Nurse Olwen (Dolly) Davies of Gwladys Street, Pant, was a gentle lady who hid the strong determination that allowed her to complete 42 years of nursing – sometimes under the most trying conditions.
Dolly was born in 1904, and undertook her fever training at Heather Green Hospital, Lewisham in the 1920s, and subsequently her State Registered Nursing at Whipscross Hospital, London – a 600 bed Council Hospital.
She always felt it a pleasure to return to her home town, as dear old Tom Price, who worked at Pant Station greeted all the young people returning home to the village by name, giving each of them a warm handshake, and escorting them from the top to the lower platform for safety. In 1924, Dolly paid £1.8s for the return fare to London.
Dolly had decided to specialise in fever nursing. Fever nursing meant nursing all sorts of infectious diseases including diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, meningitis and T.B. cases.
She was very worried the first time she nursed a tracheotomy case – a small child. It required a constant watch on her small patient to prevent the tracheotomy tube slipping out or blocking; using a feather and bi-carbonate of soda solution helped keep the tube clear. Care was required that no injury occurred from their surroundings, as the child needed moistened air to relieve breathing difficulties. This was achieved by the use of two primus stoves, with steam kettles constantly on the boil, which required frequent filling to prevent them boiling dry. Water jugs were used as there was no water tap in the room. It proved a long hard, unforgettable night for her.
Later, Dolly was ward sister for 6 years at Paddington Hospital, London. During this time she was a reserve for the Queen Alexandra Nursing Corp. When war was declared in September 1939, she commenced 6 years service as a Captain. Her service covered North Africa, Germany, and France, with long periods of time being spent in ‘field hospitals’.
From Alexandria, Egypt, she was sent to Tobruk to bring back the wounded soldiers, but later, the patients were brought to them. One time she and her colleagues nursed a whole hospital of wounded German prisoners. Dolly always treated them no differently to our own men.
After 4 years service, she was given four weeks leave at the Crickhowell Camp near Abergavenny, before being sent back to Normandy in the aftermath of the D-Day Landings, to commence the long trek across France, Belgium and Holland. Whilst in Holland she and her fellow nurses were told to prepare to go into a concentration camp – they were one of the first medical teams to go into the infamous Belsen Camp.
They were warned what to expect, and told not to allow the sights they would see affect them, or to make a nuisance of themselves by being ill, but to be proud, as many British people would be only too willing to do what they were about to undertake.
For her war service, she was awarded the following medals: the 1939-45 Campaign Medal, the Victory Medal, the Africa Star, the France and Germany Star, and the Defence Medal.
After the War, she spent two years at Merthyr General Hospital as a ward sister, having to ‘live in’ at the hospital. The nurses were called from bed to attend patients admitted during the night, and were still expected to carry on working their normal shift the next day. She later became a district nurse to enable her to devote more time to her ill father.
I am sure many of you like me, have wandered around Cyfarthfa Museum, and glanced at the instruments on display – particularly the most intriguing “serpent” – and then moved on without a second thought. The Egyptian mummies were always so much more interesting. As a consequence, although I knew there had been a band, I knew nothing of it. Time to rectify that, my friends!
The Cyfarthfa Band was founded and sponsored by Robert Thompson Crawshay sometime in the 1840s, essentially as his private band. The band played when he had guests in Cyfarthfa, it accompanied him to trips to Aberystwyth and Tenby, where they played outside his hotel, probably to the bewilderment of the locals, and band members were expected to present in uniform at all times.
For much of its life, the band was conducted by the Livseys – father and son. The father, Ralph, was from Northumberland, and was a brilliant keyed bugle player, a skill probably acquired in a military band, as the keyed bugle was developed in this context. He became a soloist with Wombwell’s Travelling Circus and Menagerie, and would have been known to the Crawshays, as Merthyr was a regular venue on Wombwell’s circuit. Around 1846, Robert Crawshay made him an offer – come and lead my brass band – and Ralph accepted. His son, George, aged then 13 was also recruited as another keyed bugle player. Ralph took the band to new heights – while it remained a private band, Livsey persuaded Crawshay to equip it with expensive Viennese instruments (imported expressly through Crawshay’s London supplier), rather than the much cheaper British versions, and developed a repertoire of playing more orchestral music than was the traditional remit of the brass band.
As a private enterprise, the Cyfarthfa Band was not a competition band, and rarely entered such. However, one of the few competitions the band entered was the Crystal Palace national competition of 1860, in which it played Verdi’s “Nabucco”. The band came first on the second day’s contest, and Crawshay’s reputation as a man of culture and taste was cemented – through that, the band’s reputation grew. Its importance can be illustrated by the anecdote told of a time when Crawshay was laying off his workers as result of a downturn in demand. He had identified men working in the Boiler Shop who were to be dismissed. The foreman, Mr Jenkins looked at the list and told Crawshay, in no uncertain terms, that his selection would “take the guts from the band”. Nothing further was ever said.
Ralph Livsey’s grave in St Tydfil’s Churchyard
Ralph Livsey died in 1863 and was succeeded by his son, George, who remained band master for most of the next 50 years. The band’s reputation was maintained, if not enhanced, under George’s leadership – it played in the Cardiff Flower Show for 18 years, and was chosen to play when the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) opened the Prince of Wales dock in Swansea in 1881.
It was George who introduced the band to some of more unusual instruments – including the Serpent (which brings us back to that showcase in the Museum today), an ophicleide – an instrument with a cello tone; and a valve trombone – so common now that we think nothing of it – but a novelty in the 1860s.
An ophicleide from the Cyfarthfa Band
George conducted the band, trained its players, selected and arranged its repertoire and followed his father’s example of attracting some of the greatest brass instrumentalists of the day, such as the ophicleide player Sam Hughes, the greatest ever British virtuoso of the instrument. Indeed, the repertoire Livsey created survives, and because it is handwritten and bespoke it testifies to how, and not just to what, the band played. It was eclectic and included transcriptions of complete symphonies by Europe’s greatest composers and it was George’s boast that this was the only brass band to play all four movements of a Beethoven Symphony, a feat carried out in Cardiff to great acclaim. Such is testimony both to the remarkable virtuosity and skill of the band’s players and to the guidance and vision of a sophisticated musical director.
The last decade of the 19th century saw the band slowly decline. The Cyfarthfa works were losing orders as steel replaced iron, and by 1890 the works were being run by a skeleton staff. In addition there was more musical competition – Merthyr by this time could boast three military bands, seven brass bands and several orchestras – and the band quietly faded away, their instruments being put into storage.
But, my friends, this is not the end of the story, although it is the end of the glory days. Merthyr Council, who had acquired the Castle and grounds in 1908, decided that a band would be just the ticket, and so approached George Livsey to reform it as a municipal band. This duly happened in 1909 and the band was regularly heard playing in the Cyfarthfa and Thomastown bandstands over the next few years.
But George was now a man in his 70s, and so the band’s leadership fell first to a Mr Harvey and then to a Mr Laverock, who was its conductor during the dark days of 1914 -18. And so the band played on, until the Depression of 1926 finally sounded its death toll, as it did for most Merthyr bands, the exception being that of the Salvation Army Band which stands as witness to its heritage.
So next time you are in the Museum, stop at the case which houses the instruments and look up at the painting of George Livsey which hangs nearby – and remember the contribution made by the gentlemen of the Cyfarthfa Band, and wonder at the heights that were achieved by this band of ironworkers.
The portrait of George Livsey that hangs in Cyfarthfa Museum. Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery
I am pleased to announce that eminent local historian Joe England’s book ‘Merthyr, The Crucible of Modern Wales’, having sold out in hardback, has now been released in paperback.
Normally retailing at £18.99, the publishers of the book, Parthian Books, have offered a very special discount to the readers of this blog and you buy it for £14.00.
To order the book and claim your discount, follow the link below, and to claim the discount, add the code Merthyr into the discount code box during the checkout process.
A fortuitous online discovery revealed that at least one native of Troedyrhiw had travelled as far as the San Francisco Bay area of California in the nineteenth century. An American calling himself ‘AlphaRoaming’ had written on his blog:- “I’m based in Silicon Valley and get out in the wilderness as often as possible. Back a few weeks ago I carpooled with a retired friend from San Jose up to Antioch, California to visit Northern California’s former coal mining district.’ He had posted this image of a headstone found in Rose Hill Cemetery in the Mount Diablo Coalfield, Contra Costa County, California.
The inscription states:-
MARY WIFE OF WILLIAM PROSSER DIED SEPT 24 1876 AGED 52 Y’RS NATIVE OF TROEDYRHIW, MERTHYR
From the late 1850’s until the turn of the century a low grade coal was extracted from the mines in this area and small towns, principally Nortonville, Somersville and Stewartville, grew up to house the workers and their families. The inhabitants were a diverse mix including significant numbers of Welsh and Italian immigrants. These settlements did not outlast the closure of the coal mines and the silica sand extraction industry that followed and their locations are now officially classified as ‘ghost towns’. Close to Somersville is the burial ground now known as Rose Hill Cemetery but formerly called the Protestant or ‘Welsh’ cemetery. This is where Mary Prosser was laid to rest in 1876 following a long period of ill health due, in all probability, to one of the diseases such as smallpox, typhoid, scarlet fever and diphtheria that were all too prevalent at the time.
Rose Hill Cemetery, Black Diamond Preserve, Contra Costa County, Ca.
It is believed that nearly 250 individuals are at Rose Hill but, sadly, the site was long neglected and subjected to vandalism including the theft of gravestones and ironwork so that now less than half of the original number of plots can be positively identified. Apart from Prosser other names with proven or likely Welsh origins found at Rose Hill include Davies, Davis, Edwards, Evans, Gething, Howell, Howells, Hughes, Humphreys, James, Jenkins, Jones, Morgan, Morris, Rees, Richards, Thomas, Vaughn, Waters and Williams.
Fortunately, this historic site and its artefacts are now being conserved and protected by the staff and volunteers of the Black Diamond Regional Preserve so that we and future generations can continue to appreciate it.
In 1979, Somersville gained fame as the site of the largest historical archaeology excavation ever done in the U.S. at the time. The Public Broadcasting System examined the project in a documentary series on archaeology, Odyssey: Other People’s Garbage.
The Rose Hill Cemetery aspect of this initiative seems to share many of the aims of the Saron Graveyard Project in Troedyrhiw but, unlike the latter, enjoys the advantages that come from being part of a larger well funded project.
Pursuing research into the background of Mary Prosser and how she came to live in the U.S. and finally die and be interred in this small part of California has revealed some additional information but has also thrown up a number of puzzles that are still to be unravelled. This is an item printed in the deaths column of a Welsh language newspaper some months after Mary’s death:-
From Y Gwladgarwr (The Patriot) 29 December 1876
This item seems to:-
confirm that Mary died on 24 September 1876 at 52 years of age, the wife of William Prosser;
reveal that she died in Somersville after suffering greatly with an illness for over a year;
confirm that Mary was born in Troedyrhiw, Merthyr;
state that she emigrated to America in 1848 from Brynmawr which was (at that time) in Brecknockshire (and is now within Blaenau Gwent);
state that by 1857 she was living in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania;
explain that her brother, Thomas Roberts, who lived in Reading, Pennsylvania, would like to contact Mr Prosser;
make it likely that she, her husband and their families were Welsh speaking;
make it likely that her maiden name was Roberts.
A search in available records for a marriage between a William Prosser and a Mary Roberts prior to the date of emigration (1848) yields only one likely result.
(Ancestry.com gives the same result but with an 1843 date)
This marriage took place in the parish of Llanelli/Llanelly on the edge of which is Brynmawr – the starting point for Mary (Roberts) Prosser (and possibly her husband?) to emigrate to the U.S.
If we could now link this Mary Roberts to Troedyrhiw we would have strong evidence that we have identified the person that lies buried in Rose Hill Cemetery. Thus far it has not been possible to do this but we are hopeful that ongoing enquiries will eventually be successful.
SOME CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS
South Africa, British Columbia and California are all many thousands of miles from Troedyrhiw. To travel from the village to any of these places by modern means of transport would normally be a quite straightforward if rather tiring venture but undertaking the same journeys in the nineteenth century would have been full of potential hazards. That our forebears were willing to take such risks, whether to fulfil their duty or in pursuit of better lives, and to put up with all of the hardships that they would undoubtedly face upon arrival at their destination is testament to their determination and resilience and leaves us much to admire.
John W. Williams, as we have seen, suffered a fatal accident while mining for gold in British Columbia. He must have been part of the early Welsh emigration to Canada attracted by the Cariboo Gold Rush that began in 1858. As with other miners that suffered similar fates he is likely to have been buried near to the place where he died with no permanent marker showing the location of his final resting place. It appears from census records that, sadly, he had left a wife and two children behind in Troedyrhiw while he went away to seek his fortune.
Evan J. Williams found himself to be embroiled in what, at the time, was the largest deployment of British troops since the Crimean War. Between 1899 and 1902 half a million soldiers had been sent to take part in the conflict in South Africa and amongst the 55,000 British casualties there were some 22,000 fatalities of which 12,000, including Trooper Williams, had died from diseases such as dysentery, typhoid and intestinal infections.
As many as 2 million Americans can trace their ancestry back to Welsh born immigrants. In the middle of the nineteenth century many were recruited, because of their skills, to work in the coal mines and ironworks of Pennsylvania. This probably explains why Mary Prosser and her husband William came to Tamaqua from Brynmawr in 1857. We don’t know why the couple later decided to move to California. It could have been that William’s presumed skills as a ‘hard-rock’ miner were in demand in the goldfields at that time and, when this didn’t work out, he turned to the type of work that he knew best in the recently opened coal mines of the Mount Diablo area. He and his wife could not have suspected that the harsh realities of life in an environment where infectious diseases were rife and medical care was rudimentary or non existent were to prove so costly for Mary.
How did our forebears live their lives in their home communities and what happened to those that moved away, sometimes to far distant lands, in search of better lives or because duty called them for military service?
A small but dedicated group have been working for some years to rescue the graveyard of the former Saron Welsh Independent Chapel in Troedyrhiw from the effects of many years of neglect.
Saron Chapel, Troedyrhiw
From an early stage in this project members of the team began to photograph the surviving headstones and monuments and to transcribe the memorial inscriptions. These, together with memorial type, language, lettering and symbolism revealed interesting information about our forebears (those buried and the people that buried them) and their lives over a period running from the 1830’s up to the early 1980’s. Such findings combined with the results of further research provide details for particular individuals and families including names, dates and places of birth, dates of death together with ages and causes, relationships, occupations, economic status, military service, tragic events, religion, cultural and leisure pursuits.
An intriguing aspect of these enquiries has been the discovery of a significant number of Troedyrhiw people who once emigrated or were deployed to places far from home. Quite a few of these were never to return. The following three examples have been chosen to illustrate this.
JOHN W. WILLIAMS
It is likely that John Williams, a native of Troedyrhiw, having honed his mining skills in local collieries, decided to emigrate to the goldfields of Canada to ‘seek his fortune’. The inscriptions on the headstone of his family grave in Saron Graveyard, Troedyrhiw can now only be read with difficulty. They include the following:-
IN MEMORY OF
JOHN W. WILLIAMS
LATE OF TROEDYRHIW
HE DIED MAY 3 1877
AT 52 YEARS OLD
BURIED AT OHANACAN BRITISH COLUMBIA
‘Ohanacan’ would appear to be a reference to the Okanagan region of British Columbia. A Canadian newspaper published 18 May 1877 refers to a miner named Williams who was killed at the beginning of May 1877 during gold mining activities at a place called Mission Creek.
Newspaper record of the death of a miner called Williams
The above information is supported by a report from British Columbia’s Gold Commissioner, Charles A. Vernon for the previous year (1876). This records the gold mining activities at Mission Creek and the involvement of an experienced miner called John Williams who had spent time in the Cariboo region of British Columbia before coming to the Okanagan. Charles Vernon wrote:-
“Considerable mining and prospecting has also been done on Mission Creek this fall, with a fair average yield of gold. John Williams, an old Caribooite, has run a tunnel into the hill from the creek some 60 feet, and found a good prospect.”
EVAN J. WILLIAMS
This young Troedyrhiw man died in South Africa during the 2nd Boer War (Anglo – Boer War), 1899-1902. An inscription on the headstone of his family grave in Saron Graveyard reads:-
ALSO OF EVAN J. WILLIAMS, SON OF THE ABOVE WHO DIED IN SOUTH AFRICA MAY 20, 1901. AGED 27 YEARS
The death of Trooper Williams is recorded, along with those of his comrades from the Borough who also perished during this conflict, on the Boer War Memorial in Thomastown Park in Merthyr.
The results of an enquiry made of the South Africa War Graves Project include the following record and a photograph of this soldier’s grave marker:-
“No 278748, Trooper E. J. Williams, 4th Company, Imperial Yeomanry, died of disease on 20 May 1901 and buried in Harrismith Cemetery” (note that the date given here is slightly different from that recorded elsewhere).
We continue our serialisation of the memories of Merthyr in the 1830’s by an un-named correspondent to the Merthyr Express, courtesy of Michael Donovan.
Taking the Nantygwenith Road first, with the exception of one occupied by David Evans, the master carpenter at Cyfarthfa (father of the Thomas Evans whose brewery has been mentioned), there was not another right away up to the gatehouse of the Turnpike on the right hand side, but there were dwellings on the other (the left) side all the way, and persons who resided there who should be mentioned.
Before doing so, however, it may be proper to state what kind of scientific society met at the Dynevor Arms, and what was then called philosophical instruments, made by W. and S. Jones, of High Holborn, kept there in the meeting room. Amongst other things attempted was the formation of a duck, which it was reputed they nearly accomplished, but extravagancies aside I can from recollection say there were very good instruments there, one being a telescope of about five inches in diameter.
The Dynevor Arms in the 1970s. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
Notwithstanding much that was desirable for sanitary conditions, there was a good deal of intellectual activity, and if any exceeding strong temperance advocates, deride the statement he can be told of a somewhat analogous one held near Birmingham that was frequented by persons whose names are world known, to wit, James Watt, Priestley and the time of meeting as near as may be to others whose forethought went so far as to have the time of meeting as near as may be to full moon, and were called in consequence the Lunar Society. There are few of any offices that that do not today benefit from one or two of their meetings.
On the left, the corner house of the Aberdare and Nantygwenith Roads, a grocer’s shop was opened by Mr Beddoe, next was a “gin shop”, so called, subsequently kept by Mr Lewis Lewis, superintendent of the Dowlais Stables previously, and afterwards of Pontyrhun; a few cottages followed and then a road. It was up this, and on the first opening to the left the Rev David John, the Unitarian Minister, taught his pupils. He was, I think, a good Welsh scholar, but I am certain of him being a good mathematician. He Had three sons and one daughter, the eldest Mathew, some years after carrying on the iron foundry business in Bryant’s old brewery premises.
The upper corner of this road was the grocery establishment of a Mr Edward Roach. He was a fine powerful man, and they used to say that seeing a woman, with a child in her arms, pursued by a bull, he rushed out and boldly attacked it.
Roach’s grocery shop in the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of the Alan George archive.
Next above was the Patriot Inn, kept by Mr William Howells. He had two daughters, the youngest of whom was wooed by Mr William Spiller, then travelling around the hills selling flour on behalf of himself and a Mr Browne. The flour was called “Spiller and Browne”. The latter name seems to have passed, but the former has developed into a ‘household word’ in the quality of their product, and extension of business at Cardiff. The firm Spiller and Browne was then at Bridgwater.
A notice from the Merthyr Guardian dated 20th January 1838 advertising an auction to be held at the Patriot Inn, Georgetown
Nurse Olwen (Dolly) Davies of Gwladys Street, Pant, was a gentle lady who hid the strong determination that allowed her to complete 42 years of nursing – sometimes under the most trying conditions.
JOHN W. WILLIAMS
EVAN J. WILLIAMS
