TOPIC:

No watermark but also no colour



Picture courtesy of Elmarie.

David & Elmarie - very many thanks for the photos of the graves. I prefer the present day b&w one to the colourful Alamy one. It seems more fitting and much more full of atmosphere especially with the long shadows from the other graves - masterpiece in my opinion and the photographer should be congratulated - any idea when it was taken? It actually makes me quite emotional to look at it - think I am becoming a bit obsessed by Herbert, Thomas & Florence. What a wonderful name - Florence Louise Sage. Wonder if she was know as "Flo" or "Flossie" although I hope she insisted on "Florence" - that from a David and never a Dave.

On a recent holiday I managed to track down the ALFRED W HUGHES MEMORIAL in Gwynedd, North Wales. The first photo explains its raison d’être – this is repeated in Welsh on the back, north facing side but as a result it is difficult to read, even for a Welsh speaker.



As you head north on the A487 from Machynlleth to Dolgellau it is on the right of the road just after the turn off to the village of Corris. If you are heading south you will only catch a glimpse of it in your rear view mirror. Heading north you can park just north of it but it then requires a dodgy crossing on foot of the A487. Alternatively, as we did, you can park down in the village and ascend the series of ramps up to it. Health warning: as you look at it you will be standing in the middle of the “Mach Loop” – four Hawks banked immediately overhead just as we reached the top of the climb.

The next photo shows the whole memorial and the one after a close-up of his effigy, surprisingly looking away from the village of Corris where he went to school and his interest in medicine first started by assisting the local doctor. He was actually born outside the village further north up the valley.





Whether it was the exhaustion of the climb, the mind-numbing roar of the Hawks or just plain Anno Domini, but we forgot to look for his grave in the churchyard of Corris Church. This link makes up for our shortcoming:

www.findagrave.com/memorial/219947381/alfred-william-hughes

Finally, a photo of the unveiling of the memorial on 9th September 1905 – obviously a typical Welsh day weather wise! The buglers belonged to the 5th Battalion of the South Wales Borderers. They must have erected a platform for the photographer to stand on for him to obtain that view.



Another reason for visiting Corris – the Corris Light Railway. Sadly since Covid they seem to be experiencing difficulties and were not operating during the week of our holiday. This was compensated for by discovering the house where my Great Grandparents lived in 1911 – being a Primitive Methodist Minister my Great Grandfather would not have approved of my interest in the Boer War, identifying the location of a family photograph taken about the same time, meeting up with my paternal cousins and finally, meeting up with 5 of my classmates from Waterloo Road Junior & Infants School, Smethwick – we call ourselves the 49ers because we started there in 1949 and a surviving school report shows there were once 49 of us! Living in the past is an awful lot of fun.

Oh, I have digressed again! Some final words to end about Professor Alfred W Hughes, a truly great man whose life was cut all too short at the age of 39.

DRESSER T.R.EAMES: WELSH HOSPITAL

David,
Something which may interest you.
Please find below images of the Caernarfon County Boer War Memorial at Ben Twthill, off Thomas Street, Caernarfon LL55 2AY.




Marble tablet bearing inscription for Dresser T.R. EAMES of the Welsh Hospital.

I am currently working on the biographical information for the men named on the memorial.

Cheers Steve

Steve - I have made a start on the life and times of Thomas Richard Eames and have found half a dozen bits of paperwork relating to him. Will label them up properly and email them to you this evening. There is a conflict amongst them as he appears to have been baptised a few years before he was born - One (unlikely), conclusion there were two Thomas Richard Eames born in Llanfairfechan with parents William & Rebecca. Alternative (more likely) conclusion is that the first edition died extremely young and his parents named their next born in his memory. Regards, David.