This website is being set up to remember all of the men and women of Ceredigion who died in both World Wars of the 20th Century. Information will be added bit by bit, as it becomes available, and as time allows. This is the last of three websites which have been set up in the same manner and style, to locate and record the details of all of the war memorials in the old county of Dyfed, and to enable the commemoration of the memory of the fallen men and women of both counties online, in an easy to access database of records and photos. It is a massive task photographing the war graves and memorials of these people and I welcome any contributions in the form of photographs of the people, war memorials or graves to help in this massive task. To navigate the site, please scroll down the page. The links to each page are in the list at the left of the screen. Just click on the link you wish to see.

WELCOME TO THE CEREDIGION COUNTY WAR MEMORIAL

The aim of this website is to remember the men of the County of Ceredigion, in West Wales, who gave their lives during both World War 1 and World War 2.

This site is mostly geared up toward men who fought in the Great War, due to the tremendous amount of research material available, but the men of World War II are not forgotten, being also remembered on this website, and more information will be added as it becomes available. These men are harder to research, as their Service Records are not yet available to the general public, so this will be an ongoing project.

The site will be built up as time and research allows, and as much information as is available will be written on each man, along with any available photos of the men, their graves or the cemeteries that are they lie in. As well as showing biographies of the fallen who are commemorated on each War Memorials, details will also be added about any and men who are not listed on them, but who have ties to that Town or Village, and they will be highlighted as such. The information that will be available on the website may well be just a fraction of what is available, as information comes from many sources; namely the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Soldier's Died, newspaper archives, etc. I am always grateful for any information or photos that anyone can send in of any of the men on their local War Memorials, as it can be used to build up the biographies of the fallen. Also, please feel free to contact me if you have any enquiries about anyone on the site, as I may well have more information than is possible to add to the site.

To give some idea of the loss of life in both World Wars, over 16 million people were killed in the Great War. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme alone (on 1 July 1916) over 60,000 casualties were incurred by the British and Allied forces (Made up of around 19,000 dead, and the remainder wounded or missing).

During the Second World War, the number of people killed throughout the world was estimated at over 55 million. This stupefying figure includes the mass German slaughters of millions of Russian people and the near extinction of the Jewish Race in Europe.

 ESTIMATED CASUALTY FIGURES FOR THE COUNTY

Over 1,100 men from the old County of Cardiganshire fell during the Great War of 1914-1918, and over 500 more fell during World War Two. These men are commemorated on War Memorials which are scattered all over the county, ranging from names on parents graves, single plaques in Chapels and Churches to Cenotaphs, such as the ones at Cardigan, Lampeter and Aberystwyth. Research is currently on-going to build this website, and so any additional information is most welcome.

This site will run in conjunction with the existing sites, The Carmarthenshire Roll of Honour, and the Pembrokeshire War Memorial, and will be run in the same way, with separate pages dedicated to the larger War Memorials, and with smaller memorials grouped together with their neighbours. All three websites are very much a work in progress, and are being continually added onto, but hopefully in this way, all of the casualties of West Wales will eventually be remembered.

INFORMATION AND PHOTOGRAPHS

The main method of remembering these men is through photographs, either portrait photos of the men themselves, or of their graves or names inscribed on the various memorials. Our database of War Grave and Memorial photos is growing constantly, and if anyone requires any, or indeed has any that they would be willing to share, please contact me.

New information is always being sought for any of the men from the area, and if anyone has any photographs, paperwork, medals or just information about anyone on these pages, please contact me at;

Ceredigion War Memorial

ABOUT THE SITE ITSELF

This website will be split into a maximum of 80 pages. Because of a lack of web-space, the Rolls of Honour will be condensed, whereby Memorials from smaller villages have been placed on the page of their nearest Town or Village, usually by means of utilising the old systems of Parishes.

I welcome any information or comments, as it will help to form the website, so please feel free to use the Contact Form on the site. A note of interest is that I sometimes hold more information about many of the people commemorated on the website, be it a photograph of them or their grave/ memorial, or even just more information. I also carry information about a lot of people who have not yet been uploaded to the website, and welcome any enquiries, as I may be able to help.

If you wish to donate toward the costs of running and maintaining the website, please feel free to do so by visiting the Shopping Cart page, where a donation can be made via Paypal. This will help cover the costs involved in obtaining photographs both myself and via Third Party sources such as Bob Pike, who has provided a sizeable proportion of the war grave photographs. If you require photographs of War Graves or Memorials in Belgium, France, Salonika or Gallipoli, then Bob's e-mail address can be found in the Links Section.

Copyright © Notice

During a recent spate of copying material from this website to use in publications and on Ancestry, readers are reminded that most of the material used in this website has been compiled from various sources by the Author, except where otherwise noted. Due to the immense amount of hard work, time and money that has gone into creating the website, if any material is copied for anything other than personal research, permission should be sought from the author by using one of the contact links below, and that acknowledgement is given to this website.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (Steven John)

I was born in Laugharne, and attended Whitland Grammar School. Upon leaving school, I gained an Apprenticeship as a Mechanical Engineer at R.A.E. Aberporth, and have since worked as an Engineer for Dairy Crest, McCain Foods, BMI Healthcare, and presently for Muller Dairy, in Shropshire. Due to my work-related move to Muller, in Shropshire, I retired from playing rugby for Laugharne, and now use my spare time for local military research.

My interest stems from the discovery that my Great Grandfather, David Thomas John, of Laugharne, was killed in the Great War. He served as an original member of the 4th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, and was one of the original men who landed at ANZAC Cove, on Gallipoli, on 25 April 1915. He survived the terrors of Gallipoli, and fought through the beginning of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, being part of the victorious First Australian Division who captured the German stronghold of Pozieres. He died whilst leading a patrol to discover the exact whereabouts of the German Front Line at Mouquet Farm on 18 August 1916, aged just 25. His grave was lost in the following fighting over the area, and so he is remembered on the beautiful Villers Brettoneaux Memorial to the Missing, on the Somme. His death left my Grandfather, John William John, fatherless at three years old.

A couple of years back, prompted by this discovery, I wrote a book about the men of Laugharne who died in both World Wars. As a result of the research that I undertook, I began compiling information about the men of the villages nearest Laugharne, but this again escalated, so I decided to undertake the research and compilation of a Roll of Honour for the whole of the County of Carmarthenshire for both Wars. As part of this research, I am in the process of photographing as many of their War Graves and Memorials as possible, and of trying to build up a collection of photographs and information about the men. During this research I discovered that my Great Uncle, Harry Montague Allen of Whitland, was killed while attacking Mametz Wood with the 15th Welsh, and that my Great Grandmother lost her first husband, James Richards of Haverfordwest, during the Great War. This prompted me to write my first published book, Carmarthen Pals, a history of the 15th Battalion, Welsh Regiment.

This mass of information led to the launching of the Carmarthen County War Memorial website on 23 January 2006, which was set up to commemorate the fallen of my home county. The work put into researching the website led to the creation of the second website, the Pembrokeshire War Memorial, which was launched on 23 October 2007. Continuous research then led to the creation of this website, The Ceredigion War Memorial, which I launched on 11 June 2012. After deciding to create this third website, and complete the 'trilogy' which covers the old county of Dyfed.

The website is the sister site of the;

Carmarthen County War Memorial

Pembrokeshire War Memorial

Thanks for looking, I hope you enjoy the website, and please feel free to comment, criticise (in a friendly manner!) or to send in information- it all helps to build the site!

CONTACT DETAILS (PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW)

Ceredigion War Memorial

All e-mails will be replied to as soon as possible, but please bear in mind that this is a self-funded and run website, and my main priority is my family and work, so sometimes I may not be able to reply as quickly as I'd like.

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

None of this work would be possible without a lot of very valuable help, and our gratitude is given to those who have, and still are, helping with this project.

Thanks must go to a number of people who have supported this website, in particular Gil Jones, of Aberystwyth, whose research on the War Memorials of Aberystwyth and the northern part of the County have been invaluable. To Mike Berrell, an unpaid field worker for the National Inventory of War Memorials, who has kindly sent in dozens, if not hundreds, of photographs of War Memorials in both Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire. To Michael Freeman, former Curator of Ceredigion Museum; Auronwy and Evan James of Dyfed Family History Society and Helen Palmer, County Archivist. The archives of the National Library of Wales and the local newspapers of the time, the Welshman, The Cambrian News and The Welsh Gazette, continue to be invaluable research sources.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission provides a valuable service to the casualties of both world wars, and to their families, by providing a very high quality service with regards to the maintenance and upkeep of the thousands of war graves and cemeteries scattered throughout the world, and by providing information and help to researchers.

Chris Baker's excellent website, 'The Long, Long Trail' is invaluable for research tips, and for biographical information on the various Army units, and along with the associated 'Great War Forum', is an excellent tool for someone wishing to trace their military ancestors. The link to this site is on the Links page.

Due to the maritime traditions of the county, a large proportion of local men died at sea, either serving with the Royal Navy or the Merchant Navy. As well as using information from the CWGC, special thanks go to the work of Dr. Reg Davies, whose website Morwyr Cymru holds so much information on Welsh mariners, and also to the website wrecksite.eu, which contains much valuable information about the sunken merchant ships.

The greatest thanks go to the relatives of the fallen who voluntarily submit photographs and information to build all of the websites, and such information is always welcome. There are too many people to thank individually, but you know who you are, and thanks!

POLITE NOTICE

Most of the material used in this website has been photographed and compiled from various sources by the Author, except where otherwise noted. Due to the immense amount of hard work, time and money that has gone into the website, it would be appreciated that if any material is copied for anything other than personal research, that the copier would ensure that permission is granted, and that acknowledgement is given to this website.

The History of the 15th (Service) Battalion, The Welsh Regiment

The 'Carmarthen Pals'

 

My new book on the 'Carmarthen Pals', the 15th (Service) Battalion of the Welsh Regiment has been published by Pen and Sword Books, and is available at all good bookshops, and also on-line, from Pen and Sword Direct, or from Amazon, Tower Books, Play.com, Tesco and all good booksellers. For details please follow the link below;

Carmarthen Pals (Amazon)

Carmarthen Pals (Direct from Pen & Sword)

For basic information on the Battalion, please see the page on the Carmarthenshire site. I am still looking for anything related to the Battalion, to continue my research into it, so would gratefully welcome copies of paperwork, photographs, memoirs etc.

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 Copyright © 2013 Steven John