Poignant Heroes gallery
This gallery has been created by the Neath Port Talbot Library and Museum Service, but it would not have been possible without contributions from the people of Neath, Port Talbot and surrounding areas.
Special thanks to Jonathan Skidmore, Port Talbot Historical Society and Friends of Margam Park for their contributions to the exhibition.
Third Western Military Hospital, Penrhiwtyn, Neath
The infirmary built in 1912 was adapted as a military hospital to receive casualties from the Front in 1916. Once returned to Britain, wounded soldiers were transported by train to the platform at Court Sart and taken straight across the road to the infirmary.
Many local people volunteered as ward orderlies and stretcher bearers until they were called up themselves. There were many auxiliary hospitals set up throughout the borough, including:
- Baglan Hall
- Aberpergwn
- St.John Hospital, Pontardawe
- Glanrhyd, Pontardawe
- Gnoll Park, Neath
- Court Sart, Briton Ferry
- The Laurels in Neath
Tom Dennis & Ivor George Hopkins
Thomas Dennis of 3 Marshfield Road, Melyncryddan worked at the Neath Steel Sheet Galvanising Company. He served with the Royal Artillery on the Western Front for 3 years. Tom never married and died in the 1980s.
Tom’s friend George Hopkins of 42 Alfred Street, Neath worked at a gentleman’s outfitters. He joined the Grenadier Guards as soon as war broke out and served with the 2nd Battalion on the Western Front for 3 years. He was wounded on four separate occasions, in the neck, arm, right knee and right thigh.
In 1918 he transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps. After the war he became a postman and moved to Kent.
He served in the Home Guard during the Second World War and died in Chatham in 1970.
Private William Richard Hughes
Born in 1875 in Taibach, William was one of the first volunteers to enlist after Emily Charlotte Talbot called a meeting of the estate workers at Margam Park after the outbreak of war in 1914.
He joined the Royal Engineers as a sapper (a soldier responsible for tasks such as building & re-pairing roads and bridges, laying and clearing mines), fought at the front in Belgium and France including Ypres. He was gassed twice.
He returned to his post as foreman stonemason on the Margam Estate in 1919 until his retirement in 1937.
Sergeant Thomas Hughes
Born in 1886 in Taibach, Thomas was a local builder and Captain of the Margam Fire Brigade and brother to William Richard Hughes.
He volunteered in 1915, joining the Army Medical Corps serving in various field hospitals in Belgium and France. At one hospital he met up with his younger brother who had been gassed and injured during battle.
Thomas returned to civilian life in Taibach in 1919 and died in Port Talbot in 1937.
Cecil Gunter
Cecil from Dyffryn Villas, Baglan worked at the Albion Steelworks and was called up into the Royal Navy towards the end of the war.
He served on HMS Temeraire in the eastern Mediterranean and took part in the allied landing at Constantinople in November 1918.
He emigrated to America in 1948 and worked for the State Bank of Albany before moving back to Cardiff because of ill health. He died in 1972.
Rupert Price Hallowes, VC
Born in Redhill, surrey in 1881, Rupert moved to Port Talbot in 1910 to become Assistant Works Manager at Mansel Tinplate Works where his elder brother William was Manager.
He served as Secretary of the Church of England’s Men’s Society and sideman at St. Theodore’s Church. He was one of the local leaders of the Scout movement and formed a scout patrol in St Peter’s Church, Goytre in 1913, continuing as their Scout Leader until he joined the Middlesex Regiment in1914.
He had gained the Military Cross for bravery and the Victoria Cross posthumously after being fatally wounded at Hooge in 1915.
He died on 30 September 1915 and is buried at Bedford House Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery, Zillebeke, near Ypres.
The main entrance of the Talbot Memorial Park is dedicated to him.
Edith Moore-Gwyn
Edith lived at Dyffryn House in Neath, married J. E. Moore-Gwyn, JP. Before the war she had been the president of the local Red Cross society and became Commandant of the Gnoll Park Road Hospital in Neath.
She was awarded the OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List for 1918 and continues to be active in the Neath District Council & Red Cross after the war. She died in 1934.
