A Memorial to the Men of Oystermouth: 1914-1918 by Kate Jones
A Memorial to the Men of Oystermouth: 1914-1918
Two years ago we commemorated a century since the end of the First World War. In an article entitled Remembrance 1914-1918 >I described how, by 1916, shrines to those serving in the forces were being erected in cities, towns and villages across Britain. They were often simple wooden triptychs, with a central crucifix and a shelf below for flowers. On them were inscribed the names of all who had left home to ‘fight for King and Country’. As fighting continued, mass bereavement and the fact that so many had died and been buried far from home meant that these shrines became memorials to the fallen. They were a focus for grief and loss and also pride.
The Mumbles War Shrine stood in the Parade Gardens (Southend Gardens). It was officially unveiled on 14 September 1918 - although it had been in existence for some time prior to this date. Four hundred villagers gathered to watch the church choir process from All Saints’ Church to the gardens. A firing party fired a salute and the Last Post was sounded. The ceremony was photographed by local photographer M.A, Clare, who had a studio at 12, The Parade opposite the gardens. A few shops further along, at the bottom of Hall Bank, stood Nana Todd’s greengrocery and sweet shop. In the shop window she displayed photographs (many taken by Mr Clare and another local photographer, Edmund Phillips of Claremont Villas, near the church) of those away serving in the forces. Their faces and uniforms, fading in the sunlight, but not in memory, were a poignant reminder of the village’s sacrifice.
Firing party at the official unveiling of the War Shrine in Parade Gardens, Southend
14 September 1918, photographed by M.A. Clare
Armistice 1918: After the Armistice of 11 November 1918 the nation’s need for Remembrance grew. At 11a.m. on the first anniversary in 1919 a minute’s silence was observed. A year later, 1920, the tradition of wearing red poppies began - inspired by John Mc Crae’s 1915 poem ‘In Flanders Fields’. On the Armistice anniversary that year the completed Cenotaph in London’s Whitehall was unveiled by King George V. - he pressed a button which caused the two Union Jack flags covering the cenotaph to fall away. Across Britain, cities, towns and villages were erecting permanent memorials to their own war dead, many of whom were buried elsewhere.
The oyster village should have a memorial of its own.’ By early 1919 in Mumbles the discussion about a public memorial to the heroic men of the village who had given their lives was well underway. Mr A. Davies, headmaster of Oystermouth School had put forward the suggestion of a memorial hall, part of which should be a much-needed public library. Local feeling was that although Mumbles was now part of Greater Swansea: ‘the oyster village should have a memorial of its own.’
[Cambria Daily Leader 28 March and Herald of Wales 5 April 1919]
Cambria Daily Leader, 28 March 1919
Reading the local newspapers for 1919, it is clear that Mumbles was very much in step with other districts of Swansea who also wanted their own local community memorials. The Cambria Daily Leader reported how Landore, Treboeth, Fforestfach, Gorseinon and Pontardawe were ‘localising the memorial … to serve their particular needs and aspirations.’ This was all well and good, the paper said, but the burgesses of Swansea had a very different approach - their view was there should be ONE memorial for the whole of Swansea.
The newspapers urged the town’s mayor, Cllr W. H. Miles to act quickly and advertise its plan for a Greater Swansea War Memorial and ‘enlist the sympathies of outlying districts.’ In doing this,it was hoped the areas of the newly enlarged Greater Swansea would: ‘loyally co-operate’ by sending representatives to meetings and not ‘dissipate our effort … [and] ensure the stoppage of sectional enterprise.’
[Cambria Daily Leader 5 February and Herald of Wales, 8 February 1919].
‘Duty of patriotism and self-respect’: This debate continued for much of the year, with the Cambria Daily Leader, in particular, voicing its concern that provision of a war memorial was: ‘too great an enterprise to be mixed up with ordinary philanthropic or welfare schemes – however deserving of public support these may be.’ Yes, public meeting halls, libraries and hospital wings should be built (by charities for example). Yes, every town must ‘in decency’ provide institutes and training centres ‘offering comfort and assistance to returning servicemen.’ But these buildings should not be in place of a proper War Memorial. This, the newspaper said, should be ‘a tombstone to the dead, erected somewhere [in Swansea] where it is always in sight of the town, to stand for hundreds of years to come’ [as] ‘a duty of patriotism and self-respect’. Not surprisingly it was a matter that aroused very strong feelings.
In Swansea practical proposals were slow in materialising and by August 1919 the press were lamenting that not one of the ideas so far put forward ‘has the slightest chance of general acceptance.’ The war was: ‘the most terrible disaster that has ever afflicted the world. … the commemoration of a glory that we must never allow to die out.’
The erection of the Cenotaph in London (designed by Edwin Lutyens) inspired the Cambria Daily Leader to commend such a memorial to the people of Swansea. ‘London has the wonderful example of the sort of War Memorial which will satisfy the hearts of the people.’ [22 July 1919] Three years later, on 1 July 1922, Field Marshal Douglas Haig laid the foundation stone for Swansea’s War Memorial on the esplanade at Brynmill. The completed memorial (designed by Borough Architect Ernest Morgan) was unveiled on 21 July 1923. It is very similar in appearance to the London memorial.
[Photographs of the cenotaphs in London and Swansea, from Wikipedia]
A Memorial for Mumbles
Meanwhile, in Mumbles plans for a local memorial had gone ahead at a far quicker pace. Many local people felt that a memorial to the men who had given their lives should be within the parish church which was then, conveniently perhaps, being enlarged. The decision might have been affected by the damage in October 1918 to the Southend Gardens shrine, less than a month after its official unveiling.
The interior of All Saints’ church before the rebuilding that began in 1915
This photograph by M.A. Clare was probably taken about 1910 [OHA Archive]It was the wish of the All Saints’ vicar Rev. Canon Harold Stepney Williams and members of the church that the names of every fallen man of the parish be inscribed alphabetically on the memorial, a rood screen, with no distinctions made between rank or denomination. A Memorial Fund was set up, donations flowed in and by July 1920 most of the money needed had been raised.
One hundred years ago on the afternoon of Sunday 1 August the memorial rood screen in All Saints’ church was ‘unveiled’ before a packed congregation. Seats were reserved for close relatives of the ‘fallen’ and for members of the Ex-Servicemen’s Association who marched from the war shrine in Parade Gardens. For many that afternoon, it was probably the first time they had seen ‘the beautiful oak rood screen’ [Mumbles Press, 5 August 1920] that separated the chancel from the nave.
The church had recently been much enlarged (work began in 1915) with a new nave, chancel and north aisle built. The architect was Leonard William Barnard (1870-1951) of Cheltenham and it seems it was he who was responsible for the design of the new screen.
The Oystermouth Rood Screen: The memorial rood screen is for the men of the parish of Oystermouth who died in the First World War and their names are inscribed on panels that form the base of the screen. Originally there were 98 names on the memorial; 15 more were added in 2017.
The six pointed arches draw the eye upwards, past the intricately carved cornice of trailing vines and regimental badges or branches of service in which the men had served, to the rood itself – Christ on his crucifix attended by figures of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St John, the Beloved Disciple – high in the chancel arch.
The Mumbles Press of 5 August 1920 described the screen as: ‘a fine work of art – a permanent and beautiful memorial to the fallen men whose names are inscribed on the base.’
The unveiling service of 1 August opened with the singing of the hymn, Fight the Good Fight. Lieutenant Calvert Williams (son of the vicar, Rev. Canon Williams) gave the reading. Mrs Bishop, wife of the Chaplain of Swansea Seamen’s Mission, sang as a solo the hymn There Were Ninety and Nine. The congregation, who must have been considerably moved by now, listened to a short address by the Rev. Canon Watkins-Jones, of Christ Church, Swansea, on the text: ‘The veil of the temple was rent in twain.’
The screen was ‘unveiled’ by Major D. Lewis: “In the faith of Jesus Christ for the honour of God and in grateful memory of the ninety eight men from the parish who made the supreme sacrifice for their country’s sake.” The service ended with a prayer by the vicar and a closing hymn. It must have been a very emotional afternoon.
A ‘friend’, ‘a soldier, ‘Anon.’: The rood screen cost £1,272: 13s: 11d, and a full list of almost 400 subscribers was published by the Mumbles Press in July 1920. Individual donations ranged from 6d to £100; but most were for one or two shillings – a tidy sum of money for many village families in those days. Local businesses organised collections and a box by the church door contained £14.10.8d. in donations. The Mumbles Press list included names alongside their contributions, but some were simply from ‘a friend’, ‘a soldier’ or just ‘Anon’.
FROM CARDS TO CUPRINOL
All Saints’ church, 98 years later - and unsurprisingly the rood screen was swathed in nearly a century of dust and dirt!
The cost of cleaning the screen (plus the Lady Chapel rood screen, also designed by Leonard Barnard, and the font cover) was £3,000. £2,300 of this was raised by parishioner Barbara Richards from sales of hand-made cards of her photographs of Mumbles.
The professional cleaning of the rood screen was carried out by Smiths of Gloucester in October 2018. Two men used a vacuum cleaner and rags to remove the dust. Then they applied Cuprinol and wax. Barbara sat at the back of the nave. “I was fascinated watching them work and seeing the transformation – dusting, wiping and rubbing in Cuprinol and wax. It really was so dirty!”
Cleaning dust from the cornice with a vacuum cleaner.
Photo: Barbara Richards
The professional cleaning of the rood screen in October 2018.
Photos: Barbara RichardsThe cleaning had to be done in three days and the scaffolding hastily removed. On 25 October a large congregation gathered at All Saints’ for a Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Verger Bill Barrington. Two weeks later the end of The Great War was commemorated in the church. The magnificent rood screen, reputed to be the finest in Wales, had been restored to its former glory.
The Lady Chapel screen and font cover were cleaned early in 2019.
The Cambria Daily Leader of 5 February 1919 said that a: ‘War Memorial should be beautiful, noble, distinctive and a permanent monument to future centuries.’ The All Saints’ Rood Screen is all those, and, one hundred years on, it is also clean! The photographic views on the cards that contributed towards this second stage of the All Saints’ Oystermouth rood screen’s history must be similar to the images of home treasured by the Men of Mumbles whilst they were far away on the fields of battle.
Kate Jones, November 2020
Acknowledgements: I am very grateful for the help received from John Powell and Barbara Richards. Also: Oystermouth Historical Association Archive; welshnewspapersonlline [for 1919]; the Mumbles Press, Swansea Central Library.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields
Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, 1915