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Rare film from June 1919 | 0:00:05 | 0:00:08 | |
showing the last of the Swansea Battalion | 0:00:08 | 0:00:10 | |
returning home to a hero's welcome. | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
Six months have passed since the men saw combat. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:17 | |
The memories they bring back will last them a lifetime. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:20 | |
This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:27 | |
Britain had been at war for 4 years, 14 weeks and 2 days. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:31 | |
Swansea, like just about every community in Wales, | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
had had its share of suffering and loss - | 0:00:34 | 0:00:37 | |
3,000 men lay dead on the battlefields, | 0:00:37 | 0:00:41 | |
6,000 more would forever bear the scars of conflict. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:46 | |
Women in their hundreds had been working in hazardous, | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
often life-threatening industries. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
And the children from here would grow up in a world from now on | 0:00:53 | 0:00:57 | |
where old certainties had been shaken to the core. | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
Swansea would never be the same again. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:04 | |
During the early 1900s, Swansea was a town of contrasts. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:36 | |
Sitting on the edge of a majestic bay, | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
it had held ambitions to become a spa resort. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
But its copper, coal and tinplate production had turned it into | 0:01:42 | 0:01:47 | |
one of the most heavily polluted areas in Britain. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:50 | |
By 1914, the town's industrial wealth had provided | 0:01:50 | 0:01:55 | |
new transport links, affordable housing | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
and a new art gallery and library. | 0:01:58 | 0:02:00 | |
Here's an edition of the South Wales Daily Post | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
dated Monday August 3rd 1914, | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
the day before war was declared. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:12 | |
It's a snapshot of Swansea life on the eve of war. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:17 | |
You could buy a house in Swansea, brand-new, for £350, | 0:02:17 | 0:02:21 | |
set sail for North Devon on a paddle steamer, | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
young women could get jobs as typists, | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
and George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, the story of Eliza Doolittle, | 0:02:28 | 0:02:32 | |
was showing at the Grand Theatre. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
But here's one that I really like. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
At the top of the lost and found - "lost on Thursday, | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
"a set of false teeth on the sands. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:43 | |
"Finder rewarded on returning to 34 Marine Street, Swansea." | 0:02:43 | 0:02:49 | |
But the very next day, war was declared on Germany. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:56 | |
The nation was gripped by patriotic zeal. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:01 | |
Men in particular were expected to do their bit for King and country. | 0:03:01 | 0:03:06 | |
And how they were needed. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
When Britain entered the war, the Army was massively outnumbered | 0:03:11 | 0:03:15 | |
with fewer than a million men, | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
while Germany had around 4.5 million. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:21 | |
The race was on to drum up extra manpower, | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
led by the formidable Field Marshal Lord Kitchener. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
Kitchener's recruiting campaign would build | 0:03:27 | 0:03:31 | |
the biggest volunteer army Britain had ever seen. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:35 | |
His message was direct - your country needs you. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:39 | |
For the most part, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
Wales was caught up in the tide of support for the war, | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
and in Swansea, recruitment stalls and parades sprang up across town. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:50 | |
By the 11th of September 1914, 8,000 young men from Swansea | 0:03:52 | 0:03:56 | |
and the surrounding area had rallied to the colours. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:59 | |
The new recruits could be sent to units in the Army, the Navy, | 0:04:02 | 0:04:06 | |
Artillery or Medical Corps, many with no connection with Swansea. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:10 | |
Volunteers could be separated from their friends, | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
but thanks to the enthusiasm of the town's mayor, | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
they would soon have another option. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:19 | |
Eager to respond to Kitchener's appeal, | 0:04:19 | 0:04:21 | |
the mayor spearheaded a campaign to form a town battalion. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:25 | |
It would be known as the Swansea Pals. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:29 | |
The chaps who joined the battalion, obviously they were local lads, | 0:04:29 | 0:04:33 | |
many had been to school together, they had worked together, | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
they played sport together, and they drank in the same pubs and clubs. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:40 | |
I think the feeling was | 0:04:40 | 0:04:41 | |
that they had an affinity with each other, and the town, | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
that would stand them in good stead at the front. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:46 | |
Was that deliberate? Did they say, "These mates will join up together"? | 0:04:46 | 0:04:50 | |
I think it was. With the Pals battalion, you knew that there was | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
an undertaking that you would in fact serve with your pals. | 0:04:53 | 0:04:55 | |
It would be an adventure, you know. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
Every hope the war would be short lived, the danger mightn't be | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
too great, but the downside was they might well die together. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:03 | |
It's a military experiment. Did it work? | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
I think what wasn't realised was that where a particular battalion | 0:05:06 | 0:05:10 | |
took heavy losses in one engagement, | 0:05:10 | 0:05:12 | |
the effect on the local community was huge. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
And I don't think that had been foreseen. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
In the confusion of battle, there was one clear theme - | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
the bravery of the Welsh solders, | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
much of it unrecorded, unrecognised. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
But here's the action of one man who was recognised, | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
the first Welsh winner of the Victoria Cross | 0:05:40 | 0:05:43 | |
in the First World War. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:44 | |
William Charles Fuller had lived in Swansea since boyhood. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:50 | |
He'd served in the Boer War and so, as an experienced soldier, | 0:05:50 | 0:05:54 | |
he was recalled to the colours in 1914. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:59 | |
Just six weeks into the war, Fuller risked his life | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
in a bid to save his commanding officer, Captain Mark Haggard. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
Under heavy enemy fire, Fuller carried the mortally wounded Haggard | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
away from the heat of battle, | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
an act of heroism that won him | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
the very highest military award for valour. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
100 years later, | 0:06:20 | 0:06:22 | |
Fuller's daughter remembers the man who was the hero of her family. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:27 | |
So, Muriel, William Charles Fuller VC, your dad. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
-Yes. -What was he like? | 0:06:31 | 0:06:33 | |
Wonderful. He spoiled us rotten. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:36 | |
THEY CHUCKLE | 0:06:36 | 0:06:37 | |
So, here they are. What a collection. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:42 | |
And that one, the Victoria Cross, for valour. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:46 | |
-Well, they don't hand those out for nothing, do they? -They do not. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:50 | |
Well, if you saw the box that it was in, | 0:06:50 | 0:06:52 | |
it was absolutely tattered, | 0:06:52 | 0:06:55 | |
and I went to the jeweller's and I said, | 0:06:55 | 0:06:57 | |
"Can you get me a nice box to put my father's medals on, | 0:06:57 | 0:07:00 | |
"because they're not doing him justice in this tatty box he's got." | 0:07:00 | 0:07:04 | |
-He didn't talk about the day it was won? -No, he didn't talk about it. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:09 | |
If he didn't talk to you, did he have a special friend | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
-he could talk to? -Yes, this major that used to come. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:15 | |
And they would go over old times and we used to take him | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
a cup of coffee, or whatever, but we'd leave them to talk on their own. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:22 | |
But he was a lovely man. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:24 | |
What was your dad like after he'd had these chats? | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
Oh, as if he'd had... His life was renewed. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:30 | |
And this watch... | 0:07:30 | 0:07:32 | |
The watch was presented to my father | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
by the widow of Captain Haggard. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
And there's a tale at the other end of the chain as well, isn't there? | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
That bullet was taken from my father when he was wounded, | 0:07:40 | 0:07:44 | |
-and he had it put on the watch. -That's a German bullet? -Yes. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:48 | |
Of course it is. That's the bullet that came out of his shoulder. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:52 | |
-Not on VC day, this is later in the First World War? -No, later. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:56 | |
I was very proud of my father. Very proud. Well, we all were. | 0:07:56 | 0:08:01 | |
William Fuller lived to the ripe old age of 90. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:07 | |
Many weren't so lucky. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:09 | |
The steady flow of casualties from the front | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
soon overwhelmed Welsh hospitals. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
Country houses and stately homes were urgently needed | 0:08:18 | 0:08:22 | |
to be used by the military to care for sick and wounded soldiers. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:27 | |
In well-heeled Sketty, wealthy spinster Miss Dulcie Vivian | 0:08:27 | 0:08:32 | |
not only offered up her smart mansion, | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
she even paid for its conversion into a Red Cross hospital. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:38 | |
Parc Wern has been converted once more. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
Today, it's luxury apartments. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:43 | |
The bricks and mortar may have changed, | 0:08:43 | 0:08:45 | |
but here's one thing that remains. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:47 | |
It's an autograph book, and it's full of messages of gratitude | 0:08:47 | 0:08:51 | |
and poems by soldiers, | 0:08:51 | 0:08:53 | |
and it was presented to Nurse Conabeer, who worked here. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:57 | |
Here's one of the poems. | 0:08:57 | 0:08:59 | |
When war is proclaimed and danger is nigh | 0:08:59 | 0:09:01 | |
God and the soldier is everyone's cry | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
But when war is over and all things are sighted | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
God is forgotten and the soldier is slighted. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:11 | |
Private W Lewis, 14th Welsh Regiment, 24th October 1916. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:17 | |
And what did they all want? | 0:09:17 | 0:09:19 | |
"We want peace." | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
But peace was a long way off | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
and with a gap left by a generation of men fighting abroad, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
it fell to the women to keep wartime Britain going. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:38 | |
Many ditched their domestic duties | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
and embraced the roles traditionally held by men. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:45 | |
Large numbers of Swansea women answered the call to work | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
at Nobel's Explosives factory. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
That's Alfred Nobel, as in Nobel Peace Prize. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:55 | |
The factory lay hidden deep in sand dunes | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
15 miles west of Swansea in what is now Pembrey Country Park. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:02 | |
The ammunition factory was built in 1914 | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
and would soon become one of the largest in Britain. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:10 | |
Within a year, 70% of its workforce were women. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:14 | |
The scene today - a tourist attraction. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
100 years ago, under my feet, women in their hundreds, | 0:10:17 | 0:10:21 | |
these munition-ettes, were doing incredibly dangerous work | 0:10:21 | 0:10:24 | |
in their bunkers and sheds. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:26 | |
In fact, some of the structures remain just over here. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:29 | |
Wartime munitions work was so secret | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
that records of life in a place like this are very rare. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
Fortunately, Gabrielle West, | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
a police officer who worked in Pembrey, kept a diary. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:54 | |
She wrote, "The girls who work here are full of life and cheerful, | 0:10:54 | 0:10:59 | |
"with a good many characters among them." | 0:10:59 | 0:11:01 | |
She also paints a vivid picture of the conditions | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
the munition-ettes faced at work. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:06 | |
"Making TNT produced an evil, sickly, choky smell | 0:11:06 | 0:11:10 | |
"that makes you cough and until you feel sick. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:13 | |
"There could be 16 or 18 casualties every night, | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
"women overcome by fumes." | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
Munitions work was one of the most dangerous jobs on the Home Front. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:29 | |
The women handled chemicals that turned their skin yellow, | 0:11:29 | 0:11:33 | |
earning them the nickname "canary girls". | 0:11:33 | 0:11:35 | |
The poisonous fumes discoloured their hair | 0:11:35 | 0:11:38 | |
and stripped their teeth of enamel. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
And yet, despite the risks, | 0:11:41 | 0:11:42 | |
one factor made sure the women would return day after day... | 0:11:42 | 0:11:46 | |
In a word, money. Lots of it. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
Here at Pembrey, women were getting paid as much as men. | 0:11:50 | 0:11:54 | |
In fact, because they were doing piecework, they often earned more. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:58 | |
Now, that was a first. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
But in truth, it was poor reward for the dangers they faced. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:06 | |
One fateful day, a huge explosion | 0:12:06 | 0:12:09 | |
took the lives of six factory workers, | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
including two teenage girls from Swansea. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
The town came to a standstill as the funeral procession | 0:12:15 | 0:12:19 | |
moved through the streets. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:21 | |
The coffins were draped in the Union flag | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
and flanked by uniformed munition-ettes, | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
giving the funeral an almost military flavour. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:31 | |
The women of Swansea couldn't control safety in the factories, | 0:12:33 | 0:12:36 | |
but they could try to control safety on the streets. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:40 | |
This time, the threat wasn't stockpiles of explosives. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
No, it was the loose morals of giddy young women. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:49 | |
# Hello, hello | 0:12:51 | 0:12:53 | |
# Who's your lady friend? # | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
It was believed that women of a certain class needed to be | 0:12:55 | 0:12:59 | |
saved from themselves, lest their behaviour undermined society | 0:12:59 | 0:13:03 | |
and threatened the war effort. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
Women patrols were formed to rescue soldiers home on leave | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
from women of evil reputation. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
Across town in Oxford Street, | 0:13:13 | 0:13:15 | |
it was said that soldiers couldn't walk the pavements | 0:13:15 | 0:13:18 | |
without the unwanted attention of young women. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
At the heart of the scandal were the docks. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
A certain Rev F Sparrow thundered, | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
"Evidently we are living in the midst | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
"of shameless degradation and gross immorality. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
"The docks have become a cesspool of wickedness, | 0:13:32 | 0:13:36 | |
"and the orgies of lust are revolting in their lewd vulgarity." | 0:13:36 | 0:13:42 | |
The moral emergency that gripped Swansea | 0:13:46 | 0:13:49 | |
was a symptom of extraordinary times. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:51 | |
Over the water in Belgium, civilians overrun by the Kaiser's army | 0:13:51 | 0:13:56 | |
were facing a very real emergency, | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
and the people of South Wales weren't slow in coming to their aid. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
In October 1914, in the dead of night, | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
49 Belgian refugees arrived here at Swansea station, | 0:14:12 | 0:14:17 | |
exhausted, unannounced. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:19 | |
It had taken them more than two days to travel here from Ostend. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
The oldest in the party was nearly 80, | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
the youngest just five weeks old. | 0:14:26 | 0:14:28 | |
The group found a warm welcome | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
among a small community of skilled Belgian metalworkers | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
already living in Swansea. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
By 1916, almost 800 Belgian refugees had been received into the town. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:42 | |
But such niceties didn't extend to Germans living there. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:48 | |
Carl Oscar Roth was born in Dresden, Germany, | 0:14:48 | 0:14:50 | |
but was brought up here in Swansea, had lived here since he was a boy. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:55 | |
By 1911 he was living here, in Carnglas Road, | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
with his wife and four children in a house called Dresden, | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
which he quickly changed at the outbreak of war to Preston. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:06 | |
No-one was fooled about the family's German origins. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
Roth was soon rounded up as a potentially dangerous enemy alien | 0:15:09 | 0:15:14 | |
and sent to Knockaloe Interment Camp on the Isle of Man, | 0:15:14 | 0:15:17 | |
along with more than 20,000 other German civilian prisoners of war. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:22 | |
Roth wasn't released until 1919, | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
almost a year after the war had ended. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:28 | |
-Nice to see you. -Thank you. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:29 | |
His granddaughter Ynis Richardson | 0:15:29 | 0:15:32 | |
knows how much the whole family felt the blow. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
I think it was the speed that surprised everybody, | 0:15:35 | 0:15:38 | |
how quickly they were taken away. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:40 | |
They had originally gone to Alexandra Palace, | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
and there are photos of camp beds out in Alexandra Palace. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:47 | |
By the beginning of September, | 0:15:47 | 0:15:48 | |
all the prisoners who were going were in the Isle of Man. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:52 | |
And that left your grandmother and four children here? | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
My mother was 15, her youngest brother was two. | 0:15:55 | 0:16:00 | |
What happened to them after Oscar was taken away? | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
My mother told me afterwards that they were harassed, | 0:16:03 | 0:16:07 | |
and they had white feathers through the door, abusive letters. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
What other things might have come through the door | 0:16:10 | 0:16:12 | |
my mother wouldn't have mentioned. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:14 | |
My mother's next younger brother was in school, | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
and he ran away to sea and joined the merchant navy, | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
where he stayed through the war and into the '20s and '30s. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:25 | |
Why did he leave school? | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
They knew his father was German and he just got bullied, literally, | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
and teased and whatever, so he ran away. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:32 | |
What did it feel like when you went to the Isle of Man and saw it all? | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
I took some photos of the site, which is now just a farm, | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
and there is no evidence anything had ever happened there except, | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
right at the end of the lane was a sign that said Knockaloe | 0:16:42 | 0:16:46 | |
and 20,000 prisoners were here 1914. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
-Can you understand why it happened? -Well, it was fear. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
It was a different sort of war | 0:16:52 | 0:16:54 | |
and they didn't know what was going to happen to them and their children. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
Paranoia focused on the real, | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
or imagined, threat of the German enemy. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
That threat was kept in check throughout the war | 0:17:03 | 0:17:06 | |
by the Defence of the Realm Act, | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
or DORA. It gave the State unprecedented control | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
over the lives of its people, in all manner of ways. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:16 | |
The Act made it illegal to buy a pair of binoculars, | 0:17:16 | 0:17:20 | |
hail a taxi by whistling or even buy a round of drinks in a pub. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:24 | |
Here in Swansea, it was even illegal in some parts of town to sketch. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
Records show one man was detained for drawing in the castle grounds, | 0:17:28 | 0:17:33 | |
just up the road in Oystermouth, | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
another for lighting a fire on a hillside, a prank that saw him | 0:17:35 | 0:17:39 | |
arrested on suspicion of signalling to the enemy. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
As well as thwarting potential spies, DORA aimed to mobilise | 0:17:45 | 0:17:49 | |
the whole country behind the war effort, including its food supply. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:53 | |
At the start of the war, food hoarding | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
and panic buying were commonplace. | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
It didn't last, and Swansea soon learned to tighten its belt | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
and accept that with war came a certain lack of choice. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:05 | |
But as the fighting wore on, | 0:18:08 | 0:18:11 | |
attacks by German U-boats on merchants ships | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
delivering essential supplies to Britain were increasing. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
The effects were frightening. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
Britain came within six weeks of running out of wheat. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
Queues outside bakers, butchers and grocers were commonplace. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:34 | |
Rationing was introduced and soon butter, sugar, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
eggs and tea were all restricted. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
Restaurants and cafes even had meatless days | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
in order to make limited supplies go further. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:46 | |
Barren land was turned over to vegetable production, | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
sports grounds too. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
Even Swansea Town's pitch was at risk of being dug up, | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
a fate suffered by half the country's football grounds. | 0:18:56 | 0:19:00 | |
But the Swans kicked off the 1914 season as normal | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
and within a few months, they were playing | 0:19:03 | 0:19:05 | |
one of the most glorious games in the club's history. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
Today, the Liberty Stadium is the Swans' field of dreams, | 0:19:09 | 0:19:13 | |
but a century ago, their home was what once stood here, | 0:19:13 | 0:19:17 | |
their beloved Vetch Field. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:20 | |
On 9th January 1915, 16,000 people are here to witness | 0:19:20 | 0:19:24 | |
one of THE shocks in cup history - | 0:19:24 | 0:19:26 | |
Swansea beating league champions Blackburn Rovers 1-0. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:31 | |
But any euphoria was short lived. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
Soon, professional football was struggling, as players | 0:19:33 | 0:19:37 | |
enlisted in greater numbers and the public mood shifted. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:41 | |
It was now seen as disrespectful for men to play sport | 0:19:41 | 0:19:45 | |
while others fought in the trenches. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:48 | |
Once more, women filled the gap. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:51 | |
The munition-ettes from Swansea's national shell factory were | 0:19:51 | 0:19:55 | |
one of Britain's most successful female teams and drew big crowds. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:58 | |
Fearing this popularity threatened the men's game, | 0:19:58 | 0:20:02 | |
the FA banned women's football in the early 1920s. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
In contrast to the football club, the town's rugby club, | 0:20:06 | 0:20:10 | |
the successful All Whites, | 0:20:10 | 0:20:12 | |
cancelled all games at the outbreak of war. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:16 | |
The fighting took an extremely heavy toll on rugby. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
By 1915, over 90% of rugby union players in Britain had enlisted. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:27 | |
In Swansea, 24 of the club's players were killed while on active service. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:34 | |
In the absence of regular sport, wartime entertainment | 0:20:37 | 0:20:41 | |
came in the form of musical theatres and music halls. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:45 | |
Moving film, then very much a novelty, found a home in | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
Wales's first purpose-built picture house, Swansea's Carlton Cinema. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:55 | |
Today, it's a bookshop, but in the early autumn of 1916, this is where | 0:20:55 | 0:20:59 | |
they came for the most important cinematic release of the war. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:04 | |
The Battle Of The Somme was a silent documentary | 0:21:10 | 0:21:13 | |
and propaganda film that captured startling footage | 0:21:13 | 0:21:16 | |
from the first days of the Somme offensive in July 1916. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:21 | |
The scenes were at times graphic. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
While some in Swansea called for the film to be banned, | 0:21:28 | 0:21:32 | |
for most, watching became an almost moral obligation. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:37 | |
They were desperate to see for themselves | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
what conditions were like at the front. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:42 | |
For one week in September 1916, | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
their wish came true and the film played to packed houses. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:49 | |
For the first time, the people of Swansea saw | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
what their love ones were going through on the Western Front. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:55 | |
The Battle of the Somme dragged on for 20 weeks | 0:22:02 | 0:22:04 | |
and claimed the lives of more than 100,000 British soldiers. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:08 | |
For the men of the Swansea Battalion, | 0:22:08 | 0:22:12 | |
it was their first major combat, | 0:22:12 | 0:22:14 | |
but in their attempt to capture Mametz Wood, | 0:22:14 | 0:22:16 | |
an area on the Somme nearly a mile wide | 0:22:16 | 0:22:20 | |
and over a mile deep, it would also be their last. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:24 | |
Nearly 400 of the Swansea Pals | 0:22:24 | 0:22:26 | |
were either killed or wounded on that fateful day | 0:22:26 | 0:22:29 | |
out of an attacking contingent of 676, | 0:22:29 | 0:22:33 | |
a loss so devastating | 0:22:33 | 0:22:34 | |
the battalion didn't return to major action for more than a year. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:39 | |
The growing toll of casualties throughout the war meant that | 0:22:41 | 0:22:45 | |
Britain was in desperate need to replace its supply of soldiers, | 0:22:45 | 0:22:49 | |
but as the conflict dragged on, patriotic fervour dwindled. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:54 | |
The Government had to act fast. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:56 | |
The Military Service Act was passed, | 0:22:56 | 0:22:59 | |
ushering in the era of conscription. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:01 | |
Men aged between 18 and 41 could be called up, | 0:23:02 | 0:23:05 | |
with only a few exemptions - the medically unfit, clergymen, | 0:23:05 | 0:23:10 | |
teachers and those doing work of national importance. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:14 | |
Appeals against conscription were commonplace | 0:23:14 | 0:23:17 | |
and the Swansea tribunal was soon busy. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
In one afternoon session alone in February 1916, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:24 | |
it heard no fewer than 65 requests for exemption from military service. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:29 | |
2% of the appeals were from many who objected to war on moral grounds, | 0:23:29 | 0:23:34 | |
and for these conscientious objectors, | 0:23:34 | 0:23:36 | |
proceedings were notoriously harsh, reflecting widespread public opinion | 0:23:36 | 0:23:41 | |
that they were cowardly, ungrateful shirkers. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
The grilling the men faced was to the point. One man was asked, | 0:23:44 | 0:23:49 | |
"Would you allow the Germans to come to Britain to kill you? | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
"Kill your mother? Do you actually possess any intelligence?" | 0:23:53 | 0:23:58 | |
Needless to say, most cases were rejected. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
Most but not all. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:06 | |
John Oliver Watkins, a 23-year-old Swansea council worker | 0:24:06 | 0:24:10 | |
was granted exemption on religious grounds. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:13 | |
Watkins WAS prepared to serve at the front, | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
helping the wounded rather than bearing arms. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
He was sent to join an ambulance convoy attached to the French army. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:24 | |
This collection of maps, letters and medals is housed | 0:24:24 | 0:24:28 | |
in the West Glamorgan Archive, | 0:24:28 | 0:24:30 | |
and they tell the story of Watkins' time at war. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
This is the French Croix de Guerre, | 0:24:33 | 0:24:36 | |
awarded to Watkins for what he did on the night of December 10th 1917. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:41 | |
He drove his ambulance to pick up | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
a large number of seriously wounded men | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
but on the way back they got bogged down | 0:24:46 | 0:24:48 | |
in an abandoned trench. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
Under heavy enemy fire and mustard gas, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
Watkins put all the men safely to one side, mended the ambulance, | 0:24:53 | 0:24:57 | |
got it going again, put the men back in and then ferried the men back. | 0:24:57 | 0:25:02 | |
Perhaps the most striking thing here | 0:25:02 | 0:25:04 | |
is his account of the final day of the war. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:08 | |
"The day was dry, and outside the hut I sat with three colleagues | 0:25:08 | 0:25:12 | |
"around a large tin bath peeling spuds for the midday meal. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
"A soldier was seen to fix a white paper on the church door. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:19 | |
"I crossed the square and on the blank side | 0:25:19 | 0:25:22 | |
"of a torn German army map | 0:25:22 | 0:25:23 | |
"was brushed in Indian ink the following notice. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
"'Official. Armistice signed, | 0:25:26 | 0:25:28 | |
"'hostilities ceased today 11 o'clock.' | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
"I broke the news to my friends and we went on with our job. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:35 | |
"There was no wild excitement | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
"but just a feeling of release from war to peace." | 0:25:37 | 0:25:41 | |
And here is that German map... | 0:25:41 | 0:25:45 | |
and here are the words that brought the first world war to an end. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:51 | |
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
Remembrance Day remains a powerful annual symbol | 0:26:08 | 0:26:13 | |
of so much loss and sacrifice. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
A century on, and new discoveries continue to add | 0:26:17 | 0:26:21 | |
to our understanding of Welsh communities at war. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
In a chapel in the Treboeth area of Swansea, | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
a roll of honour has recently been discovered. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:31 | |
-So, here we are, Gethin, a list of names. -It is indeed. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:34 | |
81 men from the local chapel who served | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
either in the Army or the Navy during the war years. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:41 | |
Most of them were actually volunteers. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
At least a third of these men would have been miners, | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
most working in Mynyddbach Colliery, about a mile-and-a-half up the road. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:51 | |
The local comprehensive have been great. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
One of the classes has done an awful lot of work with the official records | 0:26:53 | 0:26:57 | |
-to find out who these men are. -Let's go and meet them. | 0:26:57 | 0:26:59 | |
It's apt that a new generation, young people in Swansea, | 0:27:00 | 0:27:04 | |
are respecting the memory of their forebears | 0:27:04 | 0:27:06 | |
who sacrificed so much a century ago. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
-Hi, guys. How are you doing? -ALL: Hello. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
What have we got here? This is quite a spread. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:15 | |
What we've done is we collected a load of photos, | 0:27:15 | 0:27:17 | |
interesting photos, about World War I, | 0:27:17 | 0:27:20 | |
and are trying to pick out the most interesting ones | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
to put on a big poster to go to our National Eisteddfod. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
A big project, then. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:27 | |
Did you know much, Megan, before this all began, | 0:27:27 | 0:27:30 | |
about the First World War? | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
We knew a little bit as we'd been learning it in class | 0:27:32 | 0:27:35 | |
with our teacher, but it was really interesting to find out | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
more about the 81 soldiers on the roll of honour. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:42 | |
Is there anything here that has surprised you? | 0:27:42 | 0:27:45 | |
I didn't realise it had expanded so much. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:48 | |
Here, in this photo, it's a picture of a pyramid | 0:27:48 | 0:27:50 | |
so it means they stretched as far as Egypt. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:52 | |
I didn't realise that so many people from my local area were | 0:27:52 | 0:27:56 | |
involved in the war, and the contribution they made towards it. | 0:27:56 | 0:28:00 | |
Have you found out anything about the ages of all these people? | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
Yes, most of them were our age going into the war | 0:28:03 | 0:28:06 | |
and that's really scary, really, | 0:28:06 | 0:28:09 | |
because I could never imagine going into a war with, like, fighting. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:13 | |
There's something about this connection between young people | 0:28:21 | 0:28:24 | |
and the war of 100 years ago. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:26 | |
At the outbreak of the First World War, Britain was unprepared. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:30 | |
Even industrial Swansea was unprepared for industrial slaughter. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:35 | |
Fear and suspicion would have their say in how Swansea adapted | 0:28:35 | 0:28:40 | |
to this world in upheaval, but so, too, would togetherness, | 0:28:40 | 0:28:45 | |
courage, the notion of self-sacrifice. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
Perhaps the reason why young people are | 0:28:48 | 0:28:51 | |
engaged by the events of 100 years ago is | 0:28:51 | 0:28:54 | |
because what happened here and elsewhere was | 0:28:54 | 0:28:58 | |
the start of the revolution that made the world they live in today. | 0:28:58 | 0:29:03 |