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WORLD WAR ONE

The Men Who Died

WORLD WAR ONE

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gunfire. The enemy counter attacked from South of Croiselles and forced a withdrawal. There was apparently fierce hand-to-hand fighting and total casualties among the 2nd Coldstream for 27th August are three hundred and ten killed or wounded. Francis was initially posted as missing but subsequently confirmed as killed in St Leger Wood in August 1918. He was awarded the Allied Victory Medal, and the British War Medal.

There is a small bronze plaque in St Mary's Church, Brecon to commemorate the death of Francis Alfred Ismay Musk. In 1921 Francis' mother, in memory of her son, presented a framed Roll of Honour to the church that also hangs there to commemorate the World War One fallen of the parish.

Gunner David Evan Parry

Royal Field Artillery, C Btn., 119th Brigade, service no.

W/3360

Died of Wounds on July 18th, 1916 at the Somme in France

aged 33

Buried at Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt- L'Abbe,

France

David was born in September 1883 in Brecon and baptised later that month at St Mary's Church. His parents were James and Jane and the family lived in Mill Street, Brecon. James was a platelayer for the Midland Railway. James is originally from Hereford; Jane was born in Brecon. By 1901 the family are still in Mill Street. David and his father are general labourers, as is his; younger brother John, 16 is a mason. In the 1911 Census David has left home and is boarding in Llansamlet, Glamorgan, working as a platelayer. David enlists in Swansea with the Royal Field Artillery as a gunner and arrives in France in December 1915. He was killed in an advance in mid-July 1916, having been in France for about seven months. The 119th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery fought as part of the 38th (Welsh) Division during 1916. In June and July, they were involved in the initial bombardments and then the first phase of the battles of the Somme, that being the Battle of Albert and it is likely that David sustained his fatal wounds here. His younger brother John, now living in The Struet, Brecon, was serving with the Brecknocks at the time.