Welcome to my website, The West Wales War Memorial Project. The original aim of this website was to remember the men and women of the old county of Dyfed (Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire) who are commemorated on war memorials throughout the three counties. This work has since been expanded into other Welsh counties, and also to promote my books. The memorials listed throughout the website cover such conflicts as the Anglo Boer War, World War 1, World War 2, Palestine, Korea, the Falklands, and Iran and Afghanistan.
Just a quick note, to remind readers that there are copyright notices throughout the website. This is just a gentle reminder about this, as I’m coming across more and more material being copied and used by many people, even museums and history groups etc without any acknowledgement of its source whatsoever. It doesn’t cost anything to be polite and ask permission and I rarely refuse.
*It is recommended that you turn off any pop-up blocker on your internet browser to use this website, and please do not bookmark individual pages, as I sometimes reorganise the website and the links you use then get broken. It’s best to bookmark this home page and then search by county or by using the search box above.*
ESTIMATED CASUALTY FIGURES FOR THE COUNTIES
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) around 57,000 casualties were incurred by the British and Allied forces, including around 19,000 dead, and the remainder wounded or missing.
The original Carmarthen County War Memorial listed the names of 1,913 men and women of the County who gave their lives in the Great War. This was made up of 3 Nurses, 123 Officers, 254 Non-Commissioned Officers and 1,533 Other Ranks. After painstaking research, this figure has now been expanded to around 2,700 men and women to WW1, and 1,050 in WW2, and more are being uncovered all the time. Many of these are mentioned on the memorials of more than one village, which makes research difficult.
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.
The original Pembroke County War Memorial in Haverfordwest was erected in honour of the 1,300 men of the County who gave their lives during the Great War of 1914-1918. Ensuing research has uncovered many more, so these extra men and women will be listed on the pages of the village where they had connections to, and their omission from the memorials will be noted.
ABOUT THE SITE ITSELF
This website contains details on all of the war memorials and also all of the local military units from the three counties which made up the former County of Dyfed in west Wales: Carmarthenshire; Ceredigion; and Pembrokeshire. As part of the research into each war memorial I have come across many men who for one reason or another are not commemorated as official casualties of war by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). Some detective work is then required to see if sufficient evidence is available in order to present their case to the CWGC for commemoration. The Forgotten Men section of the website holds the results of my work on local uncommemorated casualties. One tab opens a page holding details of some of the locally formed units: The 1/4th Welsh (Territorial), the 15th Welsh (Carmarthen Pals), the 24th Welsh (Pembroke and Glamorgan Yeomanry), Pembrokeshire Royal Garrison Artillery, and also local R.A.F. bases. These pages contain brief histories of the Battalions, and their Casualty Rolls, and are continually evolving as time allows. Details of local gallantry award winners are also contained on the website, although work is still ongoing, and there are also separate sections for any Pre World War One and Post World War Two Memorials.
HOW TO SEARCH THE SITE
You can search by town or village by clicking on the links on the relevant county page on the header of this page, which then opens up a list of war memorials in that county down the left hand side of the website. There is a search icon on the top left of the web page, or you can click the drop down tab entitled Home, which opens up a search box enabling you to search this website, by name, number, unit, town or any other keyword.
FUNDING THE WEBSITE
The website is entirely self funded, and has been written and researched by myself alone. The costs of running the website and carrying out the research for it are quite substantial. As a result, any donations towards the cost of the website are most welcome, and will help to continue work on research and keeping the material online for public use. There is a donation button (via Paypal) on the top of this page. Any donations get ploughed back into the work, especially the ongoing cost of purchasing death certificates for ‘forgotten’ war casualties who I am attempting to get commemorated by the CWGC.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
None of this work would be possible without a lot of very valuable help, and my gratitude is given to those who have, and still are, helping with this project. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission provides a valuable, and much forgotten 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. The basis for all war memorial research starts from using their comprehensive database to find basic details from a name on a memorial, and their importance to this website cannot be put into words. Chris Baker’s excellent website, ‘The Long, Long Trail’ proved useful for biographical information on the various Army Divisions. My greatest thanks go to the small army of people who continue to voluntarily submit photographs and information to the project, and such information is always welcome. I would like to thanks all of these individuals for their help and input.
STEVE’S BOOKS
My interest in World War One led to me writing my first book on the Laugharne War Memorial and then resulted in the publication of my book ‘Carmarthen Pals’ in 2009. I am also the author of: ‘Carmarthen in the Great War’ (2014), which tells the story of how the war affected the county of Carmarthenshire; ‘Welsh Yeomanry at War’ (Aug 2016), a History of the 24th (Pembroke and Glamorgan) Yeomanry Battalion, Welsh Regiment during the Great War; and the trilogy: ‘The Welsh at War’, the story of all of the Welsh units and other stories of Welsh interest during the Great War, all of which have been published by Pen and Sword Books, as well as being the author of six other self-published books on local war memorials. Details of these books can be found by clicking on the Other Pages tab at the top of this page and then clicking on the Steve’s Books link.
ADDITIONAL RESEARCH CARRIED OUT BY MYSELF
Coupled with my research into these local war memorials, as part of my research on the Welsh troops who fought during the Great War I have created a database of over 50,000 men and women who either served with Welsh units or who were born, resided, or died in Wales as a result of the Great War. This research is on-going, in order to create a comprehensive database of Welsh WW1 casualties.
I have also been involved in assisting the research of several local history groups, either in order for them to create displays, write books on their local war memorials, or to erect new war memorials. Examples of such work can be found in the list below. Apologies for anyone I have omitted, as I need to update this list:
New War Memorials
Carmarthen Police Headquarters War Memorial (Dyfed Powys Police)
Llanelli Post WW2 War Memorial
Displays / Books
Borth History Society Book
Burry Port RFC Centenary Book
Dafen War Memorial and Book
Gowerton County School Memorial
Hook Display
Laugharne Memorial Display and Book
Llandyssul History Society Display
Llanelli (Capel Ffwrnes) Display
Llanelli Grammar School Memorial and information panels
Llansteffan History Society Book
Milford Haven War Memorial/ Roll of Honour Book
Pembrokeshire WW2 Casualties Book
Pontarddulais War Memorial
Solva Heritage Society WW2 Book
St Clears Memorial Display Panels
Talley War Memorial
The Fighting Fourth Book – Colonel Ron Austin
Ysgol yr Aman Memorial and Book
And numerous other different projects and articles, some of which are still on-going.
Website Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2003-2021 West Wales War Memorial Project
All rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including copying, printing, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder, except in the case of brief quotations and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
For permission requests, contact the copyright holder, Steven John.
A tremendous amount of time, hard work and money has gone into researching all of these men and building this website. Most of the material used throughout this website has been photographed and compiled from various sources by the Author and website owner, except where otherwise noted and as such all photographs and text remain the copyright of myself, Steven John.
For anything other than personal use, i.e. local history groups and societies who wish to copy my work, a donation to keep the website online is politely requested. I also stress the need to acknowledge the website as the source of any material copied by others, as I have often come across material from the website which has been copied and used without acknowledgement or permission. The worst case I have come across so far has been the plagiarising of the details of an entire war memorial from this website by one group in Pembrokeshire and published word by word in a local magazine, claiming it to be their own research!
For any group who has received funding to research their own war memorial, please remember that this website and the years of work it contains is entirely self funded by myself and that using my material for such projects is a breach of my copyright unless my permission has been sought.