Welsh sailors in the war

[ellen jones]

Hi please does anyone have any stories or information on Welsh sailors or navy during the war? I am doing a research project as part of my teaching qualification and will be working with a primary school in New Tredegar. We will be developing our cynefin based on local stories and would be grateful for any information, stories, photos 

[Keith_history_buff]

Hi Ellen,

There may be some material via the following search
https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/searchlives/new tredegar/filter

I am seeing Army, Navy, Air Force

Unfortunately, a lot of the "stories" have gone missing.

A description of the database is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_War_Museum#Databases

 

[PRC]

There are several sailors recorded on the New Tredegar War Memorial according to a dedicated website. http://www.newtredegar-ww1.org.uk/home.htm

One was SS/103463 Stoker 1st Class William Jonathan Pocock, died on the 1st November 1914 when his ship, HMS Good Hope was sunk in the Battle of Coronel of the coast of Chile - this was a World War!
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2871865/william-jonathan-pocock/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Good_Hope_(1901)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Coronel

His entry in the Register of Seamans Services can be downloaded for free from the National Archive if you sign in with your account - and if you don't have an account even that can be sent up as part of placing your first order. Just click on "sign in" on any page of the online catalogue and follow the instructions - no financial details are requested. He was born Shepton Mallett, Somerset on the 14th December 1887. A reservist, he had been recalled for the naval exercise in the summer of 1914 and so was still in uniform and serving full time when Britain joined the Great War. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7088848

The WW1 Naval casualties source has the person informed of his death as as wife Lily, but the address is shown as 16, Gilfach Street, Bargood, Monmouthshire - so a bit more digging required to establish the New Tredegar connection.

When you ask for sailors do you literally mean those at sea? The Royal Marine Battalions, along with those deemed surplus to the ships available were formed into a Naval Division that fought at Gallipoli and in France & Flanders. Looks like there are a few members from New Tredegar remembered on that memorial. There would also have been Royal Marines aboard many ships of the Fleet.

And until the RAF was formed on the 1st April 1918 the Army had it's air arm, the Royal Flying Corps, and the navy had it's - the Royal Naval Air Service. Just to keep things nice and simple the latter also was responsible for armoured cars and had a brigade of them fighting in Russia.

Of course war is about more than just those that made the ultimate sacrifice, and going back to that New Tredegar website, the author has started to add the names from the 1918 Absent Voters List. Nowadays the 1918 Representation of the Peoples act is (rightly) celebrated for giving some women the vote, but it's biggest impact at the time was to lower the age of voting for males to 21, (over 18 if serving in the armed forces) and to completely remove any property qualification. Millions of additional men now qualified for the vote and as many were now away from home either serving in the armed forces or working in munitions industries, the 1918 Absent Voters List took on great significance. Even those stationed in the UK were included - if an election was called there was no guarantee that they wouldn't be overseas, and if they were still in the UK the disruption of allowing them to return home to vote was unimagineable. But there had been no electoral register prepared in the UK since the end of 1914, (for use in 1915 elections) and the new one had to be produced in a hurry, with no real chance to formally engage the military. So the names on the 1918 Absent Voters list reflect those who were bothered about having a vote - anecdotal evidence from the time is that 50% of the likely eligible voters was a good achievement. The 1919 edition was run in conjunction with the military but by then all of the arms  - Army, Navy and Air Force - were being rapidly downsized, significantly reducing the numbers who needed to register as absent.

Cheers,
Peter