Mumbles Men and The Battle of Mametz Wood
Edited by John Powell
More: Mumbles War Memorials and Rolls of Honour
Part of the Somme battle took place at Mametz Wood, between the seventh and twelfth of July. Among the losses were three from Mumbles, serving with the 14th Swansea Service Battalion of the Welsh Regiment, who all died on the same day - 10 July 1916.
Remembering the Fallen
They were:
John Charles THOMAS, Private 17352, 14th Welsh Regiment, Swansea Battalion Died of Wounds, aged 22 on 10th July 1916 at MAMETZ WOOD, Somme. Remembered on the THIEPVAL MEMORIAL, France Son of John & Francesca Thomas, Mill Lane, Blackpill. Born Blackpill, Enlisted 1914 in Swansea.
South Wales Daily Post 10 August 1916
. . . There is every reason for fearing that Pte J. O. Thomas, Mill Lane, Blackpill, also of the Welsh Regiment, is killed. His sergeant wrote a letter to Mrs Thomas, and said that Jack had been wounded badly in the legs by a bomb as he was entering the {Mametz] Wood, and he was then missed. . .
George Herbert Franklyn WALTERS, Private 17387, 14th Welsh Regiment, Swansea Battalion. Killed in Action, aged 20, on 10th July 1916 at MAMETZ WOOD, The Somme, France. Remembered on THIEPVAL MEMORIAL, The Somme, France. Enlisted in1914 at Swansea.
and
Samuel GAMMON, Private 29149, who was killed aged twenty-nine and who had lived at George Bank. He was the husband of Gladys, father of three boys, Tom, Dick and Fred and the son of Samuel and Maria Gammon; Continued further below.
The Red Dragon Memorial, Mametz Wood, overlooks the battlefield.
Peter, Lays a wreath at The Thieval Memorial, The Somme.
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.
At his remembrance service,
his wife chose the Poem: --
"There on the field of battle, he bravely took his place,
He fought and died for England, honour and his race.
He sleeps not in his native land, but 'neath the foreign skies,
Far from Wife and Children dear, in a hero's grave he lies,
No one knows the silent heartache, only those can tell,
Who have lost a Husband and Father dear, without saying farewell."
The men of the Welsh Regiment, the ‘Swansea Pals’ left for further training in North Wales, in December 1914 and the photograph shows ‘H’ [sic] actually ‘A’ Company, 14th (Service) Battalion leaving Mumbles from outside the George Hotel, Southend.
We can confirm the presence of Samuel Thomas GAMMON of George Bank, on this parade. His eldest son, Tom, is the little boy on the left of the picture and it was Samuel’s youngest son, Fred who donated this photograph.
The appeal in the ‘Evening Post’ was simple and direct!
All four Mumbles men were members of ‘A’ Company, 14th Battalion (The Swansea Pals), of the Welsh Regiment.
‘Does this picture of four World War One comrades, taken shortly before they departed for the front lines in France, stir any memories?’ asked Mumbles-born Frederick Rhyl Gammon, aged 88, now of Kent.
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.
Married to Gladys Gammon and father of three boys, Tom Dick and baby Fred.
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.
The Great War left some 2000 Swansea children without fathers. Groups of such children were given an unforgettable two-week holiday, at The Children’s Summer Home at Llangennith on the Gower and on their way home, each child was allowed to pick a bunch of wild flowers. The coach was then stopped at the Swansea Cenotaph to allow them to place the flowers near their father's name. This was a act of remembrance, which Fred Gammon (the baby shown in the family photo above) was to repeat in 1995, by now as an elderly man.
Fred Gammon in 1995, when he visited Swansea Cenotaph and laid wild fowers near his fathers name.
Fred also visited All Saints' Church, Rood Screen Great War Memorial and placed his finger on his father's name.
All Saints' Church, Rood Screen Great War Memorial, Oystermouth, is inscribed with the names of the 98 'Mumbles Men' who were casualties of The Great War.