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).
To mark 121st anniversary of the start of the Second Boer War, this article is a rewrite and update on Merthyr’s Boer War Memorial that was first published as part of an essay on Thomastown Park in Volume Twelve of the Merthyr Historian in 2001.
2001 was the 100th anniversary of the construction of Thomastown Park and the war memorial will reach its 116th anniversary in September this year.
Situated in the ‘western’ park the memorial is unique as the first memorial to Merthyr’s menfolk who gave their lives in the service of their country.
The Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 to 31 May 1902 and was the first British conflict that depended heavily upon volunteers to boost the small and heavily stretched established army. The war under conventional terms of fighting between formed armies was over by June 1900. A guerrilla phase followed in which the worst aspects of warfare such as scorched earth actions and concentration camps were to inflict severe hardship and suffering upon the Boer people. The war was concluded at the peace of Vereeniging in May 1902.
An indication that the war was over in all but name was that some four months before the signing of the peace treaty prominent Merthyr townsfolk were planning a memorial to those that had died in the service of their Queen, King and Country.
Memorial Committee
At a public meeting held on the 17 January 1902, a resolution was passed that a suitable memorial to perpetuate the memory of former townsmen who had fallen in the war in South Africa be erected. An application for consent of the Council to erect a memorial on the Recreation Ground, later known as Thomastown Park, was made by the secretary of the Committee, Mr W. T. Jones. Mr Jones of 25, Tudor Terrace, Merthyr Tydfil was an accountant practising from offices at 50 High Street. His letter of application, dated 22 January was read at the Council meeting on the 5 February 1902 and was granted subject to a suitable site being available.
Chairman of the committee was Dr. C. Biddle and the vice-chairman was Mr. William Griffiths, High Constable of Merthyr Tydfil, and over the next two years the committee set out to raise the funds to build and erect the memorial.
Fund Raising
The overall cost of the memorial was £300, the majority of which was got by public subscription. Fund raising was slow and by the spring of 1904 was somewhat off the fund’s target. At which time the Police, Yeomanry and Volunteers came forward offering to organise an assault at arms and concert at the Drill Hall, Merthyr.
The event held on the night of Wednesday 11 May 1904 was well attended and raised £75 towards the memorial. The evening’s proceedings demonstrated the strong military background of members of the police force and the overall strength of support towards the erection of a memorial to the men that had died in the war.
The District Council, at a total cost of £123 carried out the foundation work for the memorial. They presented an account for the work, less the Council’s contribution of £25 towards the memorial, in the November following the unveiling ceremony.
The Memorial
The site chosen for the memorial was in the western park on the Thomastown Tips overlooking the town and with the memorial’s overall height of thirty five-foot it is clearly visible from the town below. (George) Washington Morgan, a local sculptor and monumental mason of Penyard House, was commissioned to design and build the memorial. Built from Aberdeen granite in the shape of an obelisk, fifteen feet tall, standing on a pedestal carved from the same material the memorial stands on a foundation designed by Mr C M Davies and Mr T F Harvey, District Council surveyor. The foundation comprises a Pennant stone base twelve feet square upon which the granite pedestal rests. The base surrounded by kerb and railing stands on a grass clod embankment giving added height to the memorial. Application had been made to the War Office to have two South African guns to place each side of the obelisk but without success.
Thomastown Recreation Ground in the 1920s. Photo courtesy of Carl Llewellyn
The pillar has a wreath carved just above the front of the Pedestal, under which is the motto ‘Gwell Angau na Chywilydd’, (Better Death than Dishonour). On the front of the four faces of the pedestal is carved the words ‘A tribute to Merthyr men who died in the South African war, 1899-1902.’ The other three sides contain the forty-two names of ‘Merthyr’ men who died in the war:
Charles M Jenkins, Thorneycroft’s Mounted Infantry
Trooper John Gray, 18th Hussars
Trooper Dominick Dasey, 19th Hussars
Gunner Thomas Williams, Field Artillery
Thomas W Davies, Imperial, Yeomanry
Trooper Evan J Williams, Imperial Yeomanry
Trooper Caradoc I Evans, Protectorate Regiment
Arthur J Jenkins, Grenadier Guards
Evan Evans, Welsh Fusiliers
Frederick Barnett, Welsh Fusiliers
John J Davies, Welsh Fusiliers
Edwin Mansell, South Wales Borderers
William Reardon, South Wales Borderers
William Lewis, South Wales Borderers
David J Moses, South Wales Borderers
J Walsh, South Wales Borderers
Edward Davies, South Wales Borderers
John Rees, South Wales Borderers
Edward Owens, South Wales Borderers
Daniel Sullivan, South Wales Borderers
Sydney Rees, South Wales Borderers
Thomas Davies, South Wales Borderers
William James, South Wales Borderers
Edwin Jones, South Wales Borderers
William Wayt, South Wales Borderers
Michael Flynn, South Wales Borderers
Thomas Fouhy, Welsh Regiment
Timothy O’Shea, Welsh Regiment
Dennis Donovan, Welsh Regiment
Samuel Thomas, Welsh Regiment
Henry Pollard, Welsh Regiment
Cornelius Mahoney, Welsh Regiment
Henry Davies, Welsh Regiment
Morgan Roberts, Welsh Regiment
Thomas Rule, Welsh Regiment
Lewis Williams, Welsh Regiment
John M Ball, Welsh Regiment
John Hayes, Welsh Regiment
Samuel Broadstock, Gloucester Regiment
Patrick Cronin, Manchester Regiment
Daniel Jones, Imperial Light Infantry
William F Howell, R.A.M.C.
Lieutenant C. M. Jenkins was the son of Thomas Jenkins J.P., farmer, of Pantscallog House, Pant. Charles was a railway engineer and had been living in the Transvaal for eleven years before he enlisted in Major Thornycroft’s Imperial Mounted Infantry in October 1899; “All my pals are in it, and I must take a hand as well”. Charles was killed at the battle of Colenso, Natal, on 15 December 1899, aged 32 years old.
The Unveiling Ceremony
After strenuous fund raising the memorial was complete and ready for its official unveiling on Thursday afternoon, 8 September 1904. In keeping with military tradition the ceremony was planned to precision and comprised both military parade and music. On the week leading up to the ceremony plans of the ground showing the entrance gates to be used by the various participating groups was on display in prominent office and shop windows about the town.
The ceremony must have looked most impressive with some six hundred officers and men of the volunteer detachments, South Wales Borderers, of Cefn Coed, Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil and Merthyr Vale and the Glamorgan Yeomanry. Witnessing the event was a large assembly of the general public under the supervision of the local police. Lord Windsor, in his capacity of Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan, accompanied by Mr Forest, Deputy Lieutenant, Mr. W. W. Meredith, High Constable, and Mr. J. M. Berry, Chairman of the Public Works Committee, arrived at the recreation ground in a brougham. Lord Windsor was met at the entrance of the gates to the ground by the Memorial Committee and was afforded the honour of a guard of one hundred men under the command of Lieutenant D. C. Harris, Merthyr Tydfil Volunteer detachment of the South Wales Borderers.
After speeches from both the High Constable and Dr. Biddle the buglers of the 3rd Volunteer Battalion Welsh Regiment sounded ‘The Last Post’. Lord Windsor then unveiled the obelisk to great applause and after an appropriate speech concluded by asking Councillor J. M. Berry to accept the memorial on behalf of the Parish of Merthyr. Councillor Berry accepted the monument and assured Lord Windsor and subscribers that the town would do its utmost to keep it as a sacred trust.
The memorial still stands but is in much need of repair and refurbishment.
JOHN W. WILLIAMS
EVAN J. WILLIAMS
To mark 121st anniversary of the start of the Second Boer War, this article is a rewrite and update on Merthyr’s Boer War Memorial that was first published as part of an essay on Thomastown Park in Volume Twelve of the Merthyr Historian in 2001.
