Aberystwyth’s Freemasons and the Great War

The Masonic Great War Project was established to provide a searchable database of Freemasons who died in the course of their duty during the First World War. The website (www. masonicgreatwarproject.org.uk) lists two members of the Aberystwyth Lodge of Freemasons, both killed in 1915. Autumn 1915 should have been something of a celebration for Freemasons in Aberystwyth as 30th November marked fifty years since the consecration of the Lodge. However it is likely that Autumn 1915 meetings at Aberystwyth Lodge (No. 1072) were sombre affairs with tributes paid for Captain George Owen Green and Lieutenant William Henry Kenrick Owen, both serving with the 9th Battalion Welsh Regiment. Captain Green, a well-travelled mining engineer in civilian life was the victim of a sniper near Laventie, Pas-de-Calais on 23rd August whilst 21 year old Cambridge educated Lt. Owen was killed in the Battle of Loos on 1st October.

William Henry Kenrick Owen
Image from West Wales War Memorial Project
https://www.wwwmp.co.uk

Published in 1965 to mark the centenary  of Aberystwyth Lodge  “ A Brief History of the Masonic Lodge Aberystwyth On Attaining it’s One Hundredth Birthday” records the loss of these two members as well as the tantalising comment that  in January 1916 “six other brethren were in the forces and many more were waiting to be called up.”

So who were these six? Can we determine who they were and what do we know about them? The above-mentioned book mentions only two by name - Dr. Abraham Thomas and John Rea.

Dr. Abraham Thomas was the county medical officer, a popular man in the town and surgeon to the Cardiganshire Battery, Second Welsh Brigade the Royal Field Artillery, ie the Aberystwyth branch of the Territorial Army. He served with them on the Western Front, in Egypt and Palestine ending up as a Major. He presided over the St David’s Day Eisteddfod in Egypt in March 1919, no doubt kicking his heels along with thousands of other Welshmen waiting for the troopship home. One of his close companions was John Charles Rea, who served in the same unit and finished the war as a colonel. Though a member of Aberystwyth Lodge he gave his address at the start of the war as being in Cardiff. His father was landlord of the White Horse Hotel in Terrace Road. The name Rea is still prominently displayed there today. During the 1880s  J C Rea had been a highly rated soccer player and was capped nine times by Wales.

The four remaining members of the armed forces are more elusive to track down but searching the, Welsh Newspapers Online website and the archives of Aberystwyth Lodge (held in the National Library of Wales) they have been identified.

Before the war Joseph Baird of Annandale, Queens Road was involved in numerous community activities, served as Secretary of the Golf Club and was Assistant Secretary of Aberystwyth Lodge. Signing up for military service he was gazetted Second Lieutenant in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in October 1915 and landed in Salonika on 15th July 1916.  By now a Lieutenant he was wounded in April of the following year necessitating transfer to hospital in Alexandria, Egypt. He seems to have made a full recovery and proudly announced in the Cambrian News of 31st October 1919 he was opening a business at 29 Great Darkgate Street as merchant tailor, draper and outfitter. According to the afore-mentioned book Joseph Baird was living, presumably in retirement in Faversham, Kent in 1965.

The records for the Aberystwyth Lodge of Freemasons reveal that in October 1915 Captain Stanley Charles Wakeling of 168 Brigade Royal Field Artillery had been initiated into the lodge. His father was the popular ex-soldier and University Proctor E J Wakeling.

Dr Gilbert Morgan from Pontrhydfendigaid also served with the Cardiganshire Battery, but in capacity of Lieutenant, his medical training no doubt proving invaluable.  Shortly after the outbreak of war he was transferred to the Royal Army Medical Corps and promoted to Captain. By September 1915 he was serving in Gallipoli and wrote home to his parents:

“Here we are in the middle of the fighting, and it is simply hell let loose. It is not going to be an easy thing and not many here will live to tell the tale. It is something stupendous. We landed under shell fire (our baptism of fire) and went straight to the battlefield. Right well did our boys do. If I am spared, I can give you a very vivid description. One shell burst right at my side, and I turned a complete somer-sault. I was unhurt, but it quite un-nerved me. I lost six of my stretcher-bearers out of sixteen, but we have got over it for the time being and are doing good work. Guy Harries[1] got an explosive bullet through his thigh and he was glad to see me, poor boy as I found him and sent him on board ship.”

The following month Dr Morgan was laid low by an attack of dysentery. In July 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross for distinguished service. The official description of the act reads: 

"When the advanced dressing station had been ordered to withdraw he went forward with a party of bearers and successfully cleared a number of wounded from the regimental aid posts. The operation was carried out under continuous shell and machine-gun fire.” 

Otherwise he appears to have come through the war unscathed.

E. Tudor Jones from Llanbadarn also served as a Lieutenant in the Cardiganshire Battery, though in civilian life he was, like George Green, a mining engineer. He was also a member of Aberystwyth Angling Association. Again he seems to have come through the war unscathed having seen service on the Western Front, then Egypt and Palestine. He was one of the named officers who left Aberystwyth in August 1914 with the Cardiganshire Battery. By May 1917 newspaper reports referred to him as Captain, but this may be erroneous.

Many other Freemasons from Aberystwyth went on to play their part in the war effort, whether in the Merchant Navy, in the field of recruitment, such as Reverend Noah Jones of Devils Bridge or in the services, such as Lieutenant (later Captain) Bertie Taylor Lloyd who was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry on the battlefield. He had seen action in the Ypres Salient and the Somme and was initiated into Aberystwyth Lodge in March 1917. By July 1919 he too was back in Aberystwyth and presumably settling back into life as a chemist and pharmacist in Great Darkgate Street.

Blog by W Troughton, author of Aberystwyth and the Great War
Available from Waterstones, Amberley Publishing website, and bookshop. Also available on Amazon and Ebay, links below. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aberystwyth-Great-War-William-Troughton/dp/1445642905

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=aberystwyth+and+the+great+war+&_sacat=267

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[1] Lt. Guy Harries of Grosvenor House, Aberystwyth was wounded on Chocolate Hill on 10^th August 1915 and died seven days later.