First World War – Page 2 – The Melting Pot

Storming Iscoed House, Pontmorlais 1935

by Christine Trevett

It was a Monday afternoon – the afternoon of February 4^th 1935 to be exact, and it had been snowing heavily that day. The women arrived first at Iscoed House, Pontmorlais, which housed the area offices of the Unemployment Assistance Board. There, the plan went, an orderly deputation which would include the district secretary of the National Unemployed Workers Union (NUWM) would be speaking with officials. Perhaps as many as a thousand women were part of the protest outside. They had marched there with around double that number of men, coming from all directions to reach Pontmorlais in a United Front demonstration during the Means Test protests of that year. Such things were happening all over South Wales and elsewhere.

The Unemployment Assistance Board

That had been set up by the government in the previous year (1934). It administered means-tested assistance to those who had no contributions-based unemployment benefit. In the Depression of the 1930s the Merthyr region was very hard-hit economically and many people were affected by Means Test decisions, a Test which at this time was creating even further hardship. Opposition to it was widespread, with the criticism coming from not just the working classes and the unemployed, so that the government was getting jittery. From 1931-June 1935 it was a National Government (a coalition) under the leadership of Labour’s Ramsay MacDonald and with Conservatives, Liberals and others in it.

Protests in Merthyr Tydfil region

Not quite two weeks previously, in January 1935, there had been another United Front demonstration. That Front was a sign of temporary Labour Party/Communist collaboration where The Means Test was concerned and that January demonstration had brought perhaps ten thousand people to Penydarren Park. They had marched there in organised processions from all parts of the Borough. Many women were in the throng, and carrying infants.

The crowd had been addressed by Wal Hannington, one of two organisers of the National Unemployed Workers Union (NUWM). Not a local person, he had also been the Communist candidate in Merthyr’s bye-election in the previous year. The crowd was addressed also by John Dennithorne, Warden of Dowlais Educational Settlement (the seat of all kinds of social and educational work) and by ILP (Independent Labour Party) leaders.

A deputation was agreed (it included two local ministers of religion) to interview officials at Iscoed House. They would present grievances and protest the unemployment assistance legislation. On that day the deputation had been told that its concerns would be passed on. The Western Mail of 23^rd January 1935 (p. 10) had reported that the gathering ‘dispersed in good order’.That had been then. But come February 4^that Iscoed House, matters would change from being orderly.

On February 4^thtraffic was brought to a standstill on Brecon Road as the demonstration took its course and from all quarters marchers were heading for Pontmorlais. The protest was being overseen by a contingent of police not large enough to be effective if trouble broke out on a large scale, given the numbers in the demonstration, but then the organisers of this United Front demonstration did not seem to be expecting trouble.

The actual march and deputation had been organised by the NUWM and by invitation it was also being led by the London-born Warden of Dowlais Educational Settlement, the same John Dennithorne (mentioned earlier). Dennithorne, who had served in World War I, was a Quaker and a pacifist.

Accounts of what happened

There are some first-hand accounts of the events of Fabruary 4^th, including one from John Dennithorne and another from Griff Jones, a local NUWM member who had been with those ‘starting off from Pengarnddu with banners’(an interview with him is kept in the South Wales Miners’ Library collection in Swansea university). Also there is a fictionalised account by the Clydach Vale born novelist and NUWM member Lewis Jones in We Live – his novel about those times.

The deputation was doing its work inside the building and thousands were gathered outside. UAB clerks on an upper floor had been ‘making faces’ at the crowd (Griff Jones recalled). They soon stopped, as the slim cordon of police was clambered over by a determined group –‘a mob of men who were prepared for anything’ as John Dennithorne called them.

With no previous sign of their intention they had made ‘a sudden rush’, so The Western Mail recorded. Stones were hurled through the office windows, shattering glass over the clerks; the gate of Iscoed House gave way; Dennithorne expected to be arrested. Inside the building he clambered onto a windowsill to be heard but ‘a howling mob’, now inside, shouted down his appeals against violence. ‘Old bug whiskers’ (a jibe at the bearded Warden, who was 39 years old) was told to ‘get down!’ as furnishings and fittings were being broken up and records angrily plundered for burning. Blood was spattering through the air, John Dennithorne recalled. Only a couple of well known South Wales Communists were suffered to speak.

It was the police which persuaded the violently protesting minority to disperse and to leave the grounds of Iscoed House. Hundreds of thousands of protestors had been on the nation’s streets that day. Given the strength of feeling nationally against the government’s stance there was some rethinking of the legislation. The Western Mail was already recording on February 5^th that ‘To-day Mr. Oliver Stanley (Minister of Labour) will probably announce changes in the regulations to meet the special grievances raised. New instructions have already been sent to area officers’.

There is more about this and those times in:

Lewis Jones, We Live (Parthian Books 2015)
Daryl Leeworthy, Labour Country: political radicalism and social democracy in South Wales 1831-1985 (Parthian, 2018).
Christine Trevett Dowlais Educational Settlement and the Quaker John Dennithorne (Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society, 2022)
Stephanie Ward, Unemployment and the State in Britain: the Means Test and Protest in 1930s South Wales and north-east England (Manchester University Press, 2013)

Captain Nelson Morris Price C.B.E., J.P.

by J Ann Lewis

A Merthyr Express headline 60 years ago today, on 18 August 1962 read “Captain Nelson M. Price: the Man Who Stopped a King is Dead”.

The headline referred to an event in 1936 during the visit of King Edward VIII. Captain Price had organised an unofficial parade of his former colleagues in the old Fifth Welsh Battalion in front of the Castle Cinema. As the procession passed, the Royal car stopped, and Captain Price told the King “These men want you to see them, in the hope that you may be able to bring new industries to the Borough so that they may find work”. The King got out of the car, to the astonishment of his ministers, and spoke to the 52 men on parade. The King again departed from the official programme and paid a visit to Dowlais, and it was there that he made the famous remark, “Something must be done”.

Nelson Price was born on 22 May 1892 near Bethesda, North Wales, and when he was quite young, his family moved to Dowlais, settling in Broad Street. Within a few years however, his father died, leaving a widow and eight children.

Nelson volunteered for service on 4 August 1914, the very day that the First World War was declared. He served in Gallipoli, Egypt and Cyprus before being discharged as no longer being fit for service, and he returned to working in the collieries, where he had been studying to become a mining engineer prior to the outbreak of the war.

Following the armistice, he decided to become involved with welfare work relating to the war disabled, war widows and orphans. He was a founder member of the Royal British Legion, becoming the first Chairman in the Wales Area. He also worked tirelessly for the War Pensions Advisory Committee, and was appointed Chairman of the North East Glamorgan War Pensions Committee, being acknowledged as an authority on War Pensions Regulations. He was a champion for the War disabled for over 42 years, and his work was recognised when he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1939, Officer of the Order in 1946 and Commander of the British Empire in 1960.

It was during his time as Chairman of the British Legion in Wales, that he was instrumental in negotiating the gift of Buckland House in Bwlch (the former home of Henry Seymour Berry, Lord Buckland) to the British Legion as a home for ex-servicemen.

During his lifetime, Nelson Price was also appointed Chairman of the Merthyr Magistrates, Chairman of the Lord Buckland Trust, Lifetime President and Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Merthyr and District Angling Association. He was also a lifetime member of the Cardiff Athletic and Rugby Club.

At the time of his death in 1962, he was living in Caeracca Villas in Pant, in a house named ‘Cilfoden’ – the village of his birth. His wife Jane Ann survived him by two years.

Dowlais Central School: Women Teachers during the First World War – part 2

by Tony Peters, Glamorgan Archives Volunteer

In the post war period it is thought that many, and possibly as many as half, of the women employed during the war across all sectors of the economy left or lost their jobs. In particular, the Restoration of Pre-war Practices Act 1919 underlined the expectation that women employed during the war would give up their jobs to returning service personnel. In January 1919 the Merthyr Borough Council served warning to all married female teachers that their contracts were to be terminated.

The Director of Education reported that having regard to the probable early release from Military Service of a number of men teachers he had given notice to all married women (temporary) teachers now serving under the Authority to determine their engagement at the end of January, and that any further employment after that date would be subject to a week’s notice on either side. Merthyr Tydfil Borough, Education Committee, minute book no. 29, BMT1/29 p.183.

Once again Claudia George and Margaret Davies were casualties of the Authority’s decision. At subsequent meetings the Authority agreed to re-employ 28 male teaches on release from the Armed Forces in February and further 10 in April 1919 (Merthyr Tydfil Borough, Education Committee, minute book no. 29, BMT1/29 p.246 and p.474)

This might have been seen as surprising in the light of the provisions in the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919 that removed restrictions on the appointment of women. In practice employers saw the Act as providing the opportunity to appoint women to previously all-male professions. However, it was not seen as establishing a right for women to be considered for employment on the same terms as men. This was graphically illustrated in the teaching profession in south Wales in 1923 when 58 married women teachers dismissed by the Rhondda Education Authority brought a case against the Council. In Price v Rhondda Urban District Council it was ruled that the Council had not violated the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act by dismissing the teachers. During this period the imposition by many local authorities of a formal marriage bar in the teaching profession was based on the belief that employers could, where they wished, continue to restrict employment to one sex.

The First World War led to new opportunities for many women in the teaching profession. Many schools could not have continued without the influx of married women and for the first time, in most areas of Wales, women were employed in boys’ schools. Set against this, in the post war period, in the limited circumstances where married women were able to secure employment in schools, their contracts were likely to be terminated with a month’s notice. The records for Dowlais Central confirm that, on 4 March 1919, there were 21 teachers employed at the school – 12 men and 9 unmarried women (Dowlais Central School, log book, EMT 9/6 p.91. The creation at the end of the First World War of the National Union of Women Teachers was, therefore, a potent symbol of the further battles that lay ahead to improve equality of opportunity.

Dowlais Central Schools. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

This article is reproduced here with the kind permission of Glamorgan Archives. To view the original article, please follow the link below.

Women Teachers during the First World War

Dowlais Central School: Women Teachers during the First World War – part 1

by Tony Peters, Glamorgan Archives Volunteer

The First World War provided an unprecedented opportunity for women to move into roles and occupations previously reserved for men. The creation of the Women’s Land Army and the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps were very visible examples of women moving into new areas. It is estimated that approximately 1.5 million women joined the workforce during the First World War and just about every sector of the economy saw an influx of women to meet both the increased demand for labour and to fill the gaps left by men away in the armed forces.

In many respects the experience of 1914-18 led to momentous changes. The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 enshrined the principle that individuals should not be disqualified from jobs on the grounds of gender. In addition, the Representation of the People Act 1918 enfranchised approximately 8.5 million women. However, while wartime pressures opened new doors many women still encountered discrimination at the workplace both during the war and in the immediate post war era. The school log books and local authority minutes at the Glamorgan Archives chronicle both the advances made by women in the teaching profession in this period and also the setbacks frequently encountered.

Schools were particularly hard hit by the loss of male teachers to the armed forces from August 1914 onwards. In response, local authorities were forced to relax the convention that, on marriage, women resigned from teaching posts in schools. However, as in the pre-war era, they were only employed where there were staff shortages and it was accepted that appointments were liable to be terminated at a month’s notice if suitable alternative candidates could be found.

An entry by the Head teacher of Dowlais Central, Richard Price, in the school log book for December 1915 provides just one of many examples of the precarious nature of work in school for married women in this period.

Mrs Margaret Davies, TCT, commenced duties on Monday December 6/15. Mrs Davies is a married lady and left her last appointment at Abermorlais Girls’ School in July 1907. Dowlais Central School, log book, EMT 9/6 p.37.

Mrs E Claudia George, TCT, commenced duties on Wed afternoon, 8 December. Mrs George is a married lady and left her last appointment as TCT at Tyllwyn School, Ebbw Vale at Xmas 1908. Dowlais Central School, log book, EMT 9/6 p.38.

Yet only 7 months later Richard Price confirmed that Claudia George and Margaret Davies, along with a Mrs Cummings, had ‘finished their duties at this school’ (Dowlais Central School, log book, EMT 9/6 p.50).

This was just the beginning of an ongoing round of employment and dismissal for Claudia and Margaret throughout the war. By October 1916 both had been re-employed (Dowlais Central School, log book, EMT 9/6, p.52). However, two months after the end of hostilities, on 31 January 1919, both women had ‘left the service of the Education Authority at this school on the afternoon of this day’ (Dowlais Central School, log book, EMT 9/6, p.86).

During the war the records of Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council confirm that there were frequently up to 40 married women teachers employed in schools in the borough. This included appointments to boys’ schools that would have been unheard of prior to 1914. However, the advice provided to the Borough Council Education Committee in July 1916 by Rhys Elias, Director of Education, underlined that, while the authority felt that it had little option but to employ married women in schools, there was a determination to end the appointments as soon as possible.

The committee agreed that notice be given to all married women teachers and to terminate their engagements at the end of the month of July 1916. Claudia George and Margaret Davies were, therefore, just 2 of 40 women that lost their jobs as a result of this decision. Their places were filled by students completing their College Course or Pupil and Student Teachers finishing their period of apprenticeship. (Merthyr Tydfil Borough, Education Committee minutes, BMT1/26 pp.602-3). This approach was followed throughout the war with married women employed to meet shortages on short term contracts that were terminated as soon as alternative candidates could be found.

To be continued…..

This article is reproduced here with the kind permission of Glamorgan Archives. To view the original article, please follow the link below.

Women Teachers during the First World War

Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society

The Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society is pleased to announce its lecture programme for the first half of 2022 – the Society’s 50th year!!!

Annual membership is £12, but you are welcome to come to any lecture – whether you are a member or not – guests pay £2 per lecture, the lectures a free to members. Everyone is welcome!!!!

David Alfred Thomas and the Lusitania – part 2

Sinking of the Lusitania. Engraving by Norman Wilkinson, The Illustrated London News, May 15, 1915

Rescue

Lifeboat #11 was spotted by the trawler Wanderer of Peel and the boat took on the survivors. After four hours of being cold and miserable, Oliver asked D. A., “Exciting day, Mr. Thomas?”

“Outrageous. Simply outrageous.” D. A. growled.

“They certainly made a job of it.”

“Didn’t you see what happened at the lifeboats? Deplorable. The standard of human efficiency is far below what we are entitled to expect — today it was ghastly.”

“Of course,” Bernard said, “it’s got to start at the top. You can’t expect efficiency from the crew if you don’t set an example on the bridge.”

“What do you imagine the percentage of average efficiency to be?” Thomas asked.

“Fifty per cent?”

“Nonsense, young man. Any employer who gets an average of ten per cent efficiency all around is doing extremely well.”

The Wanderer of Peel (foreground) with the sinking Lusitania. Photo courtesy of The Lusitania Resource

As the Wanderer was becoming overcrowded, the skipper, Ball, had to have many of the rescued transferred. Bernard and Thomas were taken aboard the trawler Flying Fish.

At Queenstown, he was looked after by a Catholic priest who treated D. A. to dinner and brandy, despite D. A.’s protests. By the time he returned to the Queenstown quay to await news of his daughter, he was a bit tipsy.

Margaret was aboard the Bluebell, the same boat that saved Captain Turner. Upon their reunion, the father and daughter checked into the Queen’s Hotel to put an end to their ordeal. Dorothy visited Lady Mackworth the next morning to check up on her and to say that Howard was safe. Lady Mackworth and D. A. Thomas went home to Wales; Dorothy and Howard continued on to work on the battlefields of France.

Despite his survival, the Lusitania left a lasting impression. D.A. Thomas would later remark, “The thought of crossing the Atlantic frightens me. I can’t get the Lusitania out of my mind. I dream of it.”^*

Media coverage

The 8 May 1915 New York Times, page 4 ran this: “Mr. Thomas declined to relate his experience, saying that he had too easy a time to be interesting. Just as a boat was being lowered on the starboard side an officer ordered him to take a vacant seat. This boat got away without any trouble and was one of the first to be picked up.”

One of the more interesting headlines detailing D. A.’s survival read: “GREAT NATIONAL DISASTER. D. A. THOMAS SAVED.”

After Lusitania

D.A. Thomas was awarded the title of Baron Rhondda in 1916. From 1916 to 1917, he was President of the Local Government Board. When he was appointed Minister of Food in June of 1917, he introduced food rationing to Great Britain. Another title, Viscount, came to D. A. in June of 1918. He was only able to enjoy his title for one month, as he died on 3 July 1918 in Llanwern, Monmouthshire. His title and peerage, by special remainder, were inherited by her daughter Margaret. Margaret wrote about him in her 1933 autobiography, This Was My World.

This article is reproduced with the kind permission of the webmasters of https://www.rmslusitania.info/. If you have an interest in the Lusitania – I would recommend visiting this remarkable and fantastically researched site.

David Alfred Thomas and the Lusitania – part 1

David Alfred Thomas (1856–1918), 59, (right) was a British Member of Parliament travelling aboard Lusitania with his daughter Margaret Mackworth and his secretary Arnold Rhys-Evans. On board, they also became friends with Dr. Howard Fisher and his sister-in-law, Dorothy Conner, who were travelling to France to work in the field hospitals. Father and daughter were separated during the sinking, but both survived, as did Fisher and Conner.

Family and background

David Alfred Thomas was born in Ysgyborwen, Glamorgan, Wales on 26 March 1856 as the son of Welsh coal magnate Samuel Thomas of Aberdare. He was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, and returned to Wales to become the senior partner in the Cardiff-based Thomas and Davey. This company owned several collieries in the Rhondda Valley. Despite being born into wealth and privilege, D. A.’s needs were simple. A Labour politician had even commented, “There goes Thomas — with the income of a duke and the tastes of a peasant.”

Subsequently, D. A. Thomas married Sybil Haig on 27 June 1882. Their only child, Margaret Haig Thomas, later Lady Humphrey Mackworth and even later Viscountess Rhondda, was born in 1883. D. A. educated his daughter in matters of business and she became a champion for women’s equality everywhere. As D. A. would say of her daughter, “Margaret and I are not like father and daughter. We’re buddies.”

Involvement in politics

D.A. Thomas was elected Member of Parliament (MP) as a Liberal for Merthyr Tydfil in 1888. He subsequently became MP of Cardiff as well, and he held these positions until the 1910 General Election. Although Thomas was reputedly an agnostic, he was a supporter of Nonconformity in his constituency. He even laid the foundation stone of Soar Welsh Calvinistic Church, Cwmaman, and many others.

When the First World War broke, David Lloyd George sent D. A. Thomas to arrange the supply of munitions for the British armed forces. In April of 1915, D. A. Thomas and his daughter Margaret, who was now her personal assistant and proxy, went to take a look at Thomas’ interests in the Pennsylvania coal mines. He also was launching a new barge service on the Mississippi and planning extensions of Canada’s railroad system. His secretary, Arnold Rhys-Evans, also came along.

Lusitania

To end their trip abroad, they had booked passage on the Lusitania. His saloon cabin was the parlour suite B-86, B-88. Aboard the Lusitania, D. A. Thomas and his daughter had befriended Dr. Howard Fisher and Nurse Dorothy Conner, Fisher’s sister-in-law. Dorothy had often commented on the lack of excitement on the voyage and was often teased by D. A. Margaret had also found the voyage rather dull, but as her father was having fun she decided to keep her mouth shut.

A typical 1st Class bedroom on the Lusitania. Photo courtesy of The Lusitania Resource

On the afternoon of 7 May, D. A., Margaret, Arnold, Dorothy, and Howard all sat down to lunch with the foghorn blaring. Margaret remarked, “Home tomorrow! Aren’t you pleased, father?”

“I would be more pleased, my dear,” D. A. remarked, “if I believed that wretched siren hasn’t given our whereabouts away.”

Margaret and D. A. left the saloon and left Howard and Dorothy to finish lunch by themselves. The father and daughter stood waiting for the elevator with Frederick Tootal and Albert Byington. D. A. then joked with his daughter, saying, “You know, Margaret, I think we might stay up on deck tonight. Just to see if you get your thrill.”

Before Margaret could respond, they felt the torpedo rock the ship with “a dull thudding sound.” They were already partially inside the elevator, but instinctively, they stepped back, a move that would save their lives. D. A. ran over to a porthole to see what had happened; Margaret went upstairs to grab lifebelts, and they were separated.

Sometime later, D. A. tried to get back to his cabin, but he found the stairs to be too crowded. A steward gave him an inflatable lifebelt, but it wouldn’t work. He was finally able to get to his cabin and retrieve one from the wardrobe. On deck, he saw the ship overwhelmed by “absolute confusion” and “an entire absence of discipline” among the crew.

Back outside, he saw that the water was almost level with the deck and a woman with a small child hesitating to get into a lifeboat. D. A. shoved them both into the boat, #11, before he jumped in himself. Oliver Bernard, also in the boat, was amused by the “rather worried and puzzled expression” on the Welshman’s face. His secretary, Arnold Rhys-Evans, was also in #11, but had gotten in before D. A. did. Being one of the last boats to leave, #11 was still close enough to the Lusitania when she foundered that they were in danger of being crushed by the funnels.

To be continued…..

Merthyr’s Coat of Arms and St Tydfil

by Carolyn Jacob

Upon becoming a Borough in 1905, the Corporation commissioned one of the top Welsh artists of the day, Sir Goscombe John, R. A. to design a suitable Coat of Arms. (Goscombe John was fond of using traditional mythical heroic images and in 1906 he also designed the Fountain to the Pioneers of the South Wales Steam Coal Trade to celebrate the efforts of Robert and Lucy Thomas in the steam coal trade).

It was decided that the central figure of the coat of arms should be St Tydfil, as the whole parish is named after her and the original pre – industrial small town grew up around the church dedicated to her. The name Merthyr Tydfil means THE BURIAL PLACE OF TYDFIL.

St Tydfil as depicted in a stained glass window at Llandaff Cathedral

Legend has it that Tydfil was the daughter of a 5th Century Chieftain, Brychan, King of Breconshire. While visiting their sister Tanglwst in Aberfan, Tydfil and her family were massacred by a band of marauding Picts, who came over to Wales from Ireland. It is generally believed that she died on the site of the Parish Church, which bears her name, having defied the pagans and refused to give up Christianity. Tydfil had many brothers and sisters who became saints, including Saint Cynon. One of her brothers, Cadoc, became the Patron Saint of Brittany. Miracles happened around her grave and the shrine of St. Tydfil the Martyr soon became a place of Christian pilgrimage.

In the Middle Ages a village grew up around the church. There was once a wooden statue in the church representing Tydfil which was probably carried out in a procession on her Saints Day on the 23rd of August. The Royal Charter was in fact formally granted only 6 days before the official Saints Day of Tydfil. This changed with the Protestant Reformation and the statue was possibly destroyed in the seventeenth century when Cromwell’s troops were drinking in the inn near the church.

It is significant that, although Merthyr Tydfil became a major centre of nonconformity and had no Roman Catholics until the Irish came in 1815, the town never abandoned the Celtic Saint, Tydfil although very little is known about her. There are in fact very few British towns named after a female Saint and the association with Tydfil is very special.

The later Merthyr Tydfil First World War Memorial has in its centre the same mythological figure of St Tydfil together with the images of a working miner and a mother and child. All these figures are emblematic of sacrifice, St Tydfil was sacrificed for her religious beliefs, too often coal miners are sacrificed to the coal mining industry and mothers’ always make sacrifices for their children.

The Borough Coat of Arms (right) bears a likeness of St. Tydfil as the central motif. The heraldic description of the Borough Arms (formally granted on the 17th August 1906), is as follows:-

‘Azure a figure representing Saint Tydvil the Martyr, in Chief Two Crosses patee fitchee all Or’.

Tydfil is represented as a hard working saint because in her hands she has a distaff, which is used for spinning. The placing of the distaff as an important symbol in the coat of arms is chosen to signify industry and to represent the proud industrial history of the new Borough of Merthyr Tydfil. The daggers on either side of her head are meant to indicate the martyrdom and to remind us of how Tydfil met her death and that her life was a sacrifice to God.

The motto on the coat of arms- ‘Nid Cadarn ond Brodyrdde’ is taken from an Old Welsh manuscript, ‘The Sayings of the Wise’ and means ‘Not force but Fellowship’. There is nothing so strong as the bonds of brotherhood. This reflects the strength of Trade Union feeling and the strong political traditions here.

The Borough’s Seal incorporates the Coat of Arms and has three circles, each with individual illustrations, Morlais Castle (the ancient links with Norman Lords), Trevithick’s engine (the innovations and inventions pioneered here) and a blast furnace (the industrial nature of Merthyr Tydfil).

The Borough Seal. © Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales

Dewi Bowen – A Tribute

by Mansell Richards

Earlier this year, on 16 June, Merthyr lost one of its great characters, and a huge champion of the town’s heritage, when Dewi Bowen passed away at the age of 93. Here his friend and former colleague, Mansell Richards pays tribute to the great man.

Dewi Bowen was a legend in his home village of Cefn-Coed, a legend at Cyfarthfa Castle School and a legend across the town of Merthyr Tydfil.

A naturally amusing man, he enjoyed making people laugh, whether passers-by in the street, his school pupils and their teachers – not forgetting headmasters – canteen ladies and caretakers, councillors and mayors. But he will be remembered mainly as a gifted artist and teacher. His imaginative artistic output was prodigious: his illustrations of scenes redolent of Merthyr and district’s rich and colourful history can be counted in their hundreds. It is no exaggeration to say that no individual over the decades contributed more to the heritage of this famous Welsh town.

Dewi was born on 7 August 1927 at number 87, High Street, Cefn-Coed-y-Cymmer (he loved to give his village its full title). From an early age he showed artistic talent which was nurtured at his beloved Vaynor and Penderyn Grammar School. In 1944 on leaving school at seventeen, he was directed to work as a coal miner for 2 years as part of the national war effort against Hitler’s Germany. This meant he had to postpone entry to art college. Dewi took pride in his years as a ‘Bevin boy’ at Elliot Colliery, New Tredegar and the Rock Colliery, Glynneath.

Indeed his memories of being a young miner never left him. Many of his detailed illustrations were based on his observations of those hard- working men who risked their lives daily in often dangerous conditions.

Similarly, he identified strongly with the soldier in both World Wars, but especially during the First World War. He never tired of telling of his father’s experience at Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, while his mother served as a nurse in both those wars. This strong affinity with the soldier never left him. Thus in later years, he joined a British Legion excursion to Flanders in order to be present at the unveiling of a sculptured red dragon monument at the site of the Battle of Mametz Wood, where thousands of Welshmen had been killed in 1916.

Dewi never refused work for charities. His cleverly designed, eye-catching posters, advertising fund-raising events appeared at local shops, pubs and libraries. Indeed, he and his scholarly brother Dr Elwyn Bowen MBE, to whom he was devoted, made a massive contribution toward necessary funding, estimated at tens of thousands of pounds, when the Urdd National Eisteddfod visited Merthyr in 1987.

The programme from Cyfarthfa High School’s 1982 production of Christmas Carol designed by Dewi Bowen

Dewi rejoiced also in designing the scenery for the Cefn-Coed Operatic Society which flourished during the 1950s and, contributed greatly in this respect to the annual stage musicals and concerts performed by pupils and staff of Cyfarthfa High School, a school he served loyally for 30 years.

Continuing along the cultural path, his work was regularly exhibited at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, while he contributed to many heritage projects across Merthyr and other districts of South Wales.

He took a particular interest in the preservation of the Joseph Parry Birthplace Project which won the Prince of Wales award. He played a pivotal role in this success for his school. The visitor to 4, Chapel Row, Georgetown will see a beautifully inscribed stone plaque alongside its front door. Not only did Dewi purchase the block of dressed-stone out of his own pocket, but he lovingly carved the inscription, including the evocative words, ‘Joseph Parry, y bachgen bach o Ferthyr, erioed, erioed- Joseph Parry, a little boy from Merthyr , forever, forever’. This carved tablet will remain a monument to the creative talent of Dewi Bowen.

His final contribution to the Merthyr cultural scene was to provide the superb illustrations for a book on Merthyr place-names, compiled by Malcolm Llewelyn. Dewi was delighted to be invited as a guest to the book’s launch last year.

But let us return to his never-to-be-forgotten humour, which appealed to people of all ages. At Cyfarthfa School, some pupils with only limited talent were known to have opted for art, mostly for the pleasure of being taught by him. Several brought him regular small gifts of sweets, while one girl, aware of his liking for wimberry tart, presented him with one every autumn. He was, undoubtedly, one of Cyfarthfa School’s most popular teachers.

One story he liked to tell concerned a friendship he had at Cardiff College of Art with the beautiful future actress Anna Kashfi, who was later to marry the Hollywood star, Marlon Brando. When teased about this, Dewi replied ‘I never understood how she preferred Brando to Bowen!’

Dewi never owned a car, preferring to walk almost everywhere. He particularly loved walking holidays during his earlier years. He visited the Holy Land and parts of Russia. When asked why he loved walking so much, he replied. ‘If you’ve spent 3 days in an ancient bus crossing the Negev Desert in the company of 2 Arabs and 50 sheep, you too, would enjoy walking’.

On another occasion he accompanied a friend to see a Wales/England rugby match at Twickenham. With Wales snatching victory towards the end, Dewi insisted on joining the triumphant Welsh supporters on the famous pitch. He astonished his friend by asking for help in order to ascend one of the very high rugby posts. After climbing unsteadily onto his friend’s shoulders, they were both confronted by a London policeman, who turned to the friend with the instruction ‘put the gentleman down please sir’. Some yards away a group of Cyfarthfa sixth-formers were holding their sides with laughter.

Dewi loved music, especially light opera. He was a regular visitor to Cardiff theatres to enjoy Gilbert and Sullivan productions. He loved singing some of the songs in his distinctive sweet tenor voice, often when talking to friends on the telephone. Dewi would entertain at the drop of a hat.

But his greatest love was his family. He nursed his mother who lived to be a hundred during her final years, while his admiration for his brother Elwyn was profound. He received considerable love and support from his exceptionally loyal nieces, Ann and Elizabeth and sister-in-law Gwynfa, while he gained much joy from his young great nephews, Ewan and Llyr.

There can be no better epitaph to Dewi than in Shakespeare’s words:-

‘We shall not live to see his like again’.

The Castle Inn (Tavern Twll), Caepantywyll – part 2

by Barrie Jones

Born in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, it is not surprising that his memorial stone is inscribed in Welsh. On the stone is a verse in keeping with many Welsh headstones and is a Welsh type known as englyn. The verse describes John as a fond husband, a loving father, both willing and generous and that there has never been a man on earth with his healthy vigour, nor more genial.

At the time of taking on the licence, John Lewis may already have ‘retired’ from puddling, the Cyfarthfa Works was closed from 1874 until 1879 and this interval may have marked his ‘retirement’. More so because after such a long layoff the exacting work that puddling entailed would prevent a return to work for a man of his age. Charles Russell James recalled:

“puddlers in front of the huge furnaces plying their long puddling bars before fires that would roast an ox. To protect their bodies they wore long leathern aprons. The work was most exhausting. They did not live to be old men. They got shrivelled up at a comparatively early age, and often took to drinking beer heavily. No wonder poor fellows, for their thirst must have been a consuming one. They got heavy wages, but no wage can compensate for that class of killing work”.

Puddling was dangerous work, for example, Gabriel, one of John’s sons was forced to seek temporary parish relief for himself, his wife and four children in 1897 because of burns suffered at work.

Through his work, John would have been well acquainted with the beer trade, and the reopening of the Cyfarthfa Works in 1879 would have been a welcome boost to those inns near the works. John’s entrance into the beer trade and, the expansion of the inn, may have been prompted by the Work’s reopening. The iron masters appreciated from an early stage that their workers could not stand the hot, dusty and fume filled atmosphere of the works without regular intake of water. Beer offered the safest alternative to water and the works purchased beer from the nearby pubs on a contract basis for special exertions. When ‘encouragement’ was needed for special exertions beer notes were written by departmental managers, so that the beer could be brought into the works for the men or could be collected by them when they went home. In addition, public houses formed a useful gathering point for workers at the end of their shifts and especially those inns where gang masters paid their gangs their weekly wages.

John had a relatively short-lived career as a publican, no more than a decade. It would seem that the driving force at the Castle Inn was his son Samuel. Joan, John’s widow, moved out of the inn and Samuel became the full time landlord. During this early period Samuel’s sister Catherine and her husband Alfred Parry assisted him. Alfred was no stranger to the licensing trade; his late father Lewis Benjamin Parry was formally landlord of the Black Lion, Picton Street.

Samuel married Diana Smith in 1902 and continued to manage the inn for the next twenty years.

Samuel gave up the licensing trade in March 1915, with the transfer of the Inn’s licence to George Rees. Samuel had then moved to number 20 Gate Street. At the time of his death in March 1933, he was living at number 12 Dixon Street and working at the Dowlais Works. Samuel had inherited his father’s geniality; during his time as a landlord he had established himself within the community and must have been an active and well-liked personality, as testified by his obituary in the Merthyr Express:

“It is with deep regret we have to record the death of Mr. S. Lewis late of the Castle Inn, Caepantywyll, at the age of 57. Working at Dowlais Works, he collapsed at his work last Thursday leaving his home at 12 Dixon Street in his usual good spirits. It came as a great shock to his sons, daughters, relatives and friends. A great sportsman in past years and well known throughout Merthyr, the deceased was a widower of the late Mrs. Diana Lewis”.

It seems fitting that Samuel had returned to the industry that had helped prosper his father and his older brothers for so many decades and to what was then the last iron and steel works in Merthyr Tydfil.

It’s uncertain when the ‘old’ inn was demolished and the larger ‘new’ inn built in its place. The rebuild may have taken place just after Samuel’s retirement in 1915. George Rees was the licencee throughout and after the First World War, and by the onset of the Second World War the licencee was Arthur Charles Sussex.