Swansea Welsh Towns


Swansea

Similar Content

Browse content similar to Swansea. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

Rare film from June 1919

0:00:050:00:08

showing the last of the Swansea Battalion

0:00:080:00:10

returning home to a hero's welcome.

0:00:100:00:13

Six months have passed since the men saw combat.

0:00:130:00:17

The memories they bring back will last them a lifetime.

0:00:170:00:20

This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

0:00:200:00:27

Britain had been at war for 4 years, 14 weeks and 2 days.

0:00:270:00:31

Swansea, like just about every community in Wales,

0:00:310:00:34

had had its share of suffering and loss -

0:00:340:00:37

3,000 men lay dead on the battlefields,

0:00:370:00:41

6,000 more would forever bear the scars of conflict.

0:00:410:00:46

Women in their hundreds had been working in hazardous,

0:00:470:00:50

often life-threatening industries.

0:00:500:00:53

And the children from here would grow up in a world from now on

0:00:530:00:57

where old certainties had been shaken to the core.

0:00:570:01:00

Swansea would never be the same again.

0:01:000:01:04

During the early 1900s, Swansea was a town of contrasts.

0:01:310:01:36

Sitting on the edge of a majestic bay,

0:01:360:01:39

it had held ambitions to become a spa resort.

0:01:390:01:42

But its copper, coal and tinplate production had turned it into

0:01:420:01:47

one of the most heavily polluted areas in Britain.

0:01:470:01:50

By 1914, the town's industrial wealth had provided

0:01:500:01:55

new transport links, affordable housing

0:01:550:01:58

and a new art gallery and library.

0:01:580:02:00

Here's an edition of the South Wales Daily Post

0:02:040:02:07

dated Monday August 3rd 1914,

0:02:070:02:10

the day before war was declared.

0:02:100:02:12

It's a snapshot of Swansea life on the eve of war.

0:02:120:02:17

You could buy a house in Swansea, brand-new, for £350,

0:02:170:02:21

set sail for North Devon on a paddle steamer,

0:02:210:02:24

young women could get jobs as typists,

0:02:240:02:28

and George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, the story of Eliza Doolittle,

0:02:280:02:32

was showing at the Grand Theatre.

0:02:320:02:35

But here's one that I really like.

0:02:350:02:37

At the top of the lost and found - "lost on Thursday,

0:02:370:02:41

"a set of false teeth on the sands.

0:02:410:02:43

"Finder rewarded on returning to 34 Marine Street, Swansea."

0:02:430:02:49

But the very next day, war was declared on Germany.

0:02:520:02:56

The nation was gripped by patriotic zeal.

0:02:570:03:01

Men in particular were expected to do their bit for King and country.

0:03:010:03:06

And how they were needed.

0:03:070:03:09

When Britain entered the war, the Army was massively outnumbered

0:03:110:03:15

with fewer than a million men,

0:03:150:03:17

while Germany had around 4.5 million.

0:03:170:03:21

The race was on to drum up extra manpower,

0:03:210:03:24

led by the formidable Field Marshal Lord Kitchener.

0:03:240:03:27

Kitchener's recruiting campaign would build

0:03:270:03:31

the biggest volunteer army Britain had ever seen.

0:03:310:03:35

His message was direct - your country needs you.

0:03:350:03:39

For the most part,

0:03:410:03:43

Wales was caught up in the tide of support for the war,

0:03:430:03:46

and in Swansea, recruitment stalls and parades sprang up across town.

0:03:460:03:50

By the 11th of September 1914, 8,000 young men from Swansea

0:03:520:03:56

and the surrounding area had rallied to the colours.

0:03:560:03:59

The new recruits could be sent to units in the Army, the Navy,

0:04:020:04:06

Artillery or Medical Corps, many with no connection with Swansea.

0:04:060:04:10

Volunteers could be separated from their friends,

0:04:100:04:13

but thanks to the enthusiasm of the town's mayor,

0:04:130:04:16

they would soon have another option.

0:04:160:04:19

Eager to respond to Kitchener's appeal,

0:04:190:04:21

the mayor spearheaded a campaign to form a town battalion.

0:04:210:04:25

It would be known as the Swansea Pals.

0:04:250:04:29

The chaps who joined the battalion, obviously they were local lads,

0:04:290:04:33

many had been to school together, they had worked together,

0:04:330:04:36

they played sport together, and they drank in the same pubs and clubs.

0:04:360:04:40

I think the feeling was

0:04:400:04:41

that they had an affinity with each other, and the town,

0:04:410:04:44

that would stand them in good stead at the front.

0:04:440:04:46

Was that deliberate? Did they say, "These mates will join up together"?

0:04:460:04:50

I think it was. With the Pals battalion, you knew that there was

0:04:500:04:53

an undertaking that you would in fact serve with your pals.

0:04:530:04:55

It would be an adventure, you know.

0:04:550:04:57

Every hope the war would be short lived, the danger mightn't be

0:04:570:05:00

too great, but the downside was they might well die together.

0:05:000:05:03

It's a military experiment. Did it work?

0:05:030:05:06

I think what wasn't realised was that where a particular battalion

0:05:060:05:10

took heavy losses in one engagement,

0:05:100:05:12

the effect on the local community was huge.

0:05:120:05:15

And I don't think that had been foreseen.

0:05:150:05:17

In the confusion of battle, there was one clear theme -

0:05:270:05:30

the bravery of the Welsh solders,

0:05:300:05:33

much of it unrecorded, unrecognised.

0:05:330:05:36

But here's the action of one man who was recognised,

0:05:360:05:40

the first Welsh winner of the Victoria Cross

0:05:400:05:43

in the First World War.

0:05:430:05:44

William Charles Fuller had lived in Swansea since boyhood.

0:05:470:05:50

He'd served in the Boer War and so, as an experienced soldier,

0:05:500:05:54

he was recalled to the colours in 1914.

0:05:540:05:59

Just six weeks into the war, Fuller risked his life

0:06:000:06:03

in a bid to save his commanding officer, Captain Mark Haggard.

0:06:030:06:07

Under heavy enemy fire, Fuller carried the mortally wounded Haggard

0:06:070:06:11

away from the heat of battle,

0:06:110:06:13

an act of heroism that won him

0:06:130:06:16

the very highest military award for valour.

0:06:160:06:19

100 years later,

0:06:200:06:22

Fuller's daughter remembers the man who was the hero of her family.

0:06:220:06:27

So, Muriel, William Charles Fuller VC, your dad.

0:06:270:06:31

-Yes.

-What was he like?

0:06:310:06:33

Wonderful. He spoiled us rotten.

0:06:330:06:36

THEY CHUCKLE

0:06:360:06:37

So, here they are. What a collection.

0:06:370:06:42

And that one, the Victoria Cross, for valour.

0:06:420:06:46

-Well, they don't hand those out for nothing, do they?

-They do not.

0:06:460:06:50

Well, if you saw the box that it was in,

0:06:500:06:52

it was absolutely tattered,

0:06:520:06:55

and I went to the jeweller's and I said,

0:06:550:06:57

"Can you get me a nice box to put my father's medals on,

0:06:570:07:00

"because they're not doing him justice in this tatty box he's got."

0:07:000:07:04

-He didn't talk about the day it was won?

-No, he didn't talk about it.

0:07:040:07:09

If he didn't talk to you, did he have a special friend

0:07:090:07:12

-he could talk to?

-Yes, this major that used to come.

0:07:120:07:15

And they would go over old times and we used to take him

0:07:150:07:19

a cup of coffee, or whatever, but we'd leave them to talk on their own.

0:07:190:07:22

But he was a lovely man.

0:07:220:07:24

What was your dad like after he'd had these chats?

0:07:240:07:27

Oh, as if he'd had... His life was renewed.

0:07:270:07:30

And this watch...

0:07:300:07:32

The watch was presented to my father

0:07:320:07:34

by the widow of Captain Haggard.

0:07:340:07:37

And there's a tale at the other end of the chain as well, isn't there?

0:07:370:07:40

That bullet was taken from my father when he was wounded,

0:07:400:07:44

-and he had it put on the watch.

-That's a German bullet?

-Yes.

0:07:440:07:48

Of course it is. That's the bullet that came out of his shoulder.

0:07:480:07:52

-Not on VC day, this is later in the First World War?

-No, later.

0:07:520:07:56

I was very proud of my father. Very proud. Well, we all were.

0:07:560:08:01

William Fuller lived to the ripe old age of 90.

0:08:030:08:07

Many weren't so lucky.

0:08:070:08:09

The steady flow of casualties from the front

0:08:120:08:15

soon overwhelmed Welsh hospitals.

0:08:150:08:18

Country houses and stately homes were urgently needed

0:08:180:08:22

to be used by the military to care for sick and wounded soldiers.

0:08:220:08:27

In well-heeled Sketty, wealthy spinster Miss Dulcie Vivian

0:08:270:08:32

not only offered up her smart mansion,

0:08:320:08:34

she even paid for its conversion into a Red Cross hospital.

0:08:340:08:38

Parc Wern has been converted once more.

0:08:380:08:41

Today, it's luxury apartments.

0:08:410:08:43

The bricks and mortar may have changed,

0:08:430:08:45

but here's one thing that remains.

0:08:450:08:47

It's an autograph book, and it's full of messages of gratitude

0:08:470:08:51

and poems by soldiers,

0:08:510:08:53

and it was presented to Nurse Conabeer, who worked here.

0:08:530:08:57

Here's one of the poems.

0:08:570:08:59

When war is proclaimed and danger is nigh

0:08:590:09:01

God and the soldier is everyone's cry

0:09:010:09:04

But when war is over and all things are sighted

0:09:040:09:07

God is forgotten and the soldier is slighted.

0:09:070:09:11

Private W Lewis, 14th Welsh Regiment, 24th October 1916.

0:09:110:09:17

And what did they all want?

0:09:170:09:19

"We want peace."

0:09:190:09:22

But peace was a long way off

0:09:290:09:31

and with a gap left by a generation of men fighting abroad,

0:09:310:09:35

it fell to the women to keep wartime Britain going.

0:09:350:09:38

Many ditched their domestic duties

0:09:380:09:41

and embraced the roles traditionally held by men.

0:09:410:09:45

Large numbers of Swansea women answered the call to work

0:09:460:09:49

at Nobel's Explosives factory.

0:09:490:09:51

That's Alfred Nobel, as in Nobel Peace Prize.

0:09:510:09:55

The factory lay hidden deep in sand dunes

0:09:550:09:58

15 miles west of Swansea in what is now Pembrey Country Park.

0:09:580:10:02

The ammunition factory was built in 1914

0:10:040:10:07

and would soon become one of the largest in Britain.

0:10:070:10:10

Within a year, 70% of its workforce were women.

0:10:100:10:14

The scene today - a tourist attraction.

0:10:150:10:17

100 years ago, under my feet, women in their hundreds,

0:10:170:10:21

these munition-ettes, were doing incredibly dangerous work

0:10:210:10:24

in their bunkers and sheds.

0:10:240:10:26

In fact, some of the structures remain just over here.

0:10:260:10:29

Wartime munitions work was so secret

0:10:420:10:45

that records of life in a place like this are very rare.

0:10:450:10:48

Fortunately, Gabrielle West,

0:10:480:10:51

a police officer who worked in Pembrey, kept a diary.

0:10:510:10:54

She wrote, "The girls who work here are full of life and cheerful,

0:10:540:10:59

"with a good many characters among them."

0:10:590:11:01

She also paints a vivid picture of the conditions

0:11:010:11:04

the munition-ettes faced at work.

0:11:040:11:06

"Making TNT produced an evil, sickly, choky smell

0:11:060:11:10

"that makes you cough and until you feel sick.

0:11:100:11:13

"There could be 16 or 18 casualties every night,

0:11:130:11:17

"women overcome by fumes."

0:11:170:11:19

Munitions work was one of the most dangerous jobs on the Home Front.

0:11:240:11:29

The women handled chemicals that turned their skin yellow,

0:11:290:11:33

earning them the nickname "canary girls".

0:11:330:11:35

The poisonous fumes discoloured their hair

0:11:350:11:38

and stripped their teeth of enamel.

0:11:380:11:41

And yet, despite the risks,

0:11:410:11:42

one factor made sure the women would return day after day...

0:11:420:11:46

In a word, money. Lots of it.

0:11:470:11:50

Here at Pembrey, women were getting paid as much as men.

0:11:500:11:54

In fact, because they were doing piecework, they often earned more.

0:11:540:11:58

Now, that was a first.

0:11:580:12:00

But in truth, it was poor reward for the dangers they faced.

0:12:020:12:06

One fateful day, a huge explosion

0:12:060:12:09

took the lives of six factory workers,

0:12:090:12:12

including two teenage girls from Swansea.

0:12:120:12:15

The town came to a standstill as the funeral procession

0:12:150:12:19

moved through the streets.

0:12:190:12:21

The coffins were draped in the Union flag

0:12:210:12:24

and flanked by uniformed munition-ettes,

0:12:240:12:27

giving the funeral an almost military flavour.

0:12:270:12:31

The women of Swansea couldn't control safety in the factories,

0:12:330:12:36

but they could try to control safety on the streets.

0:12:360:12:40

This time, the threat wasn't stockpiles of explosives.

0:12:400:12:43

No, it was the loose morals of giddy young women.

0:12:430:12:49

# Hello, hello

0:12:510:12:53

# Who's your lady friend? #

0:12:530:12:55

It was believed that women of a certain class needed to be

0:12:550:12:59

saved from themselves, lest their behaviour undermined society

0:12:590:13:03

and threatened the war effort.

0:13:030:13:05

Women patrols were formed to rescue soldiers home on leave

0:13:050:13:09

from women of evil reputation.

0:13:090:13:13

Across town in Oxford Street,

0:13:130:13:15

it was said that soldiers couldn't walk the pavements

0:13:150:13:18

without the unwanted attention of young women.

0:13:180:13:21

At the heart of the scandal were the docks.

0:13:210:13:24

A certain Rev F Sparrow thundered,

0:13:240:13:27

"Evidently we are living in the midst

0:13:270:13:29

"of shameless degradation and gross immorality.

0:13:290:13:32

"The docks have become a cesspool of wickedness,

0:13:320:13:36

"and the orgies of lust are revolting in their lewd vulgarity."

0:13:360:13:42

The moral emergency that gripped Swansea

0:13:460:13:49

was a symptom of extraordinary times.

0:13:490:13:51

Over the water in Belgium, civilians overrun by the Kaiser's army

0:13:510:13:56

were facing a very real emergency,

0:13:560:13:59

and the people of South Wales weren't slow in coming to their aid.

0:13:590:14:02

In October 1914, in the dead of night,

0:14:090:14:12

49 Belgian refugees arrived here at Swansea station,

0:14:120:14:17

exhausted, unannounced.

0:14:170:14:19

It had taken them more than two days to travel here from Ostend.

0:14:190:14:23

The oldest in the party was nearly 80,

0:14:230:14:26

the youngest just five weeks old.

0:14:260:14:28

The group found a warm welcome

0:14:300:14:32

among a small community of skilled Belgian metalworkers

0:14:320:14:35

already living in Swansea.

0:14:350:14:37

By 1916, almost 800 Belgian refugees had been received into the town.

0:14:370:14:42

But such niceties didn't extend to Germans living there.

0:14:440:14:48

Carl Oscar Roth was born in Dresden, Germany,

0:14:480:14:50

but was brought up here in Swansea, had lived here since he was a boy.

0:14:500:14:55

By 1911 he was living here, in Carnglas Road,

0:14:550:14:58

with his wife and four children in a house called Dresden,

0:14:580:15:01

which he quickly changed at the outbreak of war to Preston.

0:15:010:15:06

No-one was fooled about the family's German origins.

0:15:060:15:09

Roth was soon rounded up as a potentially dangerous enemy alien

0:15:090:15:14

and sent to Knockaloe Interment Camp on the Isle of Man,

0:15:140:15:17

along with more than 20,000 other German civilian prisoners of war.

0:15:170:15:22

Roth wasn't released until 1919,

0:15:220:15:25

almost a year after the war had ended.

0:15:250:15:28

-Nice to see you.

-Thank you.

0:15:280:15:29

His granddaughter Ynis Richardson

0:15:290:15:32

knows how much the whole family felt the blow.

0:15:320:15:35

I think it was the speed that surprised everybody,

0:15:350:15:38

how quickly they were taken away.

0:15:380:15:40

They had originally gone to Alexandra Palace,

0:15:400:15:43

and there are photos of camp beds out in Alexandra Palace.

0:15:430:15:47

By the beginning of September,

0:15:470:15:48

all the prisoners who were going were in the Isle of Man.

0:15:480:15:52

And that left your grandmother and four children here?

0:15:520:15:55

My mother was 15, her youngest brother was two.

0:15:550:16:00

What happened to them after Oscar was taken away?

0:16:000:16:03

My mother told me afterwards that they were harassed,

0:16:030:16:07

and they had white feathers through the door, abusive letters.

0:16:070:16:10

What other things might have come through the door

0:16:100:16:12

my mother wouldn't have mentioned.

0:16:120:16:14

My mother's next younger brother was in school,

0:16:140:16:17

and he ran away to sea and joined the merchant navy,

0:16:170:16:21

where he stayed through the war and into the '20s and '30s.

0:16:210:16:25

Why did he leave school?

0:16:250:16:27

They knew his father was German and he just got bullied, literally,

0:16:270:16:30

and teased and whatever, so he ran away.

0:16:300:16:32

What did it feel like when you went to the Isle of Man and saw it all?

0:16:320:16:35

I took some photos of the site, which is now just a farm,

0:16:350:16:39

and there is no evidence anything had ever happened there except,

0:16:390:16:42

right at the end of the lane was a sign that said Knockaloe

0:16:420:16:46

and 20,000 prisoners were here 1914.

0:16:460:16:49

-Can you understand why it happened?

-Well, it was fear.

0:16:490:16:52

It was a different sort of war

0:16:520:16:54

and they didn't know what was going to happen to them and their children.

0:16:540:16:57

Paranoia focused on the real,

0:16:570:17:00

or imagined, threat of the German enemy.

0:17:000:17:03

That threat was kept in check throughout the war

0:17:030:17:06

by the Defence of the Realm Act,

0:17:060:17:08

or DORA. It gave the State unprecedented control

0:17:080:17:12

over the lives of its people, in all manner of ways.

0:17:120:17:16

The Act made it illegal to buy a pair of binoculars,

0:17:160:17:20

hail a taxi by whistling or even buy a round of drinks in a pub.

0:17:200:17:24

Here in Swansea, it was even illegal in some parts of town to sketch.

0:17:240:17:28

Records show one man was detained for drawing in the castle grounds,

0:17:280:17:33

just up the road in Oystermouth,

0:17:330:17:35

another for lighting a fire on a hillside, a prank that saw him

0:17:350:17:39

arrested on suspicion of signalling to the enemy.

0:17:390:17:42

As well as thwarting potential spies, DORA aimed to mobilise

0:17:450:17:49

the whole country behind the war effort, including its food supply.

0:17:490:17:53

At the start of the war, food hoarding

0:17:530:17:56

and panic buying were commonplace.

0:17:560:17:58

It didn't last, and Swansea soon learned to tighten its belt

0:17:580:18:02

and accept that with war came a certain lack of choice.

0:18:020:18:05

But as the fighting wore on,

0:18:080:18:11

attacks by German U-boats on merchants ships

0:18:110:18:13

delivering essential supplies to Britain were increasing.

0:18:130:18:17

The effects were frightening.

0:18:220:18:24

Britain came within six weeks of running out of wheat.

0:18:240:18:28

Queues outside bakers, butchers and grocers were commonplace.

0:18:280:18:34

Rationing was introduced and soon butter, sugar,

0:18:340:18:37

eggs and tea were all restricted.

0:18:370:18:40

Restaurants and cafes even had meatless days

0:18:400:18:43

in order to make limited supplies go further.

0:18:430:18:46

Barren land was turned over to vegetable production,

0:18:480:18:51

sports grounds too.

0:18:510:18:53

Even Swansea Town's pitch was at risk of being dug up,

0:18:530:18:56

a fate suffered by half the country's football grounds.

0:18:560:19:00

But the Swans kicked off the 1914 season as normal

0:19:000:19:03

and within a few months, they were playing

0:19:030:19:05

one of the most glorious games in the club's history.

0:19:050:19:08

Today, the Liberty Stadium is the Swans' field of dreams,

0:19:090:19:13

but a century ago, their home was what once stood here,

0:19:130:19:17

their beloved Vetch Field.

0:19:170:19:20

On 9th January 1915, 16,000 people are here to witness

0:19:200:19:24

one of THE shocks in cup history -

0:19:240:19:26

Swansea beating league champions Blackburn Rovers 1-0.

0:19:260:19:31

But any euphoria was short lived.

0:19:310:19:33

Soon, professional football was struggling, as players

0:19:330:19:37

enlisted in greater numbers and the public mood shifted.

0:19:370:19:41

It was now seen as disrespectful for men to play sport

0:19:410:19:45

while others fought in the trenches.

0:19:450:19:48

Once more, women filled the gap.

0:19:480:19:51

The munition-ettes from Swansea's national shell factory were

0:19:510:19:55

one of Britain's most successful female teams and drew big crowds.

0:19:550:19:58

Fearing this popularity threatened the men's game,

0:19:580:20:02

the FA banned women's football in the early 1920s.

0:20:020:20:06

In contrast to the football club, the town's rugby club,

0:20:060:20:10

the successful All Whites,

0:20:100:20:12

cancelled all games at the outbreak of war.

0:20:120:20:16

The fighting took an extremely heavy toll on rugby.

0:20:180:20:21

By 1915, over 90% of rugby union players in Britain had enlisted.

0:20:210:20:27

In Swansea, 24 of the club's players were killed while on active service.

0:20:290:20:34

In the absence of regular sport, wartime entertainment

0:20:370:20:41

came in the form of musical theatres and music halls.

0:20:410:20:45

Moving film, then very much a novelty, found a home in

0:20:450:20:49

Wales's first purpose-built picture house, Swansea's Carlton Cinema.

0:20:490:20:55

Today, it's a bookshop, but in the early autumn of 1916, this is where

0:20:550:20:59

they came for the most important cinematic release of the war.

0:20:590:21:04

The Battle Of The Somme was a silent documentary

0:21:100:21:13

and propaganda film that captured startling footage

0:21:130:21:16

from the first days of the Somme offensive in July 1916.

0:21:160:21:21

The scenes were at times graphic.

0:21:240:21:27

While some in Swansea called for the film to be banned,

0:21:280:21:32

for most, watching became an almost moral obligation.

0:21:320:21:37

They were desperate to see for themselves

0:21:370:21:40

what conditions were like at the front.

0:21:400:21:42

For one week in September 1916,

0:21:420:21:45

their wish came true and the film played to packed houses.

0:21:450:21:49

For the first time, the people of Swansea saw

0:21:490:21:51

what their love ones were going through on the Western Front.

0:21:510:21:55

The Battle of the Somme dragged on for 20 weeks

0:22:020:22:04

and claimed the lives of more than 100,000 British soldiers.

0:22:040:22:08

For the men of the Swansea Battalion,

0:22:080:22:12

it was their first major combat,

0:22:120:22:14

but in their attempt to capture Mametz Wood,

0:22:140:22:16

an area on the Somme nearly a mile wide

0:22:160:22:20

and over a mile deep, it would also be their last.

0:22:200:22:24

Nearly 400 of the Swansea Pals

0:22:240:22:26

were either killed or wounded on that fateful day

0:22:260:22:29

out of an attacking contingent of 676,

0:22:290:22:33

a loss so devastating

0:22:330:22:34

the battalion didn't return to major action for more than a year.

0:22:340:22:39

The growing toll of casualties throughout the war meant that

0:22:410:22:45

Britain was in desperate need to replace its supply of soldiers,

0:22:450:22:49

but as the conflict dragged on, patriotic fervour dwindled.

0:22:490:22:54

The Government had to act fast.

0:22:540:22:56

The Military Service Act was passed,

0:22:560:22:59

ushering in the era of conscription.

0:22:590:23:01

Men aged between 18 and 41 could be called up,

0:23:020:23:05

with only a few exemptions - the medically unfit, clergymen,

0:23:050:23:10

teachers and those doing work of national importance.

0:23:100:23:14

Appeals against conscription were commonplace

0:23:140:23:17

and the Swansea tribunal was soon busy.

0:23:170:23:19

In one afternoon session alone in February 1916,

0:23:190:23:24

it heard no fewer than 65 requests for exemption from military service.

0:23:240:23:29

2% of the appeals were from many who objected to war on moral grounds,

0:23:290:23:34

and for these conscientious objectors,

0:23:340:23:36

proceedings were notoriously harsh, reflecting widespread public opinion

0:23:360:23:41

that they were cowardly, ungrateful shirkers.

0:23:410:23:44

The grilling the men faced was to the point. One man was asked,

0:23:440:23:49

"Would you allow the Germans to come to Britain to kill you?

0:23:490:23:53

"Kill your mother? Do you actually possess any intelligence?"

0:23:530:23:58

Needless to say, most cases were rejected.

0:24:000:24:03

Most but not all.

0:24:040:24:06

John Oliver Watkins, a 23-year-old Swansea council worker

0:24:060:24:10

was granted exemption on religious grounds.

0:24:100:24:13

Watkins WAS prepared to serve at the front,

0:24:130:24:16

helping the wounded rather than bearing arms.

0:24:160:24:19

He was sent to join an ambulance convoy attached to the French army.

0:24:190:24:24

This collection of maps, letters and medals is housed

0:24:240:24:28

in the West Glamorgan Archive,

0:24:280:24:30

and they tell the story of Watkins' time at war.

0:24:300:24:33

This is the French Croix de Guerre,

0:24:330:24:36

awarded to Watkins for what he did on the night of December 10th 1917.

0:24:360:24:41

He drove his ambulance to pick up

0:24:410:24:43

a large number of seriously wounded men

0:24:430:24:46

but on the way back they got bogged down

0:24:460:24:48

in an abandoned trench.

0:24:480:24:50

Under heavy enemy fire and mustard gas,

0:24:500:24:53

Watkins put all the men safely to one side, mended the ambulance,

0:24:530:24:57

got it going again, put the men back in and then ferried the men back.

0:24:570:25:02

Perhaps the most striking thing here

0:25:020:25:04

is his account of the final day of the war.

0:25:040:25:08

"The day was dry, and outside the hut I sat with three colleagues

0:25:080:25:12

"around a large tin bath peeling spuds for the midday meal.

0:25:120:25:15

"A soldier was seen to fix a white paper on the church door.

0:25:150:25:19

"I crossed the square and on the blank side

0:25:190:25:22

"of a torn German army map

0:25:220:25:23

"was brushed in Indian ink the following notice.

0:25:230:25:26

"'Official. Armistice signed,

0:25:260:25:28

"'hostilities ceased today 11 o'clock.'

0:25:280:25:31

"I broke the news to my friends and we went on with our job.

0:25:310:25:35

"There was no wild excitement

0:25:350:25:37

"but just a feeling of release from war to peace."

0:25:370:25:41

And here is that German map...

0:25:410:25:45

and here are the words that brought the first world war to an end.

0:25:450:25:51

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month,

0:26:040:26:08

Remembrance Day remains a powerful annual symbol

0:26:080:26:13

of so much loss and sacrifice.

0:26:130:26:16

A century on, and new discoveries continue to add

0:26:170:26:21

to our understanding of Welsh communities at war.

0:26:210:26:24

In a chapel in the Treboeth area of Swansea,

0:26:240:26:27

a roll of honour has recently been discovered.

0:26:270:26:31

-So, here we are, Gethin, a list of names.

-It is indeed.

0:26:310:26:34

81 men from the local chapel who served

0:26:340:26:37

either in the Army or the Navy during the war years.

0:26:370:26:41

Most of them were actually volunteers.

0:26:410:26:44

At least a third of these men would have been miners,

0:26:440:26:47

most working in Mynyddbach Colliery, about a mile-and-a-half up the road.

0:26:470:26:51

The local comprehensive have been great.

0:26:510:26:53

One of the classes has done an awful lot of work with the official records

0:26:530:26:57

-to find out who these men are.

-Let's go and meet them.

0:26:570:26:59

It's apt that a new generation, young people in Swansea,

0:27:000:27:04

are respecting the memory of their forebears

0:27:040:27:06

who sacrificed so much a century ago.

0:27:060:27:09

-Hi, guys. How are you doing?

-ALL: Hello.

0:27:090:27:12

What have we got here? This is quite a spread.

0:27:120:27:15

What we've done is we collected a load of photos,

0:27:150:27:17

interesting photos, about World War I,

0:27:170:27:20

and are trying to pick out the most interesting ones

0:27:200:27:23

to put on a big poster to go to our National Eisteddfod.

0:27:230:27:26

A big project, then.

0:27:260:27:27

Did you know much, Megan, before this all began,

0:27:270:27:30

about the First World War?

0:27:300:27:32

We knew a little bit as we'd been learning it in class

0:27:320:27:35

with our teacher, but it was really interesting to find out

0:27:350:27:38

more about the 81 soldiers on the roll of honour.

0:27:380:27:42

Is there anything here that has surprised you?

0:27:420:27:45

I didn't realise it had expanded so much.

0:27:450:27:48

Here, in this photo, it's a picture of a pyramid

0:27:480:27:50

so it means they stretched as far as Egypt.

0:27:500:27:52

I didn't realise that so many people from my local area were

0:27:520:27:56

involved in the war, and the contribution they made towards it.

0:27:560:28:00

Have you found out anything about the ages of all these people?

0:28:000:28:03

Yes, most of them were our age going into the war

0:28:030:28:06

and that's really scary, really,

0:28:060:28:09

because I could never imagine going into a war with, like, fighting.

0:28:090:28:13

There's something about this connection between young people

0:28:210:28:24

and the war of 100 years ago.

0:28:240:28:26

At the outbreak of the First World War, Britain was unprepared.

0:28:260:28:30

Even industrial Swansea was unprepared for industrial slaughter.

0:28:300:28:35

Fear and suspicion would have their say in how Swansea adapted

0:28:350:28:40

to this world in upheaval, but so, too, would togetherness,

0:28:400:28:45

courage, the notion of self-sacrifice.

0:28:450:28:48

Perhaps the reason why young people are

0:28:480:28:51

engaged by the events of 100 years ago is

0:28:510:28:54

because what happened here and elsewhere was

0:28:540:28:58

the start of the revolution that made the world they live in today.

0:28:580:29:03

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS