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WORLD WAR ONE

The Men Who Died

WORLD WAR ONE

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Sergeant Basil Gwynne Griffiths

Royal Field Artillery, 56th Battery, service no. 41567

Killed in Action on November 4th, 1914, aged 22

Commemorated on the Menin gate Memorial, Ypres,

Belgium

Basil was born in Aldershot in Hampshire in 1892, to Isaac and Sarah. His father was a sergeant major, (and DCM) in the Welsh Regiment and the family moved a number of times, including being in Cairo in 1896, Clapham in 1898 and in Brecon by 1900, living in the Barracks in The Watton. Basil attended Mount Street and the County School in Brecon and both provided references for him when he joined the Royal Field Artillery in 1906 at the age of 14 years, signing on for 12 years with the colours, enlisting in Brecon.

He is shown at Woolwich Barracks in 1911, whilst the rest of his family have moved to Cardiff.

Initially a trumpeter, he was promoted to bombardier and then corporal in 1913 and then sergeant in 1914. Basil went to France with the British Expeditionary Force in August 1914.

Private David James Jones

South Wales Borderers, 4th Btn., A Coy, service no. 26579

Died of Wounds in Mesopotamia May 2nd, 1917, aged 21

Commemorated at the Basra Memorial

David initially went to camp in Liverpool and then after some home leave in June 1916 he embarks with the battalion in July 1916 and by August he is in a rest camp in Kirklee, India, and later in the year in Mesopotamia.

David was born in 1896 to Llewellyn, a farm labourer, and Annie Jones of Stone Street, Defynnog. He attended Defynnog School and Brecon County School and on leaving in 1911 he became an apprentice draper with D. Morgan and Lewis of 31, High Street, Brecon, probably lodging with Mr. Morgan at 10, Priory Hill, Brecon. He moved on to a post of assistant draper in Tredegar in 1914 and was then living at 1, Saron Row, Ebbw Vale until he enlisted at Abertillery.