Grangetown War Memorials

Other memorials in Grangetown

There are other memorials and rolls of honour in Grangetown, apart from the Grange Gardens memorial. Not all are of Grangetown men.

The Post Office roll of honour

The main Post Office has a framed scroll marking all the men who served, and those who died. There was also a Post Office Rifles Regiment. Most of the names of the fallen are listed below.

HT Allaway, Post Office Rifles
CE Asplin S Staffordshire
AS Banbury, Royal Engineers
CN Breckenridge, Welsh Regiment
CW Cooper, Royal Engineers
S Cope, Royal Fleet Reserve
H Cross, Royal Fleet Reserve

T G Edmonds, Royal Engineers
F C Evans, Post Office Rifles
A Fradd, Welsh Regiment
RWS Grist, Glamorgan Rg
SC Hambleton, Welsh Regiment
TH Hammett, Royal Engineers
HG Harrison, Royal Engineers
Frank Jones, Post Office Rifles (d 26 May 1916)

T Jones, Royal Engineers
BA Jones, Welsh Regiment
HG Keays, Welsh Regiment
WW Lansselter, Royal Engineers
TC Longstaff, Royal Welsh Fusiliers
CW Lovett, Royal Scots Fusiliers

E O'Brien, Hampshire Regiment
CH Parsons, Post Office Rifles
A Pates, Welsh Regiment
HS Paul, Royal Welsh Fusilers
WA Phillips, Welsh Regiment
AP Plummer, Post Office Rifles
E Pringle, Royal Field Artillery
G Sanger, Post Office Rifles
B A Smith, Welsh Regiment

CE Stapley, Royal Fleet Reserve
E Sullivan, Welsh Regiment
A Watkins, Royal Engineers
H Webber, Royal Fleet Reserve
Wynes, Royal Field Artillery

Other names added: WC Reitch, LG Crane, LH Hancock and T Hale (POR), W Dople (RF), RC Buss, EGR Goodfellow and HP Norris(RFA).

Gas Works plaque - and a new resting place

A new home was found for a brass plaque, which remembers workers from Grangetown Gas Works who died in World War I.

The British Legion had rescued the plaque, from the original Cardiff Gas and Coke Company after the closure of the works off Ferry Road. They were keen to find a suitable location to re-house it, and after a long search for somewhere suitable, the Grange Albion Club in Paget Street has agreed to display it. Altogether, 18 men died in service in 16 different branches and regiments, ranging from the Royal Engineers to Merchant Navy.

Coun Jayne Cowan, then deputy lord mayor, performed the unveiling and a small service was organised by the British Legion.

These are the names of the men on the plaque in CAPITALS (In brackets - we are trying to match details on the plaque from records. If you can help clarify in any way, please get in touch. These are only possible matches):

C. BARNES, 36TH BRIGADE R.F.A. (poss Charles Barnes, died 21st November 1918, Royal Field Artillery, rank DVR - could be Charles H Barnes, of Bradford St, who would have been 22)
W. BLACKWELL SCOTTISH RIFLES
T.W.J. BURGE 8TH BN WELSH REGT (L/Cpl Thomas Walter John Burge, died 8th August 1915 at Gallipoli, aged 28; son of Walter George and Elizabeth Burge, of Lewis Rd., Llandough, Cardiff; gas worker, one of 11 children.)
S. COAN 2ND WELSH F.A. M.A. M.C. (Pte Sydney Coan, Royal Army Medical Corp/Territorials, with the 1st and 2nd Welsh ambulance; died Gallipoli 9 Sept 1915, aged 19; son of Harriett Louisa Matthews (formerly Coan), of Allensbank Crescent, Heath, Cardiff, and the late Charles Coan.)
S. COUSINS 22ND WESSEX RIFLE (Rifleman Sidney C Cousins, Penarth, formerly with 6th Welch Regiment, died Egypt 17th April 1916)
C. EADE 11TH BATT. WELSH REGT (Lance Cpl Cecil Claude Stewart Eade, d Salonika 4th March 1916 - a gas filler at the works, 26, single, his parents lived at 16 Moira Place, Cathays)
E. FRY MACHINE GUN CORPS (Sgt Ernest Fry - Grenadier Guards? died 7 November 1914, aged 31, buried at Ypres, son of William and Jane Fry)
*C. HARRIS 3RD BATT. WELSH REGT. (Pte Clifford Thomas Harris, 8th Feb 1915, aged 38. Son of Walter and Helen Harris - gas worker, was single and living with his brother in Lincoln St, Canton. Died at home and is buried in Cathays Cemetery)
*H. JENNINGS 1ST BATT WELSH REGT. (L/Cpl Henry Jennings, d 18th April 1915, France/Flanders, b Bridgwater, Somerset; aged about 35 when he died; a gas operator who lived in Amherst St with his wife)
*F.R. MARSHALL 8TH BATT DEVONSHIRE REGT (Pte Frederick Richard Marshall, d 30th September 1915, France/Flanders, buried at Chocques).
T.O'BRIEN 11TH BATT. WELSH REGT (Pte Thomas O'Brien, died 25th Sep 1916, Salonika, aged 34, gas stove repairer at works, lived in David Street with widowed mother)
A.C. PORTER ROYAL ENGINEERS
J.H. SULLIVAN 66TH BRIGADE RFA (poss James Henry Sullivan, Royal Field Artillery, died 6th June 1916, Mesopotamia)
*R.F.A. C. THOMPSON MERCANTILE MARINES, (Charles Hall Thompson, ranked fourth engineer officer, died 10th December 1917, aged 20, on the merchant ship SS Persier, son of engine fitter Charles Hall Thompson and Margaret Thompson, of 5 York Place, Grangetown, Cardiff. Born at Ulverston, Lancashire. The Persier was on a voyage from Cardiff to Taranto with general cargo and coal and was sunk by the German submarine U-35, 50 miles east of Cape Spartivento in Italy. Thompson was the only person recorded lost.).
W WALL, ROYAL MARINES (William Wall, died 8th March 1918, aged 44, with Royal Marine Light Infantry on the SS Madeline. The ship was on a voyage from Dieppe to Swansea and, was sunk by the German submarine U55, 14 miles from Pendeen lighthouse. Wall was among threee lost.Son of the late Stephen and Jane Wall, of Siddington, Cirencester, Glos; a turpentor at the gas works, husband of Mary Ann Wall of 7 Radnor Rd, Canton, Cardiff, who had a young son).
H. WHITLOCK 11TH BATT. WELSH REGT (Pte Horace Whitlock, d 18th Sept 1918, France/Flanders, aged 32, Donald St, Roath; memorial at Vise-En-Artois nr Calais)
T.J. WILLIAMS 8TH SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE REG (Pte Thomas James (or John) Williams, died at the Somme on 5th July 1916, age 22; son of J. and A. Williams, of Penarth, Cardiff; gas fitter. Buried in France at Mericourt-L'Abbe, service number 13426)
*T. WINES ROYAL ENGINEERS (Sapper Thomas G Wines, joined in Nov 1915, d of wounds 16 Jul 1918, France/Flanders aged 29, with the 172nd Tunnelling Co and buried at Crouy-Sur-Somme; orig from Barton Hill, Bristol - was living with family in Clive Street)

* Also on Grangetown War Memorial

We'd like to carry more details of those on the plaque. If you are related to any of these people, we would love to hear from you. The Grangetown Local History Society were pleased to co-host this event and would like to express thanks to all concerned with its organisation and to those who attended. We are sure that the descendants of the men named on the plaque are pleased to know that THEY ARE NOT FORGOTTEN. If you want to share information on any of the above names please Email: grcarinfo@yahoo.co.uk

Click on the image above right for plaque in full

The stained glass windows and hospital memorial in St Paul's Church

St Paul's Church in Paget Street has stained glass memorial windows to those who died in World War One. They depict the sea, air and trench warfare. Click on the sections of the lower window above to see more detail. Photos: Roy Paul.

The window unstalled in memory of Pte Percy Henderson. Click on image for greater detail.

Private Percy Storey Henderson was serving with the London Scottish Regiment when he was killed at the Somme on 1 July 1916, aged 20. He was the only son of Priscilla Stone Henderson, of "Tynedale", 67 Grange Gardens, and the late Robert S. Henderson, once a ship repairers' clerk and then of Lloyd and Henderson's builders and contractors, previously of 67 Pentrebane Street and 66 Stockland Street. Percy had worked for James Llywellyn Colliery Proprietors in Cardiff Docks and was "exceedingly popular amongst a wide circle of friends," according to his obituary. There is a stained glass window to his memory in St Paul's Church, where he was a regular worshipper.

The St Patrick's memorial plaque. Pic: Aileen Thyer

St Patrick's plaque with 41 names

St Patrick's Church has a memorial stone to the men who died on the outside of the building. Inside, there is a memorial plaque listing 41 local men who died. These include the first man to die from Cardiff in World War One - William Welton a- whose name is not included on the Grange Gardens memorial. This used to be hang in St Patrick's church hall, off Bishop Street, before the building was demolished. The hall itself was opened in 1921 as a memorial hall in honour of the men who died. An inscription read: "Erected to the glory of God, in memory of the ment of the parish who died in the Great War, 1914-18." There was also a stained glass.

There is a memorial to the men who died in Ninian Park Hospital during the conflict. Ninian Park School was turned into a temporary hospital for the wounded. A total of 31 men are listed. Grangetown (National now Primary) School also had a tablet erected on June 17th 1921 in memory of 127 past pupils who died in the war. Lt Harry Turner MC (Min-yr-Avon, Western Mail Ltd and of the Turner building family) supplied the stone.

There is also a memorial to railway workers who died in both world wars - including Grangetown men - on the GWR memorial at Cardiff Central Station. Some details here

Roll of honour in baptist churches

Click on the image above left to read the names on the Grangetown Baptist Church WW1 roll of honour; above left the plaque to the fallen in Grangetown Baptist Church and right - the Cornwall Street baptist church plaque to those who died

Grangetown Baptist Church in Clive Street had a roll of honour for all its members who fought in the War - and giving thanks for their return. A copy is now in the history society archive. There is also a separate roll for the fallen. The Cornwall Street Baptist Church in north Grangetown has a plaque to those members who were killed.

Saltmead Baptist Chapel has a memorial plaque to five soldiers and one seaman, who are also on the Grange Gardens memorial. But there is a name not included there which is Elsie Gibbs, whose family lived in Dorset Street. She apparently lied about her age and got a job at the Chilwell munitions factory in Nottinghamshire, filling shells which were produced for British forces, including at the Somme. She was one of the so-called Canary Girls who worked in the top secret factory from the start of 1916. But in July 1918, there was an explosion which killed 134, mostly women, and injured another 250. News of the explosion and death toll - the worst civilian loss of life in the war - was kept out of the newspapers and only later was a memorial erected, while there was speculation the explosion was caused by sabotage. Elsie - born in Cardiff in late 1901, the daughter of a carpenter - was just 16 when she died, although the official records give her age as 19.

There is also now a terrific online map of WW1 memorials in chapels across Wales, which has been researched by Dr Gethin Matthews of Swansea University. More than 400 memorials have been plotted so far.