Post by Admin on Jun 11, 2013 18:44:47 GMT -5
A WELSH SEASIDE TOWN AT WAR: WW1
Monday August 3rd, 1914, the last day of peace, was a bank holiday. On that warm sunny day an estimated 50,000 day trippers from Cardiff and the mining towns and villages of the Welsh valleys flocked to Barry Island.
The holiday season would finish early in 1914.
By the close of 1914 many Barry men had seen action on the continent and across the sea lanes of the world. These men were, of course, the regulars, reservists and merchant seamen of the town. The first reported local fatality was that of Royal navy reservist W. Cowling, a married man from Graving Dock Street. He was killed in action serving aboard the cruiser HMS 'Hawk' which was torpedoed in the North Sea on 15th October, 1914.When HMS 'Monmouth' was sunk with all hands on 1st November ai the Battle of Coronel, she took with her five Barry men. The first street to feel the full effects of the war was Brook Street, a small street situated off the small shopping centre of Holton Road. On 29th October, John Durman, of number 37, a reservist of the 2nd Battalion Welsh regiment, was killed in action. Just eight days later, Bert Clements, who lived at number 30, was killed while serving in the Grenadier Guards. The saddest story of 1914 concerns the sons of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Whitty of Barry. On 21st. November, Stanley junior died of wounds while serving with the 2nd Welsh. On Boxing Day his brother John was killed while serving with the Grenadier Guards, and a third brother was invalided home from the front at the end of the year. The war was just a few months old and already one family had given it all it could. This was a sign of things to come.
LINK: www.powell76.talktalk.net/Awelshseasidetown.htm
Remembering the sacrifice of Barry's Merchant Seamen:
DURING the First World War no fewer than 262 Barry men lost their lives whilst serving with the Merchant Navy. Whilst there is rightly a focus on the part that the Merchant Navy played in the defeat of Germany in the Second World War, the role that the service played from 1914-18 is often overlooked.
Some of their stories involving Barry men are told here.
LINK: www.barryanddistrictnews.co.uk/news/10034174.Remembering_the_sacrifice_of_Barry_s_Merchant_Seamen/
Monday August 3rd, 1914, the last day of peace, was a bank holiday. On that warm sunny day an estimated 50,000 day trippers from Cardiff and the mining towns and villages of the Welsh valleys flocked to Barry Island.
The holiday season would finish early in 1914.
By the close of 1914 many Barry men had seen action on the continent and across the sea lanes of the world. These men were, of course, the regulars, reservists and merchant seamen of the town. The first reported local fatality was that of Royal navy reservist W. Cowling, a married man from Graving Dock Street. He was killed in action serving aboard the cruiser HMS 'Hawk' which was torpedoed in the North Sea on 15th October, 1914.When HMS 'Monmouth' was sunk with all hands on 1st November ai the Battle of Coronel, she took with her five Barry men. The first street to feel the full effects of the war was Brook Street, a small street situated off the small shopping centre of Holton Road. On 29th October, John Durman, of number 37, a reservist of the 2nd Battalion Welsh regiment, was killed in action. Just eight days later, Bert Clements, who lived at number 30, was killed while serving in the Grenadier Guards. The saddest story of 1914 concerns the sons of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Whitty of Barry. On 21st. November, Stanley junior died of wounds while serving with the 2nd Welsh. On Boxing Day his brother John was killed while serving with the Grenadier Guards, and a third brother was invalided home from the front at the end of the year. The war was just a few months old and already one family had given it all it could. This was a sign of things to come.
LINK: www.powell76.talktalk.net/Awelshseasidetown.htm
Remembering the sacrifice of Barry's Merchant Seamen:
DURING the First World War no fewer than 262 Barry men lost their lives whilst serving with the Merchant Navy. Whilst there is rightly a focus on the part that the Merchant Navy played in the defeat of Germany in the Second World War, the role that the service played from 1914-18 is often overlooked.
Some of their stories involving Barry men are told here.
LINK: www.barryanddistrictnews.co.uk/news/10034174.Remembering_the_sacrifice_of_Barry_s_Merchant_Seamen/