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In 2014 two photographs of The Mumbles Lifeboat crew were kindly donated to The Mumbles Lifeboat and Oystermouth Historical Association. Neither was dated nor captioned. But it was a third photograph, not of the crew, that helped solve their mystery and told the story of something that happened 100 years ago – in 1919.
The first photograph (above) was donated to The Mumbles Lifeboat Station in 2014. Who were the men in sou-westers holding the oars? Where were they? Why was there such a crowd of people behind them? What date was it taken?
Since the photo was given for inclusion in the new Mumbles Lifeboat Station History book (commissioned by the RNLI) it was obvious that the men were lifeboat crew. Their bulging lifejackets gave a clue to the photo’s date. Kapok-filled jackets were introduced around 1905, so it was taken after that. Clothing worn by the onlookers tended to confirm it was early twentieth century.
The upheld oars - an impressive sight - were used on pulling and sailing lifeboats. By the 1920s the RNLI were introducing motor lifeboats and oars were less likely to be used as a lifeboat symbol.
The name on the building – Centre Hotel – was another clue. There had never been a Centre Hotel in Mumbles but a visit to the West Glamorgan Archives in Swansea was very helpful. In Kelly’s Directory for 1920 there was a Centre Hotel in Swansea’s Somerset Place, near the docks. The hotel’s landlady was listed as Miss Mary Ann Powell. Over the door in the photograph is the name M.A. POWELL.
The number of people lining Somerset Place and leaning out of the hotel windows indicated a grand event. Who would attract such a crowd and for whom were the lifeboat crew forming a guard of honour?
A few weeks later these questions were answered. By a strange coincidence another photograph was donated - this time to the Oystermouth Historical Association. It came from a different source but was obviously a companion piece to the first.
This second photograph (above) shows HRH, Edward Prince of Wales meeting members of The Mumbles Lifeboat crew. Coxswain William Davies, easily recognised by his moustache and peaked cap, is angled towards the camera. Next to him stands his eldest son, Second Coxswain William Edwin Davies. The small boy wearing a white scarf (bottom right) appears (bottom left) in the other photograph.
A royal visit: A search of local newspapers for the first part of the twentieth century uncovered the story. The Mumbles Weekly Press of 19 June 1919 listed the exciting arrangements for the visit of HRH Prince of Wales to Swansea on 27 June 1919.
The Prince was to arrive in Swansea by train at 11am and drive to the Guildhall in Somerset Place. (Of course, the Prince would not be driving himself although the newspaper’s wording implied he would.) After a ‘rapid tour of the docks’ he would inspect Cwmfelin Sheet and Tinplate Works. If there was time, the Prince might, the paper added, ‘pay a brief visit to Bracelet or Langland Bays.’
Luncheon for forty was arranged for 1.30pm in the council chamber and there would be two toasts – for the King and for the Prince of Wales (a detail the newspaper obviously thought worthy of sharing with its readers). Afterwards the Prince would proceed to High Street station and ‘entrain for London on the 3.30pm train.’
It would be a brief visit, but the town council wanted it to be well organised and successful. The route from the railway station to the Guildhall would be lined by representatives of several organisations, with guards of honour formed of soldiers, sailors, ex-servicemen, Red Cross nurses, Sea and Boy Scouts and The Mumbles Lifeboat crew. So that is how Coxswain William Davies and his men were photographed outside the Centre Hotel in Somerset Place in June 1919.
By all accounts the royal visit was a great success. The Mumbles Press of 3 July filled several columns with descriptions of the occasion. There was ‘a continuous salvo of cheers from thousands lining the route from High Street station to the Guildhall’. A Mrs Hughes, dressed in national costume, who had apparently once given flowers to the Prince’s mother, presented him with a single rose saying, “Tell your mother and she’ll remember me.” Security was more lax then than it is today!
Flags adorned the Guildlhall where bands were playing. The Mumbles Lifeboat crew wearing: ‘their yellow oilskins and sou-westers with safety jackets of the same colour … stood at salute with oars upheld under command of that fine old veteran, Mr William Davies – lifeboatman at Mumbles for 40 years and coxswain for 16 years. On alighting from the royal car, the Prince immediately walked up to the lifeboatmen and shook hands with Coxswain Davies and asked if the crew had received many calls lately. Coxswain Davies replied, “The last one was November, sir”. [On 2 November 1918 The Mumbles Lifeboat crew had landed 13 men from the Belfast steamer Devonshire driven ashore in gale at the entrance to Swansea harbour. The ending of the First World War a few days later meant there was little press coverage of the rescue.]
The third photograph, already in the Oystermouth Historical Association’s archive, was a postcard of a splendid Rolls Royce being driven down Southward Lane in Newton. It is labelled: ‘HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES IN MUMBLES 27/6/1919’. So the Prince had found time to visit Langland.
The Mumbles Press described the excitement of large crowds at The Dunns and lining Newton Road, cheering the royal car. At Langland the Prince paid a brief visit to the well-known philanthropist Roger Beck at his house, The Ryddings, on Southward Lane. Here HRH enjoyed: ‘the splendid views of Langland Bay and the Bristol Channel.’ The visit meant he was three-quarters of an hour late for lunch. One can only imagine the anxiety this must have caused those waiting in the Guildhall which had been decorated with flowers and drapery by the town’s Parks Department and staff from Ben Evans store.
Afterwards: In October 1919 The Mumbles Lifeboat Coxswain William Davies retired aged 72. His elder son William Edwin took over as coxswain; his second son, Courtney became lifeboat bowman.
In May 1924 the first motor lifeboat arrived at The Mumbles. It was named Edward, Prince of Wales after his Royal Highness who was then President of the RNLI. The Prince himself succeeded to the throne on the death of his father King George V in 1935, but abdicated a year later in order to marry the woman of his choosing. The lifeboat named for him served The Mumbles gallantly for over 20 years until she was lost with all eight crew on the rocks of Sker Point, 72 years ago on 23 April 1947.
The Centre Hotel has not survived and the area around Somerset Place is now totally different a century on from that royal visit. But if you stand on the street corner, close your eyes and let your imagination wander, you can hear the bands playing, and the crowds cheering. After a while you can ‘see’ the gallant Mumbles Lifeboat crew clad in yellow oilskins and sou-westers, kapok life jackets belted high on their waists, holding up their oars. The past never leaves us, especially when we are so fortunate to have photographs to bring it back.
© Kate Jones, June 2019
Acknowledgements:
The photograph of HRH in Southward Lane, Newton, is by Melville Arthur Clare. The photographs of HRH meeting members of The Mumbles Lifeboat are by an unknown photographer and from private collections. They were given to (or bought by) the crew of 1919, treasured and passed down the generations of lifeboating families. Their generous donations are much appreciated.
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