Despite there being no action on the pitch, off it there were plenty of people able to mark not only the centenary of the club’s stand, but also the addition of two hitherto forgotten names to the ‘Roll of Honour’ from WW1.
Their names and service may have been forgotten for 100 years but after Saturday celebration everyone at the club is now aware o the deeds of William East and Charles Heywood.
Neither East nor Heywood were recorded on the original plaque commemorating the lives of the 17 former players for fell serving King and Country in the Great War. But after extensive research by club stalwarts David Hughes and club members who served Chris Thau they have now been given their rightful place alongside some of their former teammates.
In the wake of WW1 the club battled with the local council to erect a Memorial Stand to honour the lives of their fallen heroes. It was eventually built and opened in 1925, with a plaque listing 17 names.
Now, a hundred years on, the same old stand has been given a facelift, and a brand-new memorial plaque was unveiled last weekend. The black marble plaque, manufactured by the local company “Memorial Mossfords” in association with “Morgans Consult”, was unveiled to celebrate 100 years since the original Memorial Stand was opened in 1925.
It would have been highly appropriate had a team from Cardiff been involved int he unveiling ceremony because on Wednesday 17 February 1925 it was the Cardiff club who came to open the stand amid great pomp and ceremony.
Penarth, with their greatest player, the Wales and British & Irish Lions full back Jack Bassett, in the team, won 9-0.
“It’s great to be able to right a wrong that has existed for 100 years by adding the two missing players to our new memorial. It has also given us the chance to upgrade the old stand and perpetuate the memory of the brave men form the club who served in WW1,” said former club secretary Thau.
“It took some exhaustive work from David Hughes to uncover all the details and enable us to refresh the memorial. As the phrase goes, ‘Lest we forget’.
“There were huge sacrifices made by so many families in Penarth and there are tragic examples within the now 19 names on our club ‘Roll of Honour’. For instance, Tom Bartlett was one of three brothers killed in action.
“He was 36, worked as a coal tipper and was married to Sarah. He used to be a bell ringer at St Augustine’s Church in Penarth and one of his two sons was killed in WW2.
“Frank Blackmore died in 1916 a few weeks before his wife gave birth to their seventh daughter, while Jack Regan left a wife and five children.”
Of the two missing players now included on the WW1 memorial, William East was a police officer in Llanbradach before enlisting. He served in the Prince of Wales Company, 1st Battalion of the Welsh Guards and was killed when he took a direct hit from a German shell in Loos on 6 October 1915 – the first player from Penarth RFC to lose his life.
A letter home from Private William Folland outlined what happened to East: “He and I were sitting at the side of a trench having a laugh and a joke when a shell came and struck him on the left side, and it was all over for him within five minutes. I and Sgt Bevan, of the Swansea police, buried him shortly after it went dark, and put a bit of a cross on his grave. He was a good and rue friend.”
The other addition is Lieutenant Charles Clement Heywood, who was killed in action at Kemmel Hill on 25 April 1918. His father, also Charles, lived at Holme Tower in Penarth and was involved in shipping merchant.
Charles jnr was sent to Marlborough College in 1893 and became captain of the 1st XV. He went up to Keble College, Oxford, where he earned a BA in 1901 and captained the college XV. He also captained the Penarth club in the 1902-03 season
Charles Heywood
He qualified as a solicitor in 1904 and practiced at Gardners & Heywood before joining the war effort in November 1915. He served in the Royal Field Artillery and rose to the rank of Lieutenant in ‘B’ Battery of the 88th Brigade, fighting in France from 1917. He was killed in action at Kemmel Hill on 25 April 1918.
In the immediate aftermath of WW1, Penarth rugby club didn’t have a ground to play on and it took a huge effort to establish a proper home. The search began in earnest at the first AGM after the cessation of war,
Major Malcolm Vyvyan MC was elected as the first captain after WW1 with the Earl of Plymouth Patron and Samuel Thomas as President. While the main objective of the newly-elected Penarth RFC Committee was getting the club back to the playing standard of the pre-war period, it was also faced with the equally daunting task of finding a new playing field.
Their old ground, located behind Victoria School, was no longer accessible after been used for allotments during the war. It fell to club stalwart Fred ‘Hustler’ Davies to ultimately step in and get things sorted.
He offered a piece of land he owned in Morristown, the so-called ‘Cefn Mably’ field, not far from the pub, while another paddock, called Guy’s Field, or Mr Thurston’s field, at the end of St Cyre’s Road, was extensively used for training, second team fixtures and minor matches.
The County Grammar School, these days Stanwell Comprehensive School, was also used to host major fixtures against the Barbarians, Newport and Cardiff. The first match of the club after the war was played on Good Friday, 18 April 1919. It was the first of two charity matches between Cardiff and Penarth clubs in aid of the families of the sailors and soldiers who lost their lives in the war.
The next major campaigner was Samuel Thomas JP, who led the campaign to secure the land for the Athletic Field in the 1920. He was a former Penarth cricket captain and was father of two of the rugby club’s finest players Leonard, who became a British & Irish Lions, and Ralph.
Thomas snr was a pillar of the local community and served on the Town Council for 50 years, chairing every single committee. He also delivered the Public Library in 1905 and secured the land on which the town’s schools were built.
He eventually got the Earl of Plymouth to offer the club a piece of land for sports and leisure – the very site on which today’s game will be played at the Athletic Fields
It took a fair while until the two main resident clubs, rugby and cricket, agreed to join forces to take over the ground, despite some opposition from within the Town Council. On Wednesday, 11 June 1924 the Dowger Countess of Plymouth officially opened the Athletic Field in the presence of representatives of Urban District Council and a large crowd of club members and local representatives.
The Memorial Stand then followed at a cost of £500 and those who attend the game today will be sitting in seats that have been occupied by rugby lovers for the past century.
These are the 19 Penarth heroes who lost their lives during the Great War (1914-18)
The Penarth RFC ‘Roll of Honour’
- 1915 – Private William East, a Police officer in Llanbradach before the war, was 28 when he became the first Penarth player to be killed in action on 6 October 1915, at Loos in France, having served in the Prince of Wales Company, 1st Battalion of the Welsh Guards.
- 1916 – The second Penarth player to die of his wounds was Frank Blackmore, who was born in Camarthern in 1871. He served with the 16th Battalion, The Welch Regiment. He was killed in action on 10 July, a few weeks before the birth of his seventh daughter.
- 2nd Lieut Alexander Whitley of the 49th Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery died in action age 26 on 10 July 1916. He was born in Penarth in 1892, and his father was a shipbroker. He worked as a coal merchant’s clerk.
- Sgt John ”Jack” Regan of the 113th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) a scrum-half and former vice-captain of the club, was the fourth Penarth player to lose his life in the war, on 31 July, leaving behind a widow and five children. He was born in Penarth in May 1882.
- Veteran Penarth forward, Battery Sergeant Major Thomas Bartlett of the 113th Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery, died on 30 August aged 36. He was one of the three Bartlett brothers from Penarth who lost their lives that summer. He was born in 1880 and played in eight Good Friday matches against the Barbarians.
- 1917 – The following year, one of the bloodiest of the war for the Seaside club, Penarth lost six of its sons in action. The first to die was 21-year-old Gunner William Monroe, of Battery A, 251 Brigade, the Royal Field Artillery. He was the oldest of the four Monroe brothers. Before the war William, born in 1896, was a clerk with Sir William Tatem shipping Company. His younger brother Private Arthur Stuart Monroe, of the 2nd Battalion of the Honorable Artillery Company, died at Arras, age 20 on 15 May1917.
- Frederick Morgan Aubrey of the 16th Battalion Welch Regiment was born in 1885 and died in action on 27 August 1917, age 22. He was a grocery assistant in civilian life. His older brother Sydney Douglas Aubrey also died in action in Arras a year later.
- Major John Angel Gibbs, DSO, the brother of two former Penarth club captains William and Reggie Gibbs, was born in Cardiff in 1880. He joined the Glamorganshire Yeomanry at the outbreak of the war. He then served in the 13th battalion of the Welsh regiment. His active service in France started in January 1916 when he joined the 9th battalion of the Welsh Regiment. At the Battle of the Somme the then captain Gibbs displayed such gallantry that he was mentioned in dispatches, awarded a DSO and promoted to the rank of major. He died age 37 on 20 December during the Menin Road battle in France.
- Sergeant Edwin ‘Teddy’ Boyle of the 113th Siege Battery RGA was killed in action during the battle for the Menin Road at Ypres in France on 15 October. He lived in Barry with his wife and played rugby for the Penarth club. He was also a talented boxer. His brother John died before him in 1916.
- Private William Davie, born approx in 1884, in Cogan, Penarth, was a plumber by trade. He lived in Plassey street in Penarth and played for the rugby club from the 1904-1905 season onwards. He was 27 in 1911, but there is no information regarding his service during the war.
- 1918 – Born in Penarth in 1890, Earl Malcolm Angove of the 8th Battalion of the Welch Regiment served as volunteer with the 2nd Glamorgan Royal Garrison Artillery having joined the Territorial Army in 1908. Army records show that on discharge he became an engine cleaner for Taff Vale Railway Company. He was a member of the St Paul Church and Penarth clubs. He died in Mesopotamia on 5 February aged 27.
- Lieut Charles Clement Heywood, a former solicitor who captained Penarth during the 1902-03 season was born in November 1879. He entered Keble College, Oxford in 1898, played for his College team for three seasons and was captain in the 1900-1901. He joined the Royal Field Artillery in 1915, was Lieutenant of the ‘B’ Battery of the 88th Brigade in 1817 and was killed in action at Kemmel Hill on 25 April 1918.
- Private Edwin Thomas Murray was born in Penarth in 1887 where he worked as an assistant in a grocery business. In the war he served as a private with the 6th Battalion the Queens’ Own Cameron Highlanders, and was killed in action on 23 July, age 31.
- Private Arthur Chick, the last and youngest of one the 12 Chick brothers and sisters, was born on 4 July 1899, and played rugby for Penarth alongside his brothers William, Sam and Edwin. He also captained the Albert Street rugby team, while being selected for Wales in a schoolboy international. Arthur served in the 14th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was killed in action on 27 August aged 19. His brother Edwin was also killed in France a month later.
- Rev Enoch Thomas Davies, was born at Carmarthen in 1874. He lived in Penarth with his family and died age 44 at home on 10 October, having served as the Chaplain of the 5th Battalion of the Welch Regiment. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Augustine’s Church in Penarth. He was an outstanding rugby man, having played for his Oxford College, Penarth, Mountain Ash, London Welsh and in several Wales trials. He was also a Chairman of the Penarth club.
- 2nd Lieut Cyril de Clare Yeld of the Indian Army Supply and Transport Corps was born in Sunderland in 1882 and lived in Penarth with his mother after his father’s death in 1896. He was an active sportsman, playing cricket, rugby and tennis. He left Wales in 1914 for a job with a Railway company in India. He enlisted in the Indian Volunteer Reserve at the outbreak on the war and served in the Supply and Transport Corps. He died on 24 October and is buried in Quetta Government. Cemetery.
- 2nd Lieut Richard James Pawley of the 92nd Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery was born in Penarth in 1887 and died in hospital in London on 28 November. He was an accomplished rugby player, and records show that three weeks before his death, Pawley he scored three tries for his battery team in a friendly game in France.
- 1919 – The last Penarth player to die, though technically after the end of the war, was Seaman William Robert Lawday, who was serving on the HM Tug “Frisky” part of the Mercantile Marine Reserve, and drowned in November.
