first, the explanation being that Norman was the better starter.”

The Monypenny in the quote above was Charlton Monypenny. Here’s what it says about him in Wikipedia: “While at Cambridge he achieved two running records, the World Record for the 150-yard dash (14.8 secs) and the Cambridge quarter of a mile track record (49.5 secs) which stood until 1931. In 1891 Monypenny was recognised as the seconded fastest man in the world behind American Luther Cary, recording a time of 10.8 seconds in the 100-metre sprint on 22 July. The next year, although recording an identical time of 10.8 seconds, he was judged the joint fastest men in the world that year, along with American athlete Cecil Lee”

Put those two articles together, the fact that Biggs could beat Monypenny over 100 yds and the fact that Monypenny was judged one of the fastest men in the world, and it could be argued that Norman Biggs was possibly the world’s fastest. An obituary and Wikipedia are hardly ‘primary sources’ for history researchers I admit but it makes you wonder. Add to it that he was only doing athletics because an injury prevented him playing rugby and those sprint times would have been made from a standing start rather than using blocks or spiked shoes and it is all pretty remarkable stuff.

International Success

Biggs plays again for Wales in 1892 against Ireland but again ends up on the losing side. In 1893 however his fortunes change and he finds himself part of the first Wales team to win a Triple Crown. On January 7th at the Arms Park, Wales beat England 12-11 in what has become known as the ‘Devil’s match’ because fires were lit around the ground the previous night to keep the pitch frost-free and enable the game to go ahead. Biggs scored. ‘After each of the three quarters had handled the ball, Norman Biggs having cleverly been given the ball by Conway Rees, sprinting away from Lockwood, got the better of Field, and scored a really fine try’.

Triple Crown medal belonging to Frank Hill in Cardiff Rugby Museum

Medal awarded to players of Wales’s first triple crown winning side. This one belonged to Frank Hill and is on display at Cardiff Rugby club Museum.

The following month Wales travel to Scotland and win 9-0 and again Norman Biggs scores a try. The 1893 away game against Scotland is described as Biggs’ best international match and ‘his speed and general play were the main factors in securing the first victory of the Principality over Scotland at Scotland’.

In March Wales play Ireland at Stradey Park, Llanelli. Wales win 2-0 though a try from Gould. Ireland fielded one more forward than Wales (it was a choice how many forwards and backs were playing at the time). Quotes from the papers included: ‘Gould and Norman Biggs time after time stopped rushes, the later player saving his front rank by screw punting’, ‘the most uninteresting international contest for years past’.

Cricketing Skills

In the summer of 1893 Norman plays cricket for Glamorgan against a Cardiff team that includes his brother Selwyn, thereby becoming one of a select band of players to play both cricket for Glamorgan and rugby for Wales. Selwyn in fact later goes on to play for Glamorgan and become their opening bowler for a number of years.

Club Loyalty

Club rugby was somewhat different in the 1890s. Players weren’t contractually bound to a club as they are now and sometimes turned out for other clubs if they found themselves in different parts of the country. Norman Biggs played for London Welsh in matches against both Cardiff and Swansea in 1890. He also plays a fair bit for Richmond over the years. At one time in 1893 he gets collared by a reporter on his return to Cardiff. Norman explained ‘he was in London for a fortnight seeing a doctor every day, after he had an operation. Playing for Richmond there was no need to exert himself and nobody cared who won’.

Conclusion of International Career

Norman Biggs plays two more matches for Wales. In January 1894 against England at Birkenhead Park in front of a crown of 7,000 Wales suffered a heavy defeat, losing 24-3. In a post-match interview Biggs was asked why he had failed to tackle Harry Bradshaw, who scored the first try; Biggs responded “Tackle him? It was as much as I could do to get out of his way!”

In March 1894 Wales beat Ireland 3-0 in a game where all the backs were from Cardiff. The very next international saw Norman’s younger brother Selwyn selected for the first time, the brothers missing each other by just one match. Selwyn also goes on to have a very successful international career.

Norman Biggs compared to today’s Wales winger George North – note the difference in weight!

Cardiff Captain

In the 1893-94 season Norman Biggs captains Cardiff. During the season Biggs scored 58 conversions, 25 tries and two dropped goals bringing his points tally to 199 points, a record that remained till 1972–73 when it was surpassed by John Davies.

1893-4 Cardiff Rugby Club. Norman Biggs captain with ball and Selwyn Biggs top right (picture credit: Cardiff Rugby Club Museum)

Biggs played for Cardiff from the 1886–87 season through to 1898–99. He played in 166 matches for Cardiff, was one of the highest scoring players the club has produced. Biggs ended his Cardiff career with 107 tries, four less than another of his brothers Cecil. He scored five or more try conversions in a single match on seven occasions, six in the same season (1893-94), against Gloucester, Bristol, London Welsh, Penygraig, Exeter and Cardiff & D.R.U.

The last notable club Biggs represented was Bath. He turned out in the 1886-89 seasons sometimes. His decision to go to Bath was probably guided by the fact that his father’s brewery may have had an interest in the area. Some match reports also mention him and Selwyn promising to turn up but not and instead playing for Richmond. Norman was said to be captaining the Bath senior team during the 1899–1900 season but did not appear in the match reports, instead diverted by the next stage in his life.

The Boer War

On 5th January 1900 he joined the Glamorgan Imperial Yeomanry, a volunteer force. In the British army at the time the officers were from the gentry and the professional middle classes and the recruits from the poorest sections of society. You wonder how much horse riding experience Norman Biggs had before joining the yeomanry. It is true that the Biggs house Oldwell, Penylan, Cardiff did have stables so he had probably built up some experience.

Norman Biggs signs up

His exploits in the Boer War are relatively well reported in the papers. People were naturally keen to hear how one of their rugby stars was fairing. In May 1900 he had arrived in South Africa and sends a drawing home to his brothers which was published in the Western Mail. The letter included a picture of the cook and wood gatherers. At this time his unit was still undergoing training near Cape Town. The papers also report Biggs was keen for a photograph he’d sent to be forwarded to the Conservative Club in St Mary’s Street, so we learn of his political affiliation.

Norman Biggs picture home - the cook and the wood gathers

By December 1900 his unit is on the front line. A letter from R S Jenkin the old Swansea football forward describes how Norman Biggs the ex-international three quarter was wounded. He says “Six miles from Vrede, our left rear flankers were fired on by almost a dozen Boers. We on the right flank heard the firing and saw the state of affairs and opened fire. Shortly the rearguard came back and things got interesting. Norman Biggs, G F Williams (late of Llandovery) and Sergeant Thomas were in the centre and as soon as they heard the firing on the right they concluded that the right flank was in trouble. They came across and Norman, mad like, went galloping towards the Boer fire, in spite of orders to the contrary being shouted to him. He having got the idea into his head that I and the others were concerned, and he meant to find out. Anyhow, he got within a hundred yards and found things getting hot, when he was wounded in the uppermost part of his thigh. He turned about but had only got a few yards when his horse was shot dead. He lay down behind it, and was about to aim, when he saw the Boers mounting and getting into position to cut off his retreat, so he picked himself up and ran off. He was shortly picked up by one of our officers, who put him on a horse and caught hold of the stirrup himself. The horse shield (sic), and Norman once more embraced mother earth. Then Major Wyndham-Quin put him on a horse, and this time he was taken in safety to the hospital. He is now much better as it is only a flesh wound.”

map credit: Google

Norman was sent initially to the military hospital in Harrismith. On December 19^th 1900 he returns to UK on board the hospital ship Simla with 284 other men. It seems he was not home long.

Hospital ship Simla

In February it is announced he is to join ‘Paget’s Horse’, an elite horseback unit, as a Captain. He returns to South Africa but in May we read he is in hospital in Winberg with fever. In September he is discharged from hospital and in November fighting again. We don’t read much about him in the following year. He arrives home in late 1902.

Paget’s Horse (picture credit: Look and Learn)

Extended military career

On returning home Norman appears to have made a decision to extend his military career rather than return to the family brewing business which by now was in its twilight years. He joins the regular army. He is initially stationed in Cardiff Barracks training recruits, then Aldershot, then Hythe where he takes a course in the School of Musketry.

He serves as the District Superintendent of the Northern Nigerian Constabulary. The papers say he returned to Nigeria in October 1907 having been on leave in England that summer, so must have been there previously at some stage.

Poisoned Arrow

He was killed 27 Feb 1908 at Chinuku, Northern Nigeria, after being hit by a poisoned arrow in a brush with natives whilst on patrol duty. Newspaper reports say he was trying to arrest some ‘Pagans’ who had been pillaging and were hiding in a village. On approaching the village they were attacked.

Biggs did not reload but instead rode onto the next village to allay fears of the natives who would have seen the neighbouring village burning. His intention was to warn them that their force had no quarrel with them and that they had nothing to fear.

The papers report that unfortunately his mission was misunderstood and before he could get close enough to explain his mission he was shot in the thigh by a poisoned arrow. Biggs pulled out the arrow and a fellow officer cauterised it with a red hot knife. Biggs was removed by horse to Sakaba, some 50 miles away but he died four days later. He was buried at Fort Sakaba with full military honours attended by 30 officers. It is theorised that his heart may have been weakened having had a couple of bouts of malaria. The arrow was sent home for analysis, but I can’t find any record of the outcome of the analysis.

Nigeria and Norman Biggs place of death marked by red pin

Chinuku, Northern Nigeria (map credit: Google)

The poison used in poison darts varies throughout the world. In South America it is often taken from a venomous frog, in southern Africa from a poisonous beetle and in Northern Nigeria from the plant Strophanthus. Cardiac poisons tend to be fast-acting. The fact that Biggs died four days after being hit by the arrow would seem to indicate to me he probably died of a resulting hemorrhage rather than the poison itself – but why spoil a good story.

Norman Biggs’s Grave

The grave of Norman Biggs is marked with a simple metal cross that is talked about in a YouTube video. It looks in remarkable condition even after all this time. The cross appears to read: In loving memory of Norman W Biggs of Cardiff, Great Britain. Cpt 3^rd Welch Rgt. DSG N Nigeria Killed in action. Died 27 Feb 1908.

The cross on grave of Norman Biggs

There is a fascinating YouTube video interviewing a local man who seems to be saying that it is thought they were missionaries but the locals thought they were cannibals. Click the CC button at the foot of the YouTube video to get the subtitles.

Cardiff honours Biggs

The news of the death of Norman Biggs was widely reported in the papers. A large service was held in his honour on March 16th 1908 at St John’s church, Cardiff. Mr W T Morgan and a large number of Cardiff Rugby Club assembled at the Drill Hall in Dumfries Place and marched along Queen Street to St John’s along with members of the Glamorgan Yeomanry and the Welch Regiment. The members of the Wales rugby team were unfortunately delayed on the train on their return from Ireland so arrived 90 minutes after the service.

I always think it’s best to treat obituaries with a note of caution but they do make interesting reading. One obituary says that at the age of 16 Norman Biggs was chosen to play for Wales but that his headmaster, Mr Birbeck Terry, vetoed it on the grounds that he was not sufficiently well set to stand the gruelling game of twenty years ago. The obit says that he worked for his father initially at the Salisbury Road brewery and then at the Canton Cross Brewery.

Another obituary says Biggs had ‘a fund of humour yet could be caustic in his criticism of colleagues, but he was a good judge of character and seldom mistook his man, realising that an exaggerated compliment was the best way to bring out the best in some men and a whip of sarcasm the best for others’.

The Missing Memorial

A year later on March 27th 1909 the Weekly Mail reports of a meeting held at the Angel Hotel to discuss the idea of a memorial tablet to Norman Biggs and that St John’s or St Andrew’s church commended itself. The meeting was attended by members of Cardiff Rugby and Cricket clubs, the Glamorgan Yeomanry and the Welch Regiment. The vicar of St John’s was even on the committee.

I have visited both churches and never found a memorial tablet or memorial window.

Two years later another interesting snippet appears in The Clifton Society of May 16th 1912. The idea now seems to be the idea is for a stained glass window at St John’s and it has been placed in the hands of Cardiff Football Club.

It appears that this remarkable athlete is remembered by a simple metal cross in Nigeria but not in any way in his home city of Cardiff and am left wondering the reason for that. Is it because the people of Cardiff were already beginning to question the actions that took place in Britain’s colonial past I wonder.

Many thanks to rugby and military historian Gwyn Prescott for his assistance, especially in the early days of my research into Norman Biggs.

I have a talk prepared on Norman Biggs and the Biggs family. If you are a member of a group that may be interested in hearing the talk please don’t hesitate to get in contact.

The Cardiff High School Headmaster who never was.

Posted on September 29, 2019 by roathhistory

I thought I would start to take a look at the names on the Cardiff High WWI memorial plaque. I’ve made a slow start. The first name on the memorial is “J L Davies. Essex Regt (Headmaster 1915)”. It’s a sad story, as are all that lie behind war memorial names.

John Llewelyn Davies - Headmaster Cardiff High

Major John Llewelyn Davies (Photo credit: IWM)

The war memorial plaque was originally displayed at the old Cardiff High School on Newport Road but now sited at Cardiff High School on Llandennis Road. It was dedicated in its original position on 22nd Nov 1922, relocated to the new Cardiff High School building in 1970 and rededicated on 30th June 2006 after being restored and remounted.

J L Davies was Major John Llewelyn Davies. He was born in the picturesque village of St Ishmael, near Ferryside in Carmarthenshire in 1879. His father, David Davies, was a schoolmaster. Sometime in the next ten years David Davies moved to Neath where he became headmaster of what is now called the Alderman Davies school, more famous these days for being where Katherine Jenkins started her education.

St Ishmael, Carmarthenshire, birthplace of John Llewelyn Davies

John Llewelyn Davies attended his father’s school in Neath as did probably his five siblings. After school he then went on to study at Aberystwyth University and then Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He graduated with First Class honours in Natural Science and went on to gain an M.A.

Emmanuel College, Cambridge (Photo credit – Wiki)

On leaving Cambridge, John went as lecturer to Carmarthen Training College (Trinity College) for a short period, and subsequently became science master at the Perse School, Cambridge. As a schoolmaster, Major Davies was thorough and successful, enjoying great popularity among his boys and colleagues. His pupils gained many open scholarships at universities.

Trinity College Carmarthen

As well as having a passion for science, John Llewelyn Davies was dedicated to the military. Whilst teaching in Cambridge he spent seven years as a Lieutenant in the Officers Training Corps. When the war broke out he gave up his post at Perse School and joined the 11th Essex Regiment as Captain of A Company.

Perse School, Cambridge in the late 1800s

In April 1915 he was promoted to the rank of Major. In May he was appointed as Headmaster of Cardiff High School. It was agreed that he would take up his post when the war was over. On 17th August 1915 he was married to Isabel Christina Jessie Fraser B.A. in Wrexham. Christina, a teacher, worked at the Training College in Bingley, Yorkshire. On 30 August 1915, just thirteen days after he was married, John Llewelyn Davies and his battalion landed at Boulogne, and proceeded to positions at Loos.

On 25th September 1915, Major John Llewelyn Davies is killed on the first day of the battle of Loos in France, one of the bloodiest battles of WWI where 60,000 British soldiers perished. He was aged 35. He has no known burial site.

photograph (Q 28986) Battle of Loos, 25th September, 1915. Ruined buildings in a street in Loos, 30th September, 1915. The famous Tower Bridge can be seen. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205092033

One of his fellow officers wrote “He was very much a fine soldier and all had such implicit confidence in him. He was so capable and absolutely to be relied upon. The regiment feels very much his loss for he was one of the ablest officers”.

John Llewelyn Davies is remembered on a number of War Memorials. As well as the Cardiff High School memorial his name also appears on memorials at Aberystwyth University, Trinity College Carmarthen and Perse School Cambridge as well as the Loos Memorial at Dud Corner Cemetery, France.

Aberystwyth University – one of the places Major J L Davies is remembered

His wife of just one month, Christina, continued her teaching career and never did remarry, and lived into her eighties. She passed away in Chirk, Denbighshire in 1964.

The probate of Major John Llewelyn Davies details that the executor was his bother Richard Jones Davies. The probate also states that he died as Wesel in Germany.

John Llewellyn Davies probate announcment 2nd May 2016 Cambrian Leader

John Llewellyn Davies probate announcement 2nd May 2016 Cambrian Leader

One newspaper report states that the brother, Richard Jones Davies lived in Llanishen, so maybe there was a connection to Cardiff after all. I tried to find Richard Davies in Cardiff in the 1911 Census but failed. It turns out he was at the time in hospital in Pinewood, Wokingham, Berkshire. Pinewood hospital was a place for those recovering from tuberculosis, a not uncommon disease at the time.

So Major John Llewelyn Davies never got to take up his post as Headmaster of Cardiff High School. Judging by his prior achievements I’m sure he would have been very successful in that role. A sad loss to his family and to Cardiff High School.

Loos War Memorial, France (Photo Credit: Gwyn Prescott)

Subsequent Information

After publishing this blog post Gwyn Prescott (rugby and military historian) was kind enough to share with me his bio on Major J L Davies. It contained some interesting additional information:

The Red Cross reported that Major John Llewelyn Davies had died of wounds in German hands at Wesel, Germany. A fellow officer wrote: “He was such a fine soldier, and [all his men] had such implicit confidence in him. He was so capable and absolutely to be relied on. The regiment feels very much his loss, for he was one of the ablest officers.” His official date of death is given as 25th September 1915, the day on which the Battle of Loos opened. However, it appears that he may have been mortally wounded on the 26th and, as he died in Germany as a prisoner of war, his death must have occurred later. He was 36. His grave was subsequently lost so he is commemorated on the Loos Memorial to the Missing, Dud Corner, France. He is also commemorated on war memorials in Aberystwyth University; Emmanuel College Cambridge; Perse School Cambridge; and the Royal Society of Chemistry, Burlington House, London.

Royal Society of Chemistry memorial at Burlington House, London

Gwyn Prescott also made me aware that J L Davies was a Chemist. When I had read that he graduated with degrees in natural science I had assumed he was a biologist or alike, forgetting that Cambridge University natural science degrees cover a breadth of scientific topics. Being a chemist myself I realised when I read his name is remembered on the memorial at Royal Society of Chemistry offices in Burlington House that I would have walked past his name on a number of occasions.

Extra bits

I’m a great believer in not only sharing the findings from research but also the methods of how to go about conducting that research. I’m by no means an expert and there are others far more expert than me out there in Cardiff.

Researching names on war memorials isn’t always straightforward. In Wales there are a lot of common surnames making things tricky. On war memorials it is often only the initials and surname quoted. And beware, sometimes errors are made even in spelling a name etc.

At least in the case of the Cardiff High war memorial plaque the regiment names are quoted which can help. In the case therefore of ‘J L Davies. Essex Regt’, the first thing I did was to see if he was listed on the Commonwealth War Graves. There were a number of matches J L Davies’s but only one in WWI in the Essex Regiment and he was Major John Llewelyn Davies. I’m still not convinced however at this stage that I have the right person.

I then spent quite a long time looking for a John Llewelyn Davies in Cardiff on the census records. A census is carried out once ever ten years in England and Wales but the information kept secret for a hundred years. The last census therefore available for us to study is the 1911 census. A sort of census was carried out in September 1939 but detailing a lot less information but is also available and called the 1939 Register. Let me clarify by what I mean when I say ‘available’. Census records are most easily searched and accessed using the two main family history websites Ancestry and Find my Past. Unfortunately, both these are subscription websites. Don’t get despondent, there’s good news. Both can be accessed free of charge in Cardiff libraries.

So I search for John Llewelyn Davies in Cardiff in the census information and find nothing. This is where I made a mistake. I should have probably just done and internet search for ‘John Llewelyn Davies’ and ‘Cardiff High School’ where I would probably have discovered that others had carried out similar research. Instead I just kept looking for a John Llewelyn Davies on census records but without a date of birth things were proving tricky. Eventually I found one born in Ferryside and had a father who was a schoolmaster. Then I found him in the 1911 census as a schoolmaster in Cambridge which would explain him being a member of the Essex Regiment. Things were beginning to fit together. A couple more bits were obtained from Wales Newspapers Online and then back to some more general searching using Google (other internet search engines are available!).

Mid Glam Herald and Neath Gazette Dec 4th 1915 Obit

I won’t bore you with every avenue I took during my search but I did enjoy doing it. If you are interested in starting off or honing your skills I can recommend the Glamorgan Family History Society. They periodically run courses for beginners and have a session on the first Saturday of the month at Cardiff Central Library for more experienced researchers who may have hit a brick wall in their particular project. A number of Cardiff libraries also run sessions for beginners such as Cathays and Rhydypennau and maybe some others.

My final recommendation is a train trip to Ferryside and St Ishmael, the birthplace of Major John Llewelyn Davies. I went there earlier this year and the views across the estuary to Llansteffan and Laugharne were something else. Don’t forget to tell the train conductor you want to get off however as Ferryside is a request stop. More about that trip on my own blog Cardiff Capers.

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