Mumbles Men and The Battle of Mametz Wood

Samuel Thomas GAMMON

Private 29149, A Company, 14th Welsh Regiment, Swansea Battalion, 

Killed in Action, aged 29 on 10th July 1916,  at MAMETZ WOOD, The Somme, France. 

Husband of Gladys, of George Bank, Southend, Father of three sons, Tom, Dick and Fred.

Son of Samuel Gammon, John Street, Mumbles. see below

All four were Mumbles men and members of ‘A’ Company, 14th Battalion (The Swansea Pals), of the Welsh Regiment. The photograph was taken in Rhyl before their departure for the Somme in December, 1915, when every man was presented with a pipe and the good wishes of the Mayor of Swansea. 

The Man on the right immediately excited our interest. We recognised him as Samuel Thomas Gammon, from 5, George bank, Mumbles, one of the 98 men researched by the members of the War Memorials Research Project, who quickly contacted Fred. He sent the photograph of his mother, himself as a baby and his two brothers  and recounted the poignant stories told here.

Fred recounts the story of the Rosary:

In early summer 1916, my mother, Gladys, received a Rosary from my father in France. She decided to take my brothers and myself into Swansea, o Gwalia Studios in College Street, where the portrait was taken. Mother is shown wearing the Rosary and I am, Fred, the baby aged 10 months sitting on my mother's knee.

A copy of the photo was promptly despatched to my father, but sadly, it is not known if it arrived before his untimely death during the battle of Mametz Wood, aged 29 years.

His mother’s Rosary remains one of his treasured possessions, along with his medals and remembrance plaque, which after 84 years, is still kept in its original wrapping.