Lord Buckland – 17 September 1877–23 May 1928 – part 2

BOWEN, BERRY, and BILBO BAGGINS

By Irene Janes

continued….

During the First World War, the government urged people to donate money to help build tanks. When it was Tank Week in Merthyr Tydfil, Seymour rose to the challenge and our town beat all other towns in raising one million pounds in today’s money. As a thank you, Merthyr was given the tank that had toured the country helping to raise funds.

The tank at Cyfrathfa Park. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

In 1919 Berry bought Gurnos Farm and its five hundred acres.

Berry admitted to being a gambler especially on the stock exchange. In hindsight, I think he won more than he lost and to our benefit.

He organised a Merthyr Tydfil Peace Memorial, £15,000 was raised which was distributed amongst the needy ex-servicemen and their dependents.

In 1920, with his brother, wife and David R. Llewellyn, Berry acquired John Lysaght and became its Chairman until it became part of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. Two years later he bought the Buckland estate in Bwlch, which included two thousand and six hundred acres and four miles of salmon fishing in the River Usk.

Buckland Hall

During this year the Conservative, Liberal and Constitutional Labour Parties all asked him to stand as a member of parliament for Merthyr Tydfil. He declined the offers.

In 1923 The Borough Council gave him the freedom of Merthyr Tydfil, and the following year he was invested as a Knight of Grace, Order of St John of Jerusalem. He held the office of High Sherriff of Brecknockshire. However, he still remembered his roots. An open-air baths had become derelict. Thanks to his interest and financial support the baths were renovated and had the added luxury of a roof, now fondly remembered as Gwaunfarren Baths.

Gwaunfarren Baths shortly after it opened. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

In 1926, in the Kings Birthday Honours List, he became Baron Buckland of Bwlch for his public, political and philanthropic service. Nevertheless, to Merthyr people he is best known as how he should be addressed, that of Lord Buckland, and the following year he again became a Chairman of G.K.N. (previously known as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds).

His philanthropic work is well-known. He bought the Carlton Workingman’s Hotel (we now know it as the Merthyr Ex-Service Mens Club), and Edwardsville School, Merthyr Tydfil Football Club and Dowlais Choir are just a few of the organisations who benefited from his financial donations. £12,000 was given for a new wing for the town’s General Hospital.

He gave land and money for the building of Sandbrook Sanatorium at Pontsarn, which he named after his father-in-law. He was a Freemason and belonged to Loyal Cambrian Lodge No 100 in Merthyr Tydfil.

On Wednesday, 23 May 1928. Lord Buckland greets his favourite bay mare and the estates stud groom, Henry Weaver, outside Buckland House. They ride to the meadow for a fast morning gallop. He turns to speak to Weaver, riding a horse behind. A shout goes out “Mind the post my Lord”. His master tries to turn. Collision with the telegraph post is unavoidable. Berry’s head smashes into it and he is unseated. Weaver runs to the house to alert the butler who dashes to the scene of the accident. Estate workers unhinge a gate to use as a stretcher. He is driven to hospital by car. Berry is dead.

This was just days before he and Lady Buckland were due to attend the Cyfarthfa Park Carnival where they were to crown the May Queen.

On Friday 26 May, vast crowds gathered around the Congregational Chapel in Market Square, where Berry had been a lifelong member. With the funeral service over the cortège proceeded down the valley to Pontypridd Crematorium. Along the way crowds gathered to pay their last respects to the man who did so much to give Merthyr residents a better quality of life. Apparently his ashes were scattered to the four winds. Without a male heir, his title of Lord Buckland became extinct.

There is so much more I could add. It is with little wonder there is a statue to Lord Buckland outside the central library it is in recognition to the high ideal of citizenship displayed in his generous gifts for the alleviation of suffering in the town and for increasing the happiness and prosperity of his fellowmen.

5 June 1931 saw the official opening of the Lord Buckland Memorial Hospital. After his death a fund was set up and over 50,000 contributed. The largest of the amounts came from his widow and his two brothers, which by now were also Lords, but their stories are not for now.

Lord Buckland Memorial Hospital

Even in death, his philanthropy lives on.

He left shares to be put into trust. The income applied to help the poor of Merthyr Tydfil. 1,000 shares to provide annual prizes to the pupils of Abermorlais, Cyfarthfa and County Schools. Perhaps you have a book given to you on prize giving day with a black oval stamp on the first inside page saying it was donated by Lord Buckland).  1,000 shares to Market Square Church.

The trust aims have had to be amended as the Abermorlais and County Schools have long gone. The charity aims are for ‘The relief, or assistance of the necessitous and deserving poor persons over the age of 30 years born or resided in the borough for 10 years’. Someone told me his grandmother had ten shillings a week from the fund, I suspect it would be more than 50p now. It is still active today and the appropriate agencies who are in contact with those in need can apply to the trust on their behalf. The 5 April 2019 trust accounts shows this year they donated £68,329.

BAGGINS  – A connection

Bilbo Baggins is a name many are familiar with through a series of books by J.K. Tolkien.

In 1940 Tolkien had begun writing The Lord of The Rings. As a busy academic he chose Tal-y- Bont for a holiday and a chance to continue with his writing. A researcher from the Lord of The Rings Production Company is completely convinced the following places were the source of Tolkien’s inspiration. The Shire where the Buckleberries live, and child hood home of Frodo Baggins is based on the Buckland Estate with the curve of the river. Crick Hollow inspired by Crickhowell. Tredegar became Fredegar. The Merthyr Steel works possible Mordor. I wonder what Lord Buckland thinks about his old estate being the inspiration for the books and films. Yet another way the name Buckland continues to give.

I wonder what Tommy, Alfred, Marshall and my grandfather John Moses thought of their ex school teacher as he rose through society ranks and become rich beyond their dreams.

So back to where all this began, researching my family tree. I realised something, my grandfather was actually a child, and I thought he was born forty years old, with a balding head, collarless shirt with rolled up sleeves, black tatty waistcoat, black trousers with turn-ups and braces.

Statue of Lord Buckland outside Merthyr Central Library

Thanks to Irene for this fascinating article.

There will be more coming about the Berry brothers soon.

Water, water everywhere….

The summer of 1899 was one of the hottest on records in Britain, indeed, it was recorded that it was the fourth hottest summer recorded since 1659. As a result of the weather, the whole of the country was suffering from a drought. Merthyr was no exception, however in August of that year, a number of burst water mains in the town exacerbated the situation.

These problems were reported in several newspapers 120 years ago today (26 August 1899):-

Cardiff Times – 26 August 1899
Weekly Mail – 26 August 1899

…..and on a lighter note:-

Evening Express – 26 August 1899

E T Davies – Another Musical Giant

Evan Thomas Davies was born on 10 April 1878 at 41 Pontmorlais, Merthyr Tydfil. His father, George, was a barber, and owned a shop in South Street, Dowlais. The family was a musical one; George was precentor in Hermon Chapel, Dowlais, for nearly a quarter of a century, and his mother and his mother, Gwenllian (née Samuel) had a fine contralto voice. Evan was brought up in Dowlais, and he was given private tuition coming heavily under the influence of the famous local conductor and organist, Harry Evans. (see http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=713)

At the age of sixteen, he passed the Advanced Honours Certificate of the Associated Board of the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music. So successful was he in the exam that Sir Charles Villiers-Stanford, a renowned composer, and one of the founders of the Royal College of Music, persuaded him to pursue a musical career. The young Evan didn’t take his advice however, and took a job as an office clerk in Merthyr.

During this time however, he became the accompanist for both Harry Evans’ and Dan Davies’ choirs, and in 1898, he was asked to accompany a party of singers from Wales to the USA, and on his return, he finally decided to pursue a career in music. He soon was awarded the fellowship of the Royal College of Organists, and his reputation as an important musician in Merthyr was cemented during the first few years of the 1900’s performing several Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the Dowlais Operatic Society, and was acclaimed as the successor to Harry Evans as Merthyr’s foremost musician.

In 1903 he was appointed as organist at Pontmorlais Chapel, Merthyr Tydfil, and also became part-time singing teacher at the Merthyr County School. In 1904 he moved to Merthyr from Dowlais, and in 1906, when Harry Evans moved to Liverpool, E T Davies moved into his house ‘Cartrefle’, which housed a three-manual pipe organ.

After gaining his F.R.C.O. his services as a solo organist were in great demand, and he was said to have inaugurated about a hundred new organs in Wales and England. In 1920 he was appointed the first full-time director of music of the University College, Bangor, where he was responsible for numerous musical activities, and collaborated with (Henry) Walford Davies, Aberystwyth, to enhance knowledge of music in a wide area under the auspices of the university’s Council of Music. In 1943 he retired and moved to Aberdare, where he spent the rest of his life composing, adjudicating and broadcasting.

He first came into prominence as a composer after winning the first prize for ‘Ynys y Plant’ in the national eisteddfod held in London in 1909, and although he was not a very prolific composer, and tended to regard composing merely as a hobby, he had a beneficial influence upon Welsh music for more than half a century. Besides writing a few songs, he also composed part-songs, anthems and works for various musical instruments and instrumental groups, and about 40 of his tunes, chants and anthems are to be found in various collections of tunes.

He recognised the excellent work on folk-songs that John Lloyd Williams had done before him at Bangor, and he was one of the first Welsh musicians to find sufficient merit in the folk-songs to arrange them for voice or instrument. His arrangements of over a hundred of these songs, (many of them produced when the composer was in old age) have great artistic merit. He also took an interest in Welsh national songs, and was co-editor with Sydney Northcote of The National Songs of Wales (1959).

He married, 31 August 1916, Mary Llewellyn, youngest daughter of D.W. Jones, Aberdare. He died at home in Aberdare on Christmas Day 1969.

Remembering the Fallen

by Dr Meilyr Powel

Over the past few months I’ve been working on a small project to re-house a war memorial from the First World War. The plaque commemorates three members of Elizabeth Street Presbyterian Church, Dowlais, who were killed during the war: Able Seaman David Albert Stephens; Private Archie Vincent Evans; and Second Lieutenant Thomas Glyn Nicholas.

The plaque was discovered in a second hand ‘junk’ sale, and together with my supervisor at the time at Swansea University, Dr Gethin Matthews, we applied for a collaborative research grant from the First World War Network to re-house the memorial as an exhibition at Cyfarthfa Castle, Merthyr.

The project has now been completed, with the exhibition being unveiled to the public on Saturday 4 May during an afternoon of talks on Merthyr and the First World War. Two information panels accompany the display of the plaque, along with the production of a small booklet with additional information on the three men and war memorials in general.

The first name that appears on the war memorial plaque is that of David Albert Stephens. After doing some research, we know now that Able Seaman D. Albert Stephens was killed in the largest sea battle of the war, at Jutland on 31 May 1916. Albert, originally from Llandovery, married Dowlais born Catherine and had two young children, Katie and Thomas. They were all bilingual and Albert worked as a stoker in the local iron works when war broke out.

At Jutland, Albert was a gunner on board HMS Invincible, part of Rear Admiral Horace Hood’s 3rd Battlecruiser  Squadron, when it was hit in the turret amidships, which detonated the magazines below, caused a huge explosion, and split the ship in two before sinking. It took just 90 seconds for the Invincible to sink. Thousands of sailors perished at this fateful battle. Indeed, the Battle of Jutland involved around 100,000 men in 151 British and 99 German ships, and lasted 72 hours with over 8,000 shells fired. Only six out of 1,032 crew members of the Invincible survived, but Albert wasn’t one of them. His name also appears on Plymouth Naval Memorial.

Private Archie Vincent Evans is the second name on the memorial. Archie was born in 1892 in Treorchy to Thomas and Henrietta Evans.  He had three younger brothers, Tom, Trevor, and Harold, and lived at Lower Union Street, having previously lived at Horse Street. Archie and his parents were bilingual, although his brothers were noted as English speaking only. His father, Thomas, was a restaurant owner and former rail inspector, while Archie himself worked as a grocer’s assistant with William Harris and Sons in Alma Street.

Archie served with the 9th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, which was part of 36 Infantry Brigade, 12th (Eastern) Division. It appears he was conscripted to the army in 1916, and in October that year his battalion launched an attack at Le Transloy, just west of the village of Gueudecourt on the Somme. The attack was a total failure, the battalion losing 15 officers and 250 other ranks that day. Archie, just twenty-four years old, was killed in the attack. His name also appears on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.

Second Lieutenant Thomas Glyn Nicholas is the last name on the memorial. The son of Thomas Richard and Mary Jane Nicholas, and brother of Rees and Dilys, Thomas was articled to the solicitors D. W. Jones and Co. before volunteering for service in the army. His father had been a clerk at Lloyd’s Bank. Thomas was educated at Merthyr County School and Worcester Grammar School and seemed set for a long career in the legal profession before the war began.

Following the outbreak of war, duty called for Thomas, and on 15 July 1915 he received his commission as a Second Lieutenant. He was assigned to the 18th Battalion (2nd Glamorgan) Welsh Regiment. This battalion was formed in Cardiff in January 1915 as a Bantam Battalion, a battalion which had lowered the minimum height requirement for recruits from five foot three to five feet. However, he was soon attached to the 14th Battalion (Swansea Pals) Welsh Regiment.

Thomas was part of a working party with the 14th Battalion when he was killed in February 1917 at East Canal Bank on the Ypres Salient. Thomas was the only man in the battalion killed or wounded that day. He was just twenty years old. He is buried in Bard Cottage, Belgium, and his name also appears on Merthyr County School’s own memorial.

The Merthyr Express reported Thomas’ death and quoted Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Hayes, writing to Thomas’ parents: ‘His death will be a great loss to the battalion. He was always cheerful under all conditions, however bad they were. I looked upon him as one of my most promising young officers.’

Elizabeth Street Church remembers

After the war, state and civil institutions began to commemorate the dead. Cenotaphs were erected in many towns and cities, with London’s Whitehall Cenotaph, unveiled on 11 November 1920, providing an official site of remembrance for the British, and later Commonwealth, dead. Many of the public monuments built in towns and villages throughout Wales were subsequently based on Edwin Lutyens’ design of the Whitehall Cenotaph.

Churches, schools, clubs, and societies also honoured their members who were killed during the war. Around 35,000 Welshmen were killed during the First World War and many of them are remembered on plaques such as this, from Elizabeth Street Presbyterian Church, Dowlais.

Rev Thomas James

David Albert Stephens, Archie Vincent Evans, and Thomas Glyn Nicholas were not the only members of their church to have served during the war.

In addition to several other members, the minister himself, the Reverend Thomas James, joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and served on both the French and Italian fronts.

This memorial plaque is representative of hundreds of chapels and churches across Wales which saw their members enlist in the forces during the First World War. The fact that so many Welshmen did not return home is testimony to the devastating impact of the war on communities across the country. In one church in Dowlais, it was felt deeply.

Elizabeth Street Chapel, Dowlais

Dr Merlin Pryce

Was it Fleming or Mr & Mrs Pryce’s boy from Troedyrhiw? 

by Irene Janes

Parents, Rachel and Richard Pryce owned a tavern in Troedyrhiw. Little did they think, in 1902, when their son was born, he could save millions of lives forever, but did he?

Their lad Daniel Merlin Pryce was a bright boy. He attended Merthyr County School, Pontypridd Grammar School, and at the age of seventeen, the Welsh National School of Medicine Cardiff. However, the call of a Junior Research Scholarship to study at St Mary’s Hospital, London, with Alexander Fleming lured him away from Merthyr Tydfil.

Aged twenty-five, and now known as Merlin Pryce, he worked alongside Alexander Fleming in his Bacteriology Department and it is here this fascinating story begins.

Apart from being hard working colleagues the two men became close friends. Fleming was at times a bit untidy and did not always clear away what he had been working on. In 1928 he was experimenting with the culture Staphylococci. In his eagerness to go on holiday for the summer a number of Petri dishes were overlooked.

Several weeks later, Merlin called in to St Marys Hospital see his old friend, who was due back from holiday. Alexander was late so Merlin pottered around tidying up Fleming’s laboratory. It was then he found the Petri dish, which had held the Staphylococci culture. His attention was immediately drawn to a fungus which had grown and how it had destroyed the Staphylococci.

Merlin Pryce

So who did discover penicillin? Was it Merlin for finding the dish and showing his friend the exciting possibilities of investigating the mould? All the accolades have fallen to Fleming. In my untrained medical mind, it seems to be a matter of luck. It all hangs on who picked up the Petri dish and became aware of the destroyed Staphylococci.

Luckily for us Merlin’s sister, Mrs Hilda Jarman, lived in London when this groundbreaking discovery occurred, and had no doubt it was her brother that drew it to Alexander’s attention. He praised Fleming for his re-culturing of the mould as seminal and crucial, and felt disqualified for any glory and praise. She told how Fleming wanted to include Merlin as a significant contributor but her brother ‘would not accept the suggestion’, Merlin’s children confirmed this.

Time moves on and Merlin is a Professor and Alexander a Knight of the realm. During World War Two when Fleming’s house was bombed his whole family stayed with the Pryce family.

Merlin’s wife Molly, in her career as a nurse, encountered many unmarried mothers. They often welcomed some of the girls into their home before and after their babies were born until, they were strong enough to leave.

In 1945, The Nobel Prize for ‘Physiology or Medicine’, was collectively awarded to Alexander Fleming, Sir Howard Florey and Earnest B Chain. Foley and Chain further investigated the possibilities for penicillin. The rules state only three names can be on the Nobel Prize medal.

Merlin was a shy modest man, a co-operator more than a competitor. He was loyal, warm, sincere, and tolerant and had a great a love for his fellow men. Is this why he was more than happy for Fleming to take the praise? Did he see his role as no more than an opportune moment rather that of discovery? We will never know any more than who first set foot on the top of Mount Everest, Hillary or Norgay.

Nevertheless, we know the two men remained close friends all their lives so obviously animosity was not cultured in or over that Petri dish.

Fleming’s papers are in the British Museum Library and not available for inspection. The Pryce diaries have been lost.

Where every the tribute should be laid Professor Merlin Pryce had an unblemished reputation as a Doctor and teacher and for that alone Merthyr should be proud of him.

**I have received the following e-mail in response to this article:-

I have read the article by Irene Janes and I think you should know of Merlin Pryce’s other Merthyr connections. His father’s sister married Enoch Morrell who was Mayor of Merthyr Tydfil from 1905 to 1906. Therefore Merlin was a cousin to Will Morrell, Enoch’s son. Merlin’s sister, Hilda, told me that Will Morrell had taught her mathematics at the Merthyr County School and that he later became the headmaster there. I think he retired about 1946. His daughter became a doctor and married a Swansea surgeon, Eric Morgan.
Vivian Thomas (son-in-law of Merlin’s sister)

A Tribute to Glynne Jones

Following on from his post on D T Davies, Carl Llewellyn has posted a tribute to another of Merthyr’s musical legends – Glynne Jones

Gofio un o Feibion Enwog Dowlais
by Carl Llewellyn

I would like to pay a small tribute to Glynne Jones a local character and a well-known musician through out the principality and beyond.

Glynne Jones was born on 7 November 1927 at No 3, Glendower Street, Dowlais, the home of his grandparents David & Margaret Jones, who originally kept a small shop on Pant Road near to the La Bodega restaurant, but known to locals as the Slipper. Glynne was the eldest son of David and Annie May Jones, and was brought up with his younger brother Degwel, and sister Margaret.

The Jones family were staunch members of Moriah Welsh Baptist Chapel, that once stood in Mount Pleasant Street, Dowlais. Sadly like most chapels the building is no more. Glynne’s religious background was nurtured at home with his father and an uncle, both deacons in Moriah Chapel. With Glynne’s musical talent it was no surprise when he became the chapel organist, a post he held from 1940 until 1963.

Educated at Cyfarthfa Castle Grammar School later becoming a graduate of the University College Cardiff, after his national service days, he became music master at the Old County Grammar School, where he formed a children’s choir to sing Handel’s Messiah. Glynne conducted the Merthyr Philharmonic Choir 1955-1961. Following early success with the Merthyr Philharmonic Choir and the Silurian Singers he became the Musical Director of Pendyrus Male Choir in 1962.

He was appointed Musical Adviser for Monmouthshire in 1965 and became Senior Music Adviser for Gwent from 1973 to 1990. Among his many achievements can be listed: prestigious conducting engagements on three continents; numerous radio and television broadcasts in Welsh and English; the musical direction of the BBC film “Off to Philadelphia in the Morning” in 1978, and the establishment of the Newport International Piano Competition.

In 1980 Merthyr Tydfil celebrated the 1500th anniversary of the death of its patron, Saint Tydfil the Martyr. A combined concert with Dowlais, Cefn-Coed, Treharris and Ynysowen Choirs was arranged at the Rhydycar Leisure Center on 5 October. with Glynne Jones being invited as the guest conductor. The guest artists at the concert were Stuart Burrows, tenor; Beti Jones, soprano and Huw Tregelles Williams at the organ.

Glynne’s lifelong commitment to Welsh music in education and the community was recognized by a Fellowship of the Welsh College of Music and Drama in 1994, and the award of the MBE in 1996.

Sadly Glynne died unexpectedly on Christmas Day 2000. In Glynne’s lifetime S4C produced a documentary on his musical background, as a mark of respect it was shown again after his death.

glynnejones_1927-2000_

Please check back soon for Carl Llewellyn’s account of Glynne Jones’ memorial service

Merthyr’s Forgotten Literary Pioneer

Merthyr Tydfil is currently commemorating the 60th anniversary of the death of a forgotten pioneer son, the distinguished playwright, J.O. Francis (1882-1956).

2a
J. O. Francis

He was born in 15, Mary Street in Twynyrodyn but spent his childhood and youth at 41, High Street, living above the shop of his blacksmith father, David Francis. His Rhondda-born mother, Dorothy, was a dressmaker and milliner. John Oswald (known as J.O. for most of his adult life) was the eldest of five children. He was a gifted scholar, having received a good education in the “learned paradise” of the new County Intermediate and Technical School, at which he became a pupil on the day it opened in 1896. It gave him the chance of going to university at Aberyswtyth, whence he graduated with a first in English Literature in 1904. He never forgot that good fortune and he never forgot Merthyr Tydfil for all it had meant to him. It was the inspiration of his writing: the many memories he recalled depict the Merthyr Tydfil of our grandparents and great-grandparents. He is part of our heritage but has been sadly neglected.  He was a man of many enthusiasms with a passion for the theatre and for rugby. He gained fame two decades before the celebrated Jack Jones, who was a contemporary and who echoed many of the ground-breaking ideas of J.O. Francis, who wrote for most of his life living as a proud London Welshman in an area of London that made the theatres, the London Welsh playing fields and Twickenham internationals easily available. He was much respected as a gifted dramatist and stylish essayist and was a popular broadcaster. “He was a man of many opinions and no prejudices”.

The Merthyr Tydfil Leisure Trust, the libraries, the researchers at the Ynysfach Engine House, the Redhouse theatre staff, Cyfarthfa Museum, the Merthyr Tydfil Museum and Heritage Group and many individuals are pleased to be able to celebrate belatedly the life and work of a once famous pioneering son of the town. He wrote the first Anglo-Welsh realist drama about the working class. It was called ‘Change’ about a family of Welsh colliers at the time of a strike and he helped to make amateur dramatics a new culture in the grim industrial valleys of South Wales and beyond- all in need of some fun and entertainment.

Many thanks to Mary Owen for contributing the above article.

A loaned portrait of the writer, commissioned by Lord Kemsley and painted by Ceri Richards is on view in the Wedding Room of Cyfarthfa Castle.

img_4247a
J. O. Francis painted by Ceri Richards

J.O. Francis  (1882-1956)  The Distinguished Merthyr-born Dramatist is an appreciation of  his life and work, written by Mary Owen. It includes many extracts from the work of J. O. Francis. It will be launched by the library in Merthyr Tydfil on 12 October  at 11.30 a.m. in the courtyard of The Redhouse.

book-launch