My Mam's Mam was from Heolgerrig, Merthyr Tudful and she eventually married a Coal Miner from Abercaniaid close to Merthyr.They eventually lived most of their married lives in Pond Side, Merthyr Tudful and that is where my late Mother grew up and myself and my Brother for 5 and 3 years respectively. Tadcu was a vet of WWI, wounded twice and eventually was killed in a Mining incident and his wife died shortly there after. All this was hidden away from my bro and I and we were sent off to stay with Dad's Mam, he at this time returning from War service was setting up a new skill and home in Pencoed/Bridgend area. Mam would never talk much about this period in her life and never visited any sadness upon us kids but on a Sunday night she would teach us how to play cards, it reminded her of her Dad as he would play cards with her before going to work. Mam had very little from this past, a Tom King Mantle Piece figure, her Dad's belt and two fob watches, receipts of her parents funerals. Thankfully Birth and Death certificates which will give me a good start on some family history, why not before now, exactly, I know more about Welsh History than I do about my Family History but how many do have a grasp of either? Mam would often bring out the Family Albums and inform as to some connection, as kids we would find it all fascinating but as the years pass by and one becomes a teenager it's your life that interests you and the future not the past.
Both Mam and Dad are now dead and I curse myself for not asking them about their past in more detail, my uncle as is wits about him and as written much of his years in the SWB in Eritrea hunting down 'Bandits' and later a very interesting chapter is about the years he and Dad were involved in the Boxing fraternity of Southern Wales, I remember some of this too not least the big Boxing matches at Porthcawl. In Mam's latter years in care with dementia, she would talk much about Merthyr as if she was still a kid and living there, asking me if I have seen her friends and her parents and the family dog. I would often have to be positive and make things up, it was in this time 'Back in her Day', I could ask her things and I would often get a lucid reply as finding out it was her Dad who taught Daughter the Alphabet and if she was not home early he would go looking for her and this was when she was 18. Her favorite present was a Tambourine and she liked skipping in the back lanes after school. She had a young Jewish Girl as a friend, her Dad would take her out on Saturday Mornings to listen to Political Orators, guess that is where I get it from?
The naughtiest thing the kids would do, go to park and sit close to the Band Stand and suck lemons in front of the trumpet players!!! Obviously times were hard but Mam never complained about them, times so lean that the YWCA took a crew of Merthyr Girls to Barry for an holiday partly to feed them up and Mam sends a postcard home to tell her Mam that she's put on weight, I still got that card! Shortly before Mam died, she had been taken to Hospital and we were told she was fading away. We stayed with her for as long as we could and what would be but a few hours away from passing away, she 'woke up' very alert and asked for a cup of tea, that give me some hope for the best. But she sunk back and closed her eyes again, the next time she opened them, she looked at me and said ''I want to go home''. I just know what she meant, she wanted to go home to be with her Mam and Dad in Merthyr, a few hours later I was hoping her wish had come true.
Above is a photo of Tadcu in an hospital uniform, an hospital staffed by Nuns who gave him the Rosary Beads and an hanky. My Mam passed these on to me and as my elder daughters got her rings upon her death my youngest daughter got the above and all have had a share of her ashes as requested so they could place in their gardens. Though my middle daughter who has all but become an adopted Tai (speaking and writting their language and 'Cymraeg' too) as opted to place Mam's ashes I have given her in a 'Tai Spirit house'. Below photo is of flowers I placed on steps of the Cardiff Assembly, the day Thatcher was buried as my tribute to all Welsh Miners killed as the 'Price of Coal'. An Assembly Policeman told me to take them down, I refused and he said if I did not I would be arrested. I said go on arrest me then but as Sain was filming all this, I guess he had bad visions of dragging a pensioner off screaming 'Police brutality' with flower petals every where and so he just walked away and the flowers stayed, for how long is another matter. That was my 'Cardiff Bay Protest Day', think I will do it again next year, will find something to protest about I dare say.
A Birthday Card from Hen Nain to her daughter (my Nain's Sister)
A birth day card to my Mam's Mam from her Mam.
My Mam's Mam as a Young Women was a Bar Maid in a number of Pubs in Merthyr, Aberdare and Port Talbot in period just before WWI breaks out. The below photo however is from my Mam to her Dad, she was only about 12 so, I doubt if she was on the booze but knew her Dad liked his drink obviously, this card as a Kent postmark? I know many of the family would go down there seeking work in the Coal Mines or Hop Picking, the Men would also bare knuckle fight with Kent locals for Money. I met a fella from Kent at work in London and he remembered his Dad talking about Welsh Miners camps on outskirts of Towns and the locals going out to fight with 'The Welsh'. Don't you wish you could time travel?
The popular Entertainers of the day, Mam's family were not religious though leaned to being Chapel.
Quite a few Postcards from all over the World, sent to Nain by her Sailor Boy friends I guess but we did have a relative who in depression went to wok on Tramp Steamers and then Queen Mary. He sent Mam postcards from New York where he was to die of pneumonia. The postcard below is of Atlanta others from Mexico and Latin America also Halifax, Nova Scotia. Photos from Scranton, Pensylvania and Alberta, Canada.
WWI Things will not be as cheery as the postcards make out, there is quite a collection of WWI related photos and post cards that tell the story as seen from the home front.
WWI Huge collection of Cards with themes of Love and marriage you can see what is on peoples minds.
Photos mostly show Family as Soldiers but quite a few related to the Navy, a few of these I will place in my new Maritime History blog: Pen yr Anghor.
Of all Nain's Sailor Boy friends, she had one long term favorite named 'Jack', he wrote to often to her and there are loads of Cards from he from all over the World. There is one interesting card on which he writes ''You have loads of Cards now. I will have to buy you an Album'', was this the Album I inherited the cards in?. I have Jack in Navy Uniform photo with ships Name on cap band, there have been three ships with this name and it still exists today as a land based 'Training Ship'. Not too difficult then to further research but there is going to be a sad ending to this 'Love Story'. If the card below is from Jack, then it is all the more sad, for he gets killed in the Battle of Jultland. Interesting however, is that Nain kept all this material and Mam tells me her Dad knew and would be annoyed but dare not do anything about it or maybe was quite happy to let her hold on to precious memories. That she loved Tadcu is in no doubt by virtue of the fact is that shortly after he got killed, she as they would say died of 'Heart Break'. I have seen this happen, when I lived in Bridgend many years ago, next door lived to Senior Citizen 'Small People'. I guess is the politically correct names today, well the husband went very ill and became bed ridden and I would go around when requested by his wife to lift him out of bed for various reasons. In time he died and shortly after she did too! Entering their home was like time travelling, it was very dark and everything about it as the Wall Paper and Ornaments etc seemed of another place and far off time.
The following photo is of a set of four more, all depict the Graf Spee concluding story of damaged but still floating and then sunk ship. Of course this is WWII but where did they come from? Did Govt of the day issue to raise spirits on the home front. Rest of set in Pen yr Angor Blog.
I got a loat of work on here scanning all these photos and cards but having to write out the fading pencil messages on their backs and numbering all, so it all makes sense. Thus just as well I retire from the politics and crack on with this which could take years?
Gethin ap Gruffydd.
