From “Refugees” to “Enemy Aliens”: Germans and Austrians in Aberystwyth during the Second World War

In the Ceredigion Archives in Aberystwyth, there is a book compiled by the Cardiganshire Police in 1939 containing photographs of Jewish refugees who fled from Nazi tyranny before the Second World War. These are not records of Welsh hospitality, however. They are arrest records, taken as a result of the reclassification, upon the outbreak of war, of all German and Austrian nationals living in Britain – whatever their political sympathies or background – as so-called “enemy aliens”.  

Many of them had lost their citizenship under Nazi rule; despite this, they were now required to report to the police and appear before special tribunals to determine if they were “friendly” – and thus deemed “low risk” – or “unfriendly”. The difference could mean detention in an internment camp on the Isle of Man, or even deportation to Canada or Australia. Most Germans and Austrians avoided this fate initially, although several hundred were interned.

Two refugees listed in the Cardiganshire Police Memo Book are Werner and Elspeth Rüdenberg, originally from Germany but in September 1939 living at Rheidol Terrace in Aberystwyth. A mother and son, their experience is unique but not atypical of refugees who found themselves in Wales on the outbreak of the Second World War.

 

Figure 1. The Police Memo Book includes pages with information on Werner Rüdenberg and his mother Elspeth (Elizabeth), who were living at Rheidol Terrace in Aberystwyth (From the collections of Ceredigion Archives, ref. no. MUS/204’)

The story of the Rüdenbergs in Aberystwyth begins in Berlin in 1936. Following the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which stripped Germany’s Jews of their citizenship rights, Werner’s brother, Reinhold, prepares to flee the country with his wife, Lily, son Hermann and daughter Angela. With the help of Thomas Jones, a Welsh civil servant, educationalist and later president of Aberystwyth University, the young family escapes to Britain and joins their other son, Günther, who is already studying in England. Before taking up a post in 1938 as professor of electrical engineering at Harvard University in the United States, however, Reinhold implores Jones to assist in securing employment for his older brother Werner, a renowned China scholar and businessman.

Werner and his wife Anni had, until the end of 1937, been living in Shanghai, where Werner worked for a German export firm. Following his dismissal on account of his Jewish origin, Werner and Anni travelled to Britain, arriving by boat in February 1938. With the help of Jones, Werner secures a contract to write an English-Shanghai dialect dictionary (he had already published the first German-Chinese dictionary in 1924). Werner decides to work on the book at the National Library of Wales, and this brings the couple to Aberystwyth in April 1939. The Rüdenberg matriarch, Elspeth, who had previously been living with her daughter in Freiburg and survived the November Pogrom (Kristallnacht), now joins her eldest son in Aberystwyth, but when war breaks out in September 1939, Werner is arrested as an “enemy alien”.

Werner is seized after returning from a Saturday evening walk and barred from taking any food, baggage or even an overcoat. By an unfortunate coincidence, staying with the Rüdenbergs at the time are Dr Julius Sonnenfeld and his wife Elizabeth (Werner’s cousin), who have also managed to escape from Germany. Although they are only stopping in Aberystwyth before emigrating to the US, the Sonnenfelds, too, cannot avoid the initial aliens roundup. Julius and Werner are quickly transferred to Swansea Prison and held there for several days. In a state of panic and unable to leave the house herself, Anni writes to their guarantor Thomas Jones for help. Jones dispatches a telegram to the Home Office complaining of “excessive zeal” on the part of the local police and is able to secure their release.

Although shaken by the experience, Werner is comforted by the response of the Aberystwyth locals. He writes to Jones that he “was stopped by numerous people to-day who wished to express their joy at seeing me back”. In October 1939, the Sonnenfelds and Elspeth Rüdenberg leave the area for good, sailing to America to join Reinhold, Lily and their three children.

For Werner and Anni, however, the drama does not stop there. They leave Aberystwyth in January 1940 and move to Cambridge, where a Chinese scholar has offered Werner to help him complete his dictionary. In the meantime, Anni’s brother, Fritz Pincus and his wife Lily also escape Germany and (with the help of Thomas Jones) settle in Harlech, Gwynedd. In May 1940, world events once more overtake the Rüdenbergs’ plans. The rapid advance of the Wehrmacht through the Netherlands, Belgium and France panics the British government, and they make the decision to intern all male “enemy aliens” (which by June 1940 included Italian nationals). Some 28,000 people, the vast majority of whom were Jewish refugees, are interned and held in camps throughout Britain. Werner and Fritz are arrested, and Werner is shipped to the Isle of Man, where the majority of internees were eventually held.

Figure 2. Werner Rüdenberg’s Internment Exemption Certificate. Although initially exempted, he is rearrested after the events of May 1940 (The National Archives, HO 396/193)

Anni once again writes to Jones for assistance, but at the same time, she seems to have accepted the necessity of her husband’s internment:

"What counts for all of us is the good cause and the final victory. We have voluntarily tied together our fate with Great Britain’s fate. Your hopes are our hopes, your victory is our victory, and our deepest wish is to be allowed to share some short years of peaceful life with all of you when this most terrible war has been brought to a good end."

After five months, Werner is released and returns to Cambridge, where he gets a job teaching German to officers training for the British Army (Fritz Pincus is only released in March 1941). Anni works as a typist at the university, even typing for the well-known philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. After the war, the couple return to “dear old Aber” on holiday “to see the old places and faces again”, and still keep in touch with the Owen family, their landlords “for nine happy months in 1939, - happy, that is to say, with the exception of the four days’ internment in H.M. Prison at Swansea”. Eventually, Werner obtains British citizenship, and secures a teaching post at Queen Mary University in London. He dies in 1961, while Anni survives until the age of 103, dying in 1989.

The story of the Rüdenbergs highlights the precarity of refugees’ lives in Wales once they had escaped from Nazi tyranny. It also emphasises the importance of actions by individuals like Thomas Jones in securing status for refugees, despite official government policy towards asylum. Ordinary people were often hospitable, as shown by Werner’s fond memories of Aberystwyth during his short time there. Nevertheless, most European Jews who wanted to escape the Third Reich during the 1930s were unsuccessful, and were subsequently murdered during the Holocaust. Those recorded in the Memo Book of the Cardiganshire Police were some of the lucky ones, even if their treatment by the authorities sometimes left much to be desired. 

Blog by Morris Brodie

Digital Intern, Second World War and Holocaust Partnership Programme, Aberystwyth University

 

Sources:

Ellis, E.L., T.J.: A Life of Dr Thomas Jones, CH (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992)

‘First Chinese-German Dictionary’, EVS Global Translations & Business Services, 24 January 2017 (https://evs-translations.com/blog/chinese-german/) (Accessed 13 April 2022)

Fritz Pincus Release Confirmation, 1941 (The National Archives; HO 396/271)

‘Obituary: H. Gunther Rudenberg’, Portland Press Herald, 18 January 2009 (https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/mainetoday-pressherald/name/h-rudenberg-obituary?id=24519648) (Accessed 13 April 2022)

Pistol, Rachel, Internment during the Second World War: A Comparative Study of Great Britain and the USA (Bloomsbury, 2017)

Police Memo Book ‘Aliens’ Photographs’ (Ceredigion Archives, MUS/204)

Thomas Jones CH Papers (National Library of Wales; WW25; General Correspondence R; 68-77)

Thomas Jones CH Papers (National Library of Wales; M2; Refugees, von Metzradt-Sonnenfeld; 25-276)

Werner Rüdenberg Internment Exemption Certificate, 1940 (The National Archives; HO 396/193)

 

A Comforting Conclusion

The Aberystwyth WWII Blog nears its end on a note of comfort by focusing on the incredible efforts of the Ceredigion Federation of Women’s Institutes in knitting for the troops. Unfortunately, research has revealed no photographs of Aberystwyth branches of the WI knitting. Perhaps no one in the WI had film with which to record their efforts; perhaps their industry did not allow them to stop for long enough to take a photo. The images are thanks to Geoff Charles’ photographic tour and cover mid-Wales. We can be assured that such scenes were replicated across Aberystwyth and its area. 

 

Newtown Women's Institute knitting comforts for the troops.
Geoff Charles, Nov 25, 1939. By kind permission of LLGC

Penllwyn branch of the WI recorded in its minutes that: ‘most of the winter had been spent knitting for the forces’. The motto seems to have been: ‘keep calm and carry on knitting’.  The comfort is likely to have provided a reciprocal benefit. The rhythmical click of the needles, and the concentration required, distracted the minds of those knitting from the horrors they knew their loved ones were suffering, and brought its own perspective. Knitting as a group spread a sense of camaraderie and shared purpose. Far from a hobby, it took on the spirit of a patriotic duty. The Royal Family, pictured knitting, showed the way. This was beyond ‘make do and mend’. The therapeutic value of doing something useful was recognised and later applied to teaching injured soldiers to knit after the war.

 

Women of Llandinam and Llanidloes involved in packing comforts for the troops.

 

The scale of the enterprise was stunning. In 1940, at a time of severe rationing, scrimping, and saving, Llanfarian branch knitted 100 comforters but recorded that they had been too busy to meet. And this was no short-term operation; the knitting needles clicked along for years. Rhydypennau branch completed 210 comforts and garments for the forces in 1942. 

Britain's Censorship Office banned people from posting knitting patterns abroad at one stage in the war. To our ears that might sound extreme. They were worried that the patterns might contain coded messages; the Belgium resistance had done just that. But of course, the comforts had to be distributed. We can see the collaborative effort this required in a village hall, with brown paper and parcel string, making the parcels as neat and easily transportable as possible. Many knitters wrote little notes to stuff into the socks and hats, to encourage those in active service.

Packing Comforts for the Troops, Welshpool Corn Exchange. Dec 14, 1940. Geoff Charles. By kind permission of LLGC.

The notion of knitting a comfort comes from the ‘cap comforter’ a type of woollen military headgear, which originated in the British Army. It was a tube of knitting, like a short scarf, which was fitted over the head and styled as a hat. It could easily be pulled down around the neck to stop the chill. Made of itchy wool they may have been but they added warmth for sure. Just think of how it would be to be flying in an open cockpit with none of the current wind-resistant and insulating hi-spec clothing.

 

Heirloom Patterns, Etsy, £3.22 Free on archive.org

The major yarn suppliers came into their own, producing purpose specific patterns, which helped to promote their wares. Here are a few images of the kinds of patterns that were available, shared around the villages and during communal knitting at the village hall. Very ‘fetching’ I’m sure! To the current, fashion-conscious eye, they may look bizarre and far from comforting. 

 

Image on the left if from HomefrontMuseum.wordpress.com, and on the right from fab40s.co.uk

 

Fancy knitting some of these yourself? Patterns are available now to get those needles clicking!

Image on the left is from archivesandoldlace.wordpress, on the right from elinorflorence.com

 

It wasn’t all about accessing new yarn. At the time, most jumpers were hand knits and readily unpicked. Redundant items were unravelled into a ball and used to knit something else. At the time this was commonplace, and everyone was expected to be able to knit. And knit they certainly did!

Here’s hoping that someone out there will be able to add some images of Aberystwyth WI branches producing their comforts. Failing that, please take up those knitting needles and give yourself some comforting therapy.

Blog by Alison Elliott

Childhood memories of wartime Aberystwyth ~ Gwenno and Cara Jones

 I stumbled across the People’s Voices project on an archive chat (I’m an Archivist by profession) and it immediately sparked my interest. I recall my Nain and great Auntie’s stories of Aberystwyth when they were children, including the Second World War period. My Nain and great auntie are Gwenno and Cara, daughters to Ernest and Rhiannon Jones. They are in their 90s now (born in 1927 and 1931) but they both well recall their time in Aberystwyth and Cara relayed several memories to me recently.

As a bit of context, Ernest’s family originated in Caernarvonshire but his father was a builder who moved to Manchester to ‘seek his fortune’ and it was there, in Moss Side, where Ernest grew up. Ernest studied chemistry and was on the gas mask team in the First World War, which involved testing in gas chambers. Admirable as this was, it was not so good for the lungs, and so Ernest returned to his seaside roots to gain the benefits of fresh sea air. I believe it was then that he met Rhiannon, who was working at the National Library on the medieval Welsh manuscripts (clearly archives are in the blood). Ernest went on to become a doctor and later Medical Officer for Caernarfonshire.

Rhiannon’s family were from Llanfair PG on Anglesey. Her father, my great great grandfather, was the Welsh Professor Sir John Morris Jones (JMJ). She and her three sisters went to university to study Welsh, unusual for women of that time but no doubt inspired by JMJ. I presume this is why Rhiannon ended up in the library’s Welsh manuscript’s department.

So fate, or whatever you choose to call it, brought Ernest and Rhiannon to Aberystwyth before the Second World War, more specifically to Ysallt, St David’s Road, where Gwenno and Cara grew up.  

Gwenno and Cara c. 1933

 

Cara was eight when war broke out so remembers much of it, for example rationing. The meat was made to last three days: a roast on Sunday, cold leftovers on Monday and cottage pie with leftovers on Tuesday. They would then have sausages on Wednesday. Everyone only had a very small amount of meat for each meal, not like nowadays, she said. Vegetables were easy to come by as they were grown locally. As luck would have it, the Jones’s did not do so badly for meat: Rhiannon had given the boy at the butchers 100 cigarettes when he was called up but he was sent back for medical reasons and thereafter he always gave Rhiannon the best meat. She said it was the best 100 cigarettes she ever bought!

 

Gwenno and friends on North Beach, Aberystwyth, pre war

Ernest and Rhiannon didn’t have evacuees but their friends had some from Liverpool, a couple of whom stayed the whole war. The evacuees supposedly came in rags and the family bought them new clothes. When the evacuees returned to Liverpool to see their parents, their new clothes were sold and they returned to Aber in rags. Who can blame the parents really?! The family so loved the evacuees that they remembered them in their wills. Another evacuee from Liverpool, a 14 year old girl, didn’t stay long as she was so homesick. It must have been a hard choice given how badly bombed Liverpool was: you could supposedly see Liverpool burning across the sea. The university departments also came over from Liverpool and set up at Aberystwyth University.

A family friend had a land girl even though the friend only had an acre. The land girl had been a waitress in Lyon’s Cornerhouse in London. She met a “RAF boy” and got married and Cara remembers going to their wedding. It would be lovely to find out who this land girl was.

Cara has a memory of her parents counting Lancashire bombers flying over the sea. Twelve went out but only ten came back. When sirens sounded the family went into the cellar but bombs were only dropped if there were any left after a raid on Liverpool. Unfortunately Cara also remembers three of the young local men who lost their lives in the war, including the sons of the solicitor and dentist. 

 

Gwenno, Cara and friends sometime after the war

Cara went to the convent school in the town during the war, and later the grammar school. Both Cara and Gwenno went to Aberystwyth University after, still unusual for women in the 1950s. Gwenno first studied medicine at Manchester University but later transferred to economics at Aberystwyth, and Cara qualified in law. 

Neither Cara nor Gwenno settled in the town but it is clear from their recollections that they both enjoyed their time there, despite part of it coinciding with the war and all the hardships that brought. I think of them as extraordinary women, living in extraordinary times…but then I am the granddaughter/great niece!

 

Cara (centre) and her brother in laws and friends on the occasion of Gwenno and Clwyd Williams’ marriage, Aber prom, 1952

 

 Blog by Lorna Williams

Ceredigion Experiences in the London Welsh Milk Trade during World War II

As far back as the 13th century people in Mid Wales were raising cattle to supply milk to the south of England and London. In her book Cows, Cobs and Corner Shops: The Story of London’s Welsh Dairies, Megan Hayes relates the origins of the London Welsh milk trade and its development into the 20th century.  Her account is based on the experiences of families in Ceredigion, including that of her own parents who were part of it.

Cattle rearing was, Megan describes, “one of the earliest dominant occupations of west Wales” because of its suitable climate and terrain. Up until the mid-19th century, drovers accompanied groups of 200 to 300 animals on foot to London to supply the capital with milk.  Tregaron was an important assembly point where drovers  gathered the cattle together ready for the journey. Before undertaking such a long walk the cattle had to be shod, which was quite a difficult task, carried out by the drovers’ own blacksmiths. Megan says that there is a field close to Llanbadarn Fawr still referred to as Cae Pedoli (Shoeing Field). Once on the road the cattle would progress at a rate of about two miles an hour, the whole journey taking on average two months.

 

Two Mid-Wales Drovers, image by permission of National Library of Wales

 

The development of the London Welsh milk trade reflected the problems of the rural economy in Mid Wales over centuries. Many of those involved in cattle rearing in Cardiganshire were poor and often had large families. Farming alone was insufficient to support the whole family, so it became common for some members to move to London to escape from hardship. Megan gives examples in her book of the grandfather of Mrs Olwen Jones of Lampeter who was one of twelve children, of whom eleven moved to London. From a family of ten from Pant-y-blawd Farm, Llanddewibrefi, six went to work in the dairy trade in London. Businesses were started and developed by family groups. Often older brothers were joined gradually by their siblings or other relatives, perhaps through marriage, who then went on to establish their own shops. Many also needed family support in London as they had little or no English.

The system of droving and keeping cows in the city continued until the advent of the railways. The opening of the line between Aberystwyth and London in 1864 meant that cows could be sent to London in a day. When they arrived in London the cattle were usually kept in very difficult conditions in basements, cellars or at the back of shops, with some more fortunate ones having an occasional break in outlying pastures.

By the end of the 19th century the tradition of keeping cows to milk in London was on the decline. Instead, milk was collected from farms in Cardiganshire in churns, taken to milk factories such as the one at Pont Llanio and then on the milk trains to London.  After being pasteurised, the milk was supplied to shops where, up to the early 1940s, the dairymen usually had to bottle the milk themselves from large churns or supply the milk direct into customers’ own containers as can be seen in the photo below.

 

The shop of W. Evans of 130 St John Street, Clerkenwell, image by permission of National Library of Wales

 

By 1939 there were quite a few Welsh independent dairies operating in London but that year marked the peak of Welsh dairy trade. The outbreak of the Second World War brought a host of  new challenges and problems. Many children of the London dairymen were evacuated to Cardiganshire to live with grandparents or other relatives to escape the dangers of war. Some of these children would already have been used to spending time there during school holidays.

For the businesses in London there was the obvious risk in wartime of injury to the people working in the shops and to the shop premises particularly during the Blitz. One example of many given by Megan is of the experience of the parents of Betty Evans of Aberporth who kept eight milking cows. One night their home was bombed. They lost everything and were forced to return to their home in Felinfach. At that time there was no form of compensation for war damage.

Evan and Mary Evans from Llanbadarn had started in the milk trade with five other members of their family plus spouses in the 1920s. They had a shop in Union Road, Clapham. On 18 September 1940, they both lost their lives in the bombing. Fortunately, their children had already been evacuated to relatives in Wales. Less poignant but still sad and having an impact on trade was the experience of Jenkin Rees Lewis. He ran two dairy businesses and shops using a cart and Welsh cobs to deliver the milk - as many of the dairies of the time did. In 1940 the stables received a direct hit and all the horses were killed.  The Welsh cobs used in the London milk trade were normally bought in Cardiganshire, from places such as Lampeter, Llanybydder or Tregaron and trained for their task before being taken to London.

 

he Evans Bros milk cart with a Welsh cob in Hampstead, reproduced from Megan Hayes' Cows, Cobs and Corner Shops: the Story of London’s Welsh Dairies

 

Some businesses did manage to keep going amidst all the destruction. One such business was the shop belonging to the parents of Marjorie Hughes from Llandre. Megan describes from an oral account given by Marjorie how, after a bombing raid, the shop ceiling collapsed, the windows were blown out and they were left with no electricity. Somehow though the shop remained open and continued its important milk deliveries to its customers.

Another couple referred to by Megan who were able to carry on with their business were Dan Thomas and his wife Getta from Cwmtydu who had a dairy in Tottenham Street.  “They spent each night during the Blitz sheltering in Goodge Street Tube station – they used the bags that held the day’s sales receipts as pillows for their heads. Every morning they returned to the shop as usual” (Hayes 2018 p173).

An obvious aspect of the effect of war on the London Welsh milk trade was that the men who ran the dairies were called up for military service. Often they had to leave the business altogether though in some cases they were permitted to do war work part time, for example as an air raid warden. This affected Welsh families in one of two ways – either daughters who had remained on the farm in Cardiganshire had to come up to London to run their brother or father’s business or sometimes the reverse - the women had to return to Wales to work on the family farm when the menfolk there were called up. In other cases, women had to return home because the shops they had worked in were destroyed during the bombing as described above, or perhaps to accompany children. 

Megan Hayes cites the example of Rachel Jane Jones from Sarnau who had gone to work with a dairy family in 1928 but who chose to return to Wales with four of her London customers’ children. Megan says “…. At the last minute (Rachel) had a baby thrust into her arms with the instruction, ‘Take my baby to safety!’ The five children remained in Sarnau for the duration of the war and returned to London in 1945 as fluent Welsh speakers but with little English.  

The widespread bomb damage in the city both made milk delivery much more difficult and reduced the number of customers. For example, the father of Iwan Jones of Lampeter's customers dropped from 600 customers to 100 because of the Blitz and evacuation.

One major change to the dairy industry at this time was the introduction of zoning which reduced the number of milk rounds so freeing more men to enlist. This, however, was of benefit to the Welsh dairies as their rounds were better organised and covered a reduced area. By the 1940s the milk was provided in bottles ready for delivery which was much easier and wartime rationing meant that people had to register with a particular shop so helping to ensure each shopkeeper’s number of customers. 

 

Bessie Jones and colleague deliver milk during the Second World War, reproduced from Megan Hayes' Cows, Cobs and Corner Shops: the Story of London’s Welsh Dairies

 

By 1939 the practice of keeping cows to milk in London had almost completely died out but it had a brief revival during the war by providing kosher milk to the large number of Jewish families who had arrived in London in the late 1930s to escape Nazi persecution. Kosher milk meant that cows had to be milked in the presence of someone from the Jewish community and then milked directly into the customer’s container. Megan Hayes gives an example of the parents of Evan Jones of Llanddewibrefi who supplied milk to strictly Orthodox Jews during the war.

After 1945 the whole practice of keeping cows in London ended because of the bomb damage, the effect of TB regulations and other economic factors. Of the dairymen who had been forced to leave London because of the war, very few returned to the milk trade. Private enterprises had been taken over by large combines, purchasing the milk rounds meaning that the dairy shops were no longer viable sources of income.

Very often dairymen from Cardiganshire planned to return to their roots in Wales when they retired from their business. Whilst in London they always retained a strong sense of their Welsh identity, maintaining close connections with their culture and place of birth.  Many supported good causes such as the setting up of Welsh chapels in London which both fostered the use of their native language and supported the tradition of eisteddfodau so forming a strong community atmosphere. families involved in the milk trade also made generous contributions to their home areas. 

One impressive example of the many mentioned by Megan Hayes is that of David Alban Davies, a retired milk merchant who in 1939 gave £35,000 to the then University College of Wales Aberystwyth to buy the 205 acres of land on Penglais which is now the main site of the university. When Alban Davies retired after a long career, he returned to live in his place of birth at Llanrhystud.

Another notable benefactor of the area was Sir David James who came originally from Pantyfedwen near Strata Florida. He started in the London Welsh milk trade when he went to Westminster to help relatives run a dairy. Following his later success as a businessman in various areas of work he generously financed the building of the Pavilion at Pontrhydyfendigaid.

During the Second World the long-established London Welsh milk trade was still a very significant activity. As reflected in the detailed research carried out by Megan Hayes, many present-day residents of Ceredigion have fascinating stories of their parents’ or grandparents’ connections to the trade. However, the direct family link between Ceredigion and London dairies lessened after 1945 when refrigeration solved the problems of storing milk safely and of course milk came to be sold in a much wider variety of shops and on a much larger scale.  Frequently this resulted in post war generations choosing to enter other professions, as Megan herself did. However, in her case the family connection with the dairy trade continued with a cousin of Megan’s mother, Phoebe James from Brongest, keeping a shop in Gray’s Inn Road in Bloomsbury until after the end of the war.
 

Blog by Frances Foley

Based on Hayes M. Cows, Cobs and Corner Shops: The Story of London’s Welsh Dairies / Y Lon Laeth i’r Ddinas: Hanes Llaethdai Cymru Llundain ,Y Lolfa, Talybont, Ceredigion, 2018

With grateful thanks to Megan Hayes for her advice and for allowing the use of some of the photos she collected for the book.

An end of war wedding - Enid Jones and Glanville Griffiths

 Enid Jones 1926-2003

Our mum, Enid Jones, was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1927 to Watkin and Gertrude Jones. The family moved to Aberystwyth when Watkin got a job with the Ministry of Labour. At the start of World War II in September 1939, Enid was 12 and lived with her parents in Lisburne Terrace, along with her older brother Howel and her younger sister Pamela. She attended Ardwyn School. Despite her secondary school education taking place while Aberystwyth was at war, she had many fond memories of her time at Ardwyn where the teachers were determined that the pupils should not miss out if this was at all possible. Enid played netball and hockey, played the piano and took part in the school’s Gilbert and Sullivan productions. She was also a very diligent pupil, winning a book of Tennyson poems for her form prize 1939- 40.

 

One of Enid’s best friends at school was Sylvia Ingold, an evacuee whose Father was the eminent chemist Christopher Ingold who was evacuated to Aberystwyth with the chemistry department of the University of London.

Enid’s brother, Howel Jones, joined the merchant navy in 1939 at the age of only 15 and received a medal for his service. It is hard to believe that at only 15 and still a child he was expected to face such dangers.  Like many others, our grandparents would have had many sleepless nights, worrying about their loved ones. It was a hard life and merchant seamen faced many dangers, especially during the Battle of the Atlantic. The efforts of Howel and the other merchant seamen were essential in keeping vital supplies getting through to the UK. Howel survived the war and continued his career in the merchant navy.

Our grandfather Watkin Jones, who was a veteran of World War I, was an air raid warden during the war. He was known as a larger than life character and we can imagine him relishing this new challenge.  The Jones family had an evacuee living with them during the war and our mum had many stories and happy memories of their time together. She used to say that our grandmother got so exasperated with the children squabbling over who got the largest piece of pudding that she resorted to measuring it out with a ruler. Mum did say that they never went hungry. She also mentioned that it was often very cold during the wartime winters and they would often wear their coats round the house.

The residents of Aberystwyth were greatly relieved when the war in Europe ended in 1945 and the residents of Lisburne terrace enthusiastically celebrated the event.

 

VE Day party in Lisburne Terrace

At the end of the war Enid was introduced to Glanville Griffiths, our dad, a demobbed soldier from Aberystwyth. They married in 1947 at Holy Trinity Church and were together for 53 years until Glanville’s death in May 2000.

Glanville Talbot Griffiths 1914-2000

Our dad, Glanville Talbot Griffiths (known as Glan) was born in Ferndale, the fifth out of six boys.  In 1926 he moved to Aberystwyth when his parents, John and Mary Ann Griffiths took over the Castle Hotel. This was a pivotal event in his life and he developed an intense affection for Aberystwyth which he never lost. He had very fond memories of his time at Ardwyn School where he won the Daniel Thomas Service and Leadership Prize in 1933 and 1934 and was head prefect in 1933 and 1934.

The outbreak of World War II was a challenging time for the people of Aberystwyth and it must have been very hard for our grandmother, not long widowed and being the mother of six boys. After the death of our grandfather shortly before the war in 1938, Beynon and Lucy Griffiths, Glan’s brother and sister in law, took over the running of the Castle Hotel. Despite most of the work during the war being done by Lucy, when Beynon enlisted in the Royal Artillery, the 1939 register classifies Lucy’s role as ‘unpaid domestic duties.” The register also shows that there were many workers from the Ministry of Labour staying at the Castle Hotel.

 

Beynon Griffiths 1904-1958

Glan left the safety of Aberystwyth to fight in North Africa and Italy. As a family, we don’t know a lot about the fighting because he talked very little about it, although he did talk about the people he met and the places he saw. We know that he joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and did some of his training on the Brecon Beacons. 

 

Glanville looking very proud in his uniform

At some point during the war, he was transferred into the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers - ‘the skins’ His explanation for being in an Irish regiment was that Welsh soldiers were considered a better fit for an Irish regiment because English and Irish soldiers would spend more time fighting each other than the Germans: possibly true! The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers became part of the Battle Axe Division, a specially selected assault division formed in preparation for Operation Torch, the Anglo-American landing in North Africa and later an important part of the Allied invasion of Italy. The symbol of this division was the Battle Axe and the family still have Glan’s formation badge (below).

 

We know that he took part in the capture of a hilltop village in Sicily called Centuripe. His picture was taken, along with three other soldiers, looking out over the recently captured town. This picture appeared in the London Illustrated News in 1943 and has subsequently been used in several books. Apparently, sales of the London Illustrated News in Aberystwyth increased very suddenly! Our dad, Glan Griffiths, is the soldier nearest to the camera. The formation badge can be seen on his shoulder. We are very proud of his efforts during the war encapsulated by this picture. 

 

Glan Griffiths in the capture of Centuripe

We have been able to find out more about Dad’s war time experiences by reading the regiment diaries which log day by day events. It is fascinating to learn more of his experiences. From these diaries we learnt that he went to hospital with tonsillitis, became an Intelligence Officer and was promoted to captain. He also received a mention for controlling military traffic in the narrow winding passes that dominated the Sicilian terrain.

In 1944, back in Aberystwyth, his mother Mary died and because he was away fighting, he didn’t find out until afterwards, the news following him round. He often recounted his sadness at being unable to attend the funeral. Mary Ann Griffiths was a member of Bethell Baptist Church where the funeral service took place and she is buried alongside her husband in Aberystwyth Cemetery, Llanbadarn Road.

Funeral notice of Glans' mother, Mary Ann Griffiths

At the end of the war, Glan returned to Aberystwyth to resume civilian life. He lived with his brother Tom, sister in law Phyllis and his much loved nephew Roger in their house on the Prom. It was on his return to Aberystwyth that he met our mum, Enid Jones. We only found out shortly before he died that he was introduced to Enid through her father Watkin Jones who worked for the Ministry of Labour and played a part in helping demobbed soldiers settle back into civilian life. They married at Holy Trinity Church Aberystwyth in 1947 and moved to Cardiff. Aberystwyth always held a very special place in his heart and he visited most years. As a family we still try to do this and Aberystwyth is very special to us too.

 

Glanville Talbot Griffiths

Blog by Val Walker, John Griffiths and Philip Griffiths

All images belong to the Walker and Griffiths families