Remembrance

To commemorate Remembrance Day and as a tribute to soldiers from Aberffraw who served in the conflicts of the 20th Century we are publishing the stories of men from Aberffraw who were killed in the First World War.

Six stories are published on the next few pages. The stories were researched and written by Helen Butterworth. Click on NEXT below to read the articles or click on one of the names listed on the menu.

William Griffiths joined the British Army on the 18th June 1916, a week after his twenty-first birthday.
He had attested at Holyhead four months earlier, just before conscription came into force. He was a farm carter by trade and was needed on the land but he may well have been persuaded to join up by the authorities’ thinly veiled threat that Anglesey men waiting to be conscripted could not be guaranteed a posting to a Welsh regiment.

His attestation paper records William’s height (5 feet 5 inches) and weight (9 stone 9lbs.) He is described as having ‘cavitous teeth’ but no serious health problems and so was passed fit for service overseas with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. William lived at Penyrorsedd, (a farm cottage situated about a mile east of Aberffraw village,) with his Mam, Dad and younger brother, Griffith.  After William left to go to war, his Dad, Hugh, continued to work as a game keeper and such was the need for local men to fill the shoes of those who had enlisted, Griffith, his twelve year old brother was soon taken out of school to work on the land.

William’s military career began at Kinmel Park, a massive army camp on the North Wales coast that provided basic training for newly enlisted soldiers.  After twelve weeks, William moved to the British Army Barracks at Litherland, on Merseyside in September 1916.  While receiving further training at Litherland, his regimental conduct sheet shows that William, like many of his new comrades, struggled with some aspects of army discipline. He spent various periods ‘confined to barracks’ as punishment for being poorly turned out on parade.

In late December 1916 William was home on leave, celebrating Christmas with his family for the last time.  He returned to the barracks at Litherland on the 27th December, a day later than his pass allowed.  He was only 14 hours late but for this misdemeanour he was confined to barracks for another 3 days.

William’s first period of active service began when he landed in France on the 4th of January 1917.
On arrival he was posted to the 9th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, as part of a draft of reinforcements. William joined his new battalion in the field at the end of January.

‘Dros  Urddas Cymru’

The 9th was the only Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers to be issued with a unique trench weapon, the De Waldon Trench Knife. Named after the Battalion commander, Lord Howard De Waldon, the knife was issued to the troops of the 9th Battalion at Lord Howard’s own expense. The knife had been patented in 1916 by Felix Joubert, and boasted an eighteen inch, leaf shaped blade. Each blade had “Dros Urddas Cymru” (“for the honour of Wales”) inscribed upon it and a surviving example is on display at the Royal Welsh Fusilier’s Regimental Museum in Caernarfon.

William Griffith's trench knife

 The winter of 1916/17 was one of the harshest on record. Living conditions on the Western Front were hard at the best of times but the freezing temperatures of early 1917 affected both sides, bringing trench warfare almost to a standstill.  William joined his new Battalion while they were holding a sector of the front line trenches at Hebuterne in Northern France.

  Hebuterne in Northern France

Although the British high command had planned a major attack from this position, the German forces in the opposing trenches withdrew suddenly from the area in early February. The reason for this was that the German army had constructed heavily fortified positions elsewhere and manpower was recalled to occupy this new position, which became known as ‘The Hindenburg Line. ‘As the winter wore on in the snow covered trenches, the weather was to prove to be the deadliest of all adversaries.

By early spring 1917, William’s health was deteriorating and on the 21st March 1917; he was admitted to hospital in France, suffering from bronchitis.  His condition showed no signs of improvement so two weeks later he was evacuated to England for further treatment. William spent four weeks in hospital in a British military hospital and a further five weeks at the Litherland barracks before he was fit enough to return to the fighting.

William crossed the Channel for a second time on 14th June 1917. He marked his twenty-second birthday at a training camp in France and on the 6th of July he was posted to the 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers. His service with this battalion took him back into the trenches in France. The 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele ) began soon after and William and his new Battalion saw action in the offensive, which began on the 31st of July.  They only played a small part in the battle but the following months were not without incident for William. In August, he lost his helmet. He was reported to his commanding officer who decided that the loss was due to neglect. William was ‘confined to barracks’ for five days for this offence.

Supply lines on the Western Front were often disrupted and William and his comrades would have had to put up with limited food rations during the Battle of Passchendaele, whether in the front line or in reserve. Each soldier carried emergency rations in case he was cut off from supply all together, but a Regimental standing order forbade their consumption without permission.  In November, at the end of the battle, William was found to have eaten part of his ration and was punished. He was once again ‘confined to barracks’ for a period of ten days.

By mid November, the Battle of Passchendaele had ended.  Gains in territory were minimal and casualties among the British and their allies numbered over 500,000 men killed, wounded, missing or captured.
In mid November, William and his Battalion received orders to move to Italy to support the Italian army in the fight against Austrian forces.  By the 28th November, they had arrived in Legnano, on the Adige River in northern Italy. William and his comrades went into the front line in January 1918, on the River Piave Front .  They moved three months later to the Asiago Plateau and William’s Battalion carried out a number of successful raids on Austrian held positions.

‘....exposure and fatigue of the campaign.’

William survived the fighting that winter but his health was once again beginning to fail. He reported sick on the 14th April 1918 and was hospitalised, suffering from bronchitis. His condition deteriorated and on the 19th April his parents received a telegram:
“Regret to inform you your son 43909 Private Wm Griffiths Royal Welsh Fusiliers is dangerously ill with pneumonia 19-04-18 in Italy”
It was unusual for the British Army to send telegrams to the next of kin of private soldiers but this form of communication underlines the seriousness of William’s illness. A day later, William died in hospital in Italy, two months before his twenty-third birthday.
He is buried in Montecchio Precalcino Communal Cemetery Extension:  Plot 1, Row B, Grave 1.

On the ‘Casualty Form’ in William’s file, a memo from the doctor who attended him during his final illness states:
“In my opinion, death was caused through exposure and fatigue of the campaign.”
William served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers for two years and two months. His conduct sheet, which gives details of military offences only, does not reflect the character of the man. Instead, it simply illustrates how difficult it was for men who joined up ‘for the duration of the war’ to adjust to the rigid discipline of army life. William became a soldier all the same.  He took part in major offensives in two separate theatres of war. Enjoying only one period of leave during his service, he left Aberffraw for the last time at Christmas, 1916.

Three months after his death, the Army returned William’s belongings to his family at Penyrorsedd.  Margaret, William’s Mam, took delivery of the parcel and in it was his cigarette case and tobacco tin, his bible, letters from home, one coin and a small holdall containing his shaving kit and toothbrush. She returned the accompanying form to the Army Record Office at Shrewsbury, making her mark in a space provided at the bottom of the page as proof of receipt. 

John Hughes was born in the spring of 1889. He grew up at 106 Waterside, Aberffraw. John was the eldest son of William Hughes (a farm labourer) and his wife, Elizabeth.  As the nineteenth century drew to a close, William and Elizabeth added to their young family and by the time of the 1901 census, John was living with his parents, two sisters and a brother.

When war broke out in 1914, life was going well for John. He was living at his parent’s home in Aberffraw and working as a school teacher.  Though not yet married, he was courting Jane, a girl from the village. They were a good match, the same age; they had grown up together. Jane’s father, Hugh Williams, had been the publican at The Cross Keys on LLewelyn Street for many years.

The Cross Keys, Llewelyn Street

After her mother’s death, the family had moved to Bangor Street and in 1914 Jane was working from home as a seamstress. John and Jane were in no hurry to get married, he was trying to make something of himself and there’d be time enough for a home and children of their own.

As the war dragged on through 1915, the nation’s hopes for an early victory began to wane and many older men made the decision to join the fight. John joined up under the Derby scheme in early December, 1915. He reported for duty as requested in February the following year.  He passed the army medical examination easily, (Height: 5ft 4 and a half inches, Weight: 9 stone, Physical Development: Good.) and was posted to the 6th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers. 

The army quickly recognised John’s abilities and just five weeks into his basic training he was made acting Lance Corporal, attaining the paid rank two months later. He moved with his battalion to Park Hall Camp in Oswestry and spent the next six months training for service abroad.

              
Park Hall Camp, Oswestry

By early November 1916, John and his comrades were getting ready to leave Wales and join the 1st line unit of their battalion on active service in Egypt. While arrangements for their departure were put into place in Oswestry, at home in Aberffraw plans of an altogether happier nature were coming to fruition.  Wedding preparations were being made and on Monday 20th November, the day after the banns were read for the final time, John Hughes and Jane Ellen Williams were married at St. Bueno’s church, Aberffraw, in the presence of family and friends.  The newlyweds had no time to settle into married life however; John had only a week’s embarkation leave before he had to return to Oswestry.  7 days after their wedding, John said goodbye to his new wife and set off back to camp. 
On 11th December 1916, John and his comrades sailed from Devonport on a troop ship bound for Egypt. They reached their destination two weeks later, landing in Alexandria on Christmas Eve.

John joined the 1st line unit of the 6th battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, on 20th January 1917. He reverted to the rank of private at this point; it was common practise for a soldier to achieve the rank of Corporal during training and then revert to Private when on active service for the first time. In John’s case at least there is no evidence to suggest that it was due to any disciplinary matter. His military character was classified as ‘excellent’ and there had been talk of him taking and passing a qualifying examination for a commission prior to his posting abroad.  Jane queried this with the War Office pensions department in 1920 but by then, no such record could be found.

During the next two months John and his battalion quickly got used to life on active service. The battalion war diary gives details of routine fatigues, the digging of wells and building of roads, along with periods spent in training for front line duty. 
Between the 24th  and 26th of March 1917 John and his battalion undertook a series of gruelling route marches as they moved into position near Ali el Muntar, ready to launch an attack against the Turkish Army.  This attack began at 11am on 26th March and was to become known as the 1st Battle of Gaza . The 6th Battalion, alongside comrades from the 5th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, were in the thick of the fighting which lasted for forty-eight hours.  The Welsh forces came under heavy artillery and machine gun fire while trying to capture enemy positions.  With no supporting artillery fire, John and his comrades could not hold the positions they took and in the early hours of the 27th March, orders were received to withdraw. It was later acknowledged that the failure of the attack was largely due to mistakes made by those in command.

John Hughes paid for those mistakes with his life. He was reported ‘Killed in Action’ on 27th March 1917, one of 11 ‘other ranks’ killed alongside two officers from the battalion.  He was buried by his comrades but subsequent fighting destroyed the grave marker. He is remembered instead on Panel 21 of the Jerusalem Memorial.

 Jerusalem Memorial and Cemetery

At home in Aberffraw, John’s bride received the news she had been dreading. Just four months after their wedding, Jane Ellen Hughes was a widow.  Any personal belongings that John carried into battle were buried with him. In August 1917, Jane received the only item remaining; his army identity disc, removed from his body after the battle.  Eleven months after her wedding day, the army granted Jane a widow’s pension of thirteen shillings and nine pence per week.  In all that time, she had spent just seven days with her husband.