Completed War Memorials Cardiff

[Sue15]

Hello
Please can anyone advise if there is a separate War Memorial in Cardiff in the Pontcanna district/ suburb. My Great Uncle fell in Belgium in WW1 and lived in Pontcanna previously.

I know of the one in Central Cardiff but I am aware some suburbs seem to have their own.

Any information and location would be greatly appreciated

Kind regards
Sue

[sthwales]

Hi Sue

I live in Pontcanna (central Cardiff) and there are no war memorials in the area to my knowledge, I'm sorry to say.

That isn't to say that there won't be some kind of memorial inside one of the several churches in the area. Do you know which part of Pontcanna he lived in, and did he attend any of the local churches? What denomination would he have been?

Cheers
Clive

[Sue15]

Hello Clive
Thank you for your reply.

James Westwood William Howell lived at 3 Williams Street Pontcanna with his parents. To be honest my knowledge of Cardiff has got very sketchy so I have no other idea of what part other than the address.

I would imagine the family were CofE  or CinW - remote possibly non conformists but I think unlikely.

Sue

[Tom Piper]

Sue,

Have you tried:

http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/

Uk War memorials?

Tom

[Sue15]

Hello Tom
Yes I did try the link you suggested- it is excellent but does not list a memorial at Pontcanna maybe because there isn't one!

I wonder if James W W Howell will be therefore listed on the main one in Cardiff. He was just an ordinary Gunner -one of many.

Thanks again
Sue

[Tom Piper]

Sue,

War memorials were an extremely local affair. After World War 1, you find villages, churches, communities all of them meeting up and deciding what sort of memorial to erect or fund. Many of their memorials that they eventually opened are reported in local newspapers, usually in 1919-1921 or so, sometimes they could not raise the money and needed some big wig to fund their ambitious memorials so you find their memorials not appearing for several years.

So all I can suggest is that you search out local newspapers for the area and look in those.

Tom

[sthwales]

Sue

Have you checked www.cwgc.org? They've got him buried at Canada Farm Cemetery http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=435803

I know where Williams Street is - just up the road!! You should be able to find it on Google Streetmap too.

Now I know his name I'll take a look round. There's a large war memorial in the Civic Centre, will try to get there on the weekend to get a photo. Failing that, I'll try a couple of the churches in Pontcanna.

Cheers
Clive

PS Take a look at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cdfplacesofworship/list%20of%20buildings%20by%20area.html and check out the Canton, Central & Pontcanna areas

[Sue15]

Dear Tom
Thank you for the information generally concerning war memorials - I did not realise that they were arranged by local subscriptions. I have written to Cardiff library to see if they can find an obituary in the local papers of the time.

Dear Clive
Yes thats my James on the cwgc - buried at Canada Farm. The shocking thing is until last week I did not know he existed. I live in Germany - next time I am heading through Belgium to Dover I will make a detour.

I had a look on the google map. I have found it is a little inaccurate. When I put in the address of the house of my childhood - I lived in - in Rhiwbina it showed the property across the road. i was able to turn the view and see the old house again. However without knowing the house I was looking for I would have picked the wrong one! Therefore I am not sure if i have looked at the right house on google earth in Williams Street- I was quite surprised that a platelayers family lived in such a house.

You are very kind to try to look at the war memorial - if you are unable to - I will ask my brother who is visiting Cardiff in a couple of weeks to have a look. 

The church website is fascinating - I had no idea there were so many. I cannot be sure about their religious outlook. Not to put a too fine a point on things - my Grandfather the brother to James rather liked his local pub. However one of the other brothers was called Ernest Elias and was known as Eli- which is quite a religious name.

Any information about Pontcanna generally would be gratefully received. I grew up in Cardiff - can visualise Cathedral Road and the Pontcanna fields but not the suburb at all.  Old age i guess

All the best to you both
Sue

[sthwales]

Walk up Cathedral Road from town ( I live in a flat on Cowbridge Road, on the corner opposite the Westgate pub). Turn left on the corner where the Halfway pub is and then right.

Williams Street is there.

Will see what I can do on the weekend...