The Secrets within 15 Welsh Graves
volume 1 | blog | news | shorter tales | dyspraxia | Cwm School Records
Shorter Tales |
There are stories which I have researched which are fascinating but which are not long enough for publication at the moment. It is usually because I don't have sufficient information. But that does not mean they are not worth preserving. On these pages I will record what I have. None of these stories has been published either in my books or in Welsh Country Magazine. I hope that as times goes on I will be able to add more details to the stories. Indeed if you have any new material about any of the stories here, then please contact me on this website via the Contacts page. Click here to go to the Contact page. It is important that we record as much as we can before the things we know are forgotten. Alternatively use this link here and send me your message - geoff@storiesinwelshstone.co.uk Your email program will open in a new window. To view the material I have collected so far click on the link or on the picture and you will be taken to a new page. The first story is about James Williams
James Williams of Aberystwyth You will find James marking the boundary of the Pay and Display car park at the end of King Street in Aberystwyth, outside St Michael's Church. (Below)
July 1882 Click on the title above to go to the story about the ship S.S. Polaria which called into Swansea on its voyage to New York, taking emigrants from Germany and Eastern Europe. It isn't a "grave story" at all, and sadly there are no pictures. But I found it such a fascinating story that I just had to put it somewhere. It comes from The Cambrian newspaper from July 1882. It says so much about the bravery of the emigrants, the insularity of people at that time and the style and priorities of nineteenth century newspaper reporting. It is an indulgence and doesn't fit in with the rest of the website but I think the original newspaper report was so interesting that it needs preserving somewhere, and this is as good a place as any.
|
January 1945
This story comes from Holyhead and is about a number of Commonwealth War Graves that we found in the cemetery there.The Chinese graves are there because of the sinking of The Maja in 1945 by Uboat 1055 in the Irish Sea.
Click on the title above or on the photograph of The Maja to the right to be taken to the page where you can read the story.
Robert Everett. DSO. Llanddona, Anglesey
This is such a fascinating story. Robert Everett died in January 1942 when his plane crashed on Llanddona beach in Anglesey whilst on active service. Everett had an extremely eventful life. He won the Grand National at Aintree in 1929 and he was awarded the DSO for the part he played in the development of the remarkable Catapult Aircraft Merchantman, a desperate attempt to protect Allied convoys in the middle of the Atlantic.
Sadly there are too many gaps in my knowledge for me to turn this into a complete article, but it is certainly a story that should be preseved - even if it is incomplete.
But if you do know something about Robert Everett then please let me know.
Hedd Wyn - Ellis Evans, died August 1917
This isn't strictly a Shorter Tale as such. What you will find here is the complete text of an article that I wrote for Welsh Country Magazine in November 2005. Ellis Evans won the bardic chair at the National Eisteddfod but was unable to accept it because he was killed at Pilkem Ridge in the third Battle of Ypres in 1917.
There has been a revival of interest in Hedd Wyn - the Black Bard - recently so I felt it right to post my researches here.
Click on the title above or on the picture to the right to be taken straight to the page. This is a picture of his memorial statue in Trawfynydd, North Wales, where he was born.
Captain Ernest T. Willows of Cardiff
1886 - 1926
You will find the grave of E.T. Willows in the large cemetery at Cathays in Cardiff. If you follow the Heritage you will need to look for grave 20.
And who was he? An early aviation pioneer who made his name in airship design. He had no formal training - indeed his initial career had been as a dentist - but he made a very significant contribution to the development of powered flight.The use of propellers driven by motorcycle engines gave him the ability to achieve more accurate steering.
Click on the title above or on the picture to the right to find out more about this forgotten Welsh aviator.
1919 - 1943
The story of how a young Indian man from Kashmir found his resting place in a beautiful cemetery in Crickhowell.
Click on the title above or the picture to the right to find out more about the 32nd Mule Company
