October 2010 Archives

As I said in Blog 46 Thomas Williams set off for France on 12 April 1916 and a number of cards were received, two of which I've shown in previous blogs. On a card dated 5 August 1916 (the first shown) Tom says that he's alright but the weather is "frightfully hot". There are references to the weather being hot on a number of cards. I once visited Vinny Ridge where a section of the trenches has being preserved and was shocked to see how close the trenches of both sides were. The fact that the weather was hot makes it even worse. The card shows a war scene from 1914 and it's interesting that the censor has obliterated the location!

The second card dated 17 August is one designed to encourage friends and relatives at home to communicate with the troops. It says "See how gay we are when the Sargent gives us our letters" and "See how sad we are when we don't have any mail". His war records show that Tom was injured on that day and on the back of this card he has written, presumably after reaching home, "Ysgrifennais hwn cyn streifo fy nhroed" (I wrote this before injuring my foot).

Following this he was sent home on 21 August and spent time in a hospital in Ashton-under-Lyne and I show a photo of a group outside the hospital. Tom can be seen sitting with his leg bandaged, third from the left. I have a number of cards to and from the hospital including one, dated September, from a friend who is in another hospital having just been sent back from France suffering from "heart and nerves".

Tom then spent time recovering at a camp in Heaton Park, Manchester. It's interesting that he has used one of the cards purchased in France to send a message dated 26 October 1916 on which he writes about the camp "... lle da iawn" (a very good place). The caption on this card is "Somme Push: Huns carry in wounded Frenchmen".

On recovery he was sent back to France on 17 June 1917 and sent the Joan of Arc card on 21 June on which he writes: "We are still at base, having a fairly easy time, weather very hot, will write to you again when we are settled down."

There were no cards for the rest of the summer. I assume that he sent letters but none of the letters have survived. I shall be showing more photos in the next blog in a couple of weeks.

Gwynedd Family History Society, www.gwyneddfhs.org
Meetings for the next four weeks are:

Bangor, 2 November (In English, first Tuesday of each month) 7.00pm at the Quakers Meeting Hall, Dean Street: Bryan & Heulwen Jones: "The Oregon Trail"

Caernarfon, 25 November (In Welsh, last Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Library, LÃŽn Pafiliwn: Yr Athro Deri Thomas: "DNA, cadwch e yn y teulu"

Dolgellau, 11 November (In Welsh, second Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Royal Ship Hotel: Einion Thomas: "Dogfennau yn Archifdy'r Brifysgol"

Conwy, 8 November (In English, second Monday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Ebenezer, Abergele Road, Old Colwyn E Rowland Pickering: "Paupers, Prisoners and Beggars"

Llangefni, 18 November (In English, third Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Smyrna, Ffordd Glanhwfa: Haydn Byrne: "House History"

Pwllheli, 19 November (In Wales, third Friday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Seion, Lon Dywod: Bob Morris: "Canrif o hel hanes teulu"

Clwyd Family History Society, www.clwydfhs.org.uk

The meetings are held on the second Saturday of each month (except August) at 2.00 pm at locations that rotate within the former county of Clwyd. The next meeting is as follows:

Saturday 13 November: at Yale College, Wrexham.
Beryl Evans: "The National Library of Wales"

I've just been watching a programme on BBC1 Wales on "The making of Snowdonia 1890". This is a series which is a follow-on to a successful series about the lives of coal miners in the south Wales valleys in the 1890s last year. Two families have been chosen to live in the conditions of slate quarrymen living in the traditional "tyddyn" or small cottage with a bit of land. Men would work long hours in the quarry all day, and some would stay in the barracks during the week and returning home Saturday afternoon, whilst the wives would have to do much of the farm work and, of course, all the housekeeping and raising the children.

The programme tonight told how they went about creating the authentic conditions and how they selected two families to take part and endure the conditions of the 1890s. My grandfather lived such a life working initially as a quarryman and later as a postman and running a smallholding with four cows, pigs and hens. Although my grandfather and his father had transformed a single storey cottage into a two storey house between 1904 and 1908, the conditions when I lived there as a child in the 1940s would have not been very different from those in 1890 - no electricity, drinking water to be carried from a well, all provisions including coal etc. to be carried about half a mile from the nearest road track and there was certainly no water closet!

I enjoyed watching the programme tonight and I will certainly watch the series when it starts on BBC Wales on Monday evenings at 7.30.pm. It will be of particular interest to those of us whose ancestors have a slate quarrying background but it should also be of wider interest to anyone wishing to learn more about how people lived in the 1890s.

I shall be watching the series with interest. The one thing I found a bit strange was the sight of the families trying to kill a chicken. In the 1940s chicken was a luxury. Chickens laid eggs and thus created food and income. Hens would only be killed when they had stopped laying eggs and we would only get chicken at Christmas or some special occasion. Perhaps things were different in the 1890s.

Nevertheless I shall be watching. Although I've had some experience of the hard life I doubt very much if I could survive in those conditions today - I've become far to accustomed to central heating and today's modern conveniences.

Gwynedd Family History Society, www.gwyneddfhs.org
Meetings for the next four weeks are:

Bangor, 2 November (In English, first Tuesday of each month) 7.00pm at the Quakers Meeting Hall, Dean Street: Bryan & Heulwen Jones: "The Oregon Trail"

Caernarfon, 28 October (In Welsh, last Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Library, LÃŽn Pafiliwn: Dr Huw Roberts: "Oes yna le i hogyn fynd yn llongwr"

Dolgellau, 11 November (In Welsh, second Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Royal Ship Hotel: Einion Thomas: "Dogfennau yn Archifdy'r Brifysgol"

Conwy, 8 November (In English, second Monday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Ebenezer, Abergele Road, Old Colwyn E Rowland Pickering: "Paupers, Prisoners and Beggars"

Llangefni, 18 November (In English, third Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Smyrna, Ffordd Glanhwfa: Haydn Byrne: "House History"

Pwllheli, 19 November (In Wales, third Friday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Seion, Lon Dywod: Bob Morris: "Canrif o hel hanes teulu"

Clwyd Family History Society, www.clwydfhs.org.uk

The meetings are held on the second Saturday of each month (except August) at 2.00 pm at locations that rotate within the former county of Clwyd. The next meeting is as follows:

Saturday 13 November: at Yale College, Wrexham.
Beryl Evans: "The National Library of Wales"

I had an enjoyable time at the Roadshow at the Slate Museum last Saturday and met Gethin Matthews and his team from Cardiff University who are collecting documents, memorabilia and people's stories. We arrived towards the end of the afternoon and the University staff were all busy with people and it had been busy all day. There was a friend there with many well preserved letters from and regarding her father who had also been a member of the Liverpool Scottish Regiment. I had been told that the Regiment had been quite busy recruiting along the north Wales coast.

I enjoyed showing and discussing the photos and postcards with Gethin. As I had so many photos and postcards I had already scanned them and saved them on a disc which I handed over together with comments on each photo or card. I showed the first postcard from France in the last blog but there was a standard communication before that dated 12 June 1916 addressed to my mother aged 7. The back shows that only a very limited number of standard messages could be sent on these cards. It must have been frightening to have received one of these cards where the message chosen had been, "I have been admitted to hospital wounded." Fortunately Tom was alright at this time.

Amongst the items that I showed the experts was the postcard that was circulating in Wales to get people to show their support for the war. This was sent on 16 September 1916, to my great grandfather, William Pritchard Williams (father of Thomas Williams), by "Yr Awdur" (the Author). The "Awdur" was presumably the designer and publisher of the card, John Robert Gethin Jones, who was a son of Owen Gethin Jones, the civil engineering contractor, bard and local historian whose business partner was Owen Jones, one of my great great grandfathers. William P. Williams lived in Gwiga, Penmachno, which was the neighbouring farm to Tyddyn Cethin where John Robert had spent his childhood. John Robert would have known William well.

John Robert was a successful engineer and accomplished metrologist and the card is very detailed. If you double left click on the image you can get an enlarged image which is needed if you wish to examine the detail on this card. This is a chain postcard with the following instruction:

"TO WIN THE WAR, let us follow the example of the Modern David in a determined Push, and go out in earnest - Fight, Work and Economise - we can all do something. The service that I'm doing is - see the link between yours and LLOYD-GEORGE, - You know well that VICTORY depends on our UNITED PUSH. So please fill up the LINK received, retain it as a keepsake. Send another to your friend until the CHAIN will be long enough to surround the ENEMY. Beware of the gap."

The card has six hearts connecting the Kingdom of Heaven; David (slayer of Goliath); Saint David from the sixth century and David Lloyd George from the twentieth century. The fifth heart is from "The Sender" with the date 16 September 1916 with a promise written to "pay" and from this I assume that John Robert was making a financial contribution to the war. The final heart is for the recipient to complete and I note that William did not follow the instruction to sign this section!

Underneath this is "Ideal of the Little Nation". The design is full fascinating slogans such as that on the swords down the sides, "Kill for good" and on the pillars is "The Welsh. 1282. 1911. 1914." This really is a fascinating card and I believe that it will be worth it for you to enlarge the image by a double left click so that you can see the detail for yourself. I wonder how many copies of this card have survived. Does anyone reading this blog have one?

The Caernarfon Archives will be closed for maintenance for the week starting 11 October 2010

Gwynedd Family History Society, www.gwyneddfhs.org
Meetings for the next four weeks are:

Bangor, 2 November (In English, first Tuesday of each month) 7.00pm at the Quakers Meeting Hall, Dean Street: Bryan & Heulwen Jones: "The Oregon Trail"

Caernarfon, 28 October (In Welsh, last Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Library, LÃŽn Pafiliwn: Dr Huw Roberts: "Oes yna le i hogyn fynd yn llongwr"

Dolgellau, 14 October (In Welsh, second Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Royal Ship Hotel: H Llew Williams: "Grym Ewyllys"

Conwy, 11 October (In English, second Monday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Ebenezer, Abergele Road, Old Colwyn Rev Eirlys Gruffydd: "John Davies, Nercwys"

Llangefni, 21 October (In English, third Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Smyrna, Ffordd Glanhwfa: Nigel Thomas: "The last man publically hanged in North Wales"

Pwllheli, 15 October (In Wales, third Friday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Seion, Lon Dywod: William Roger Jones: "Hugh Griffith a'i Oscar"

Clwyd Family History Society, www.clwydfhs.org.uk

The meetings are held on the second Saturday of each month (except August) at 2.00 pm at locations that rotate within the former county of Clwyd. The next meeting is as follows:

Saturday 13 November: at Yale College, Wrexham.
Beryl Evans: "The National Library of Wales"