FISHGUARD - WALES
Market Hall Roll of Honour
Market Hall Roll of Honour
Proudly displayed at the far end of the Fishguard Market Hall is a newly refurbished framed war memorial containing portrait photographs of eighty one men of north Pembrokeshire who fell during the Great War. These men are commemorated on war memorials scattered around the north of the county. It is not a comprehensive list of all of the men from this picturesque part of the county who fell, but is probably due to the fact that these photographs were the only ones collected for the project at the time it was created.
Private Thomas Owen HARRIES 1955
Born: Fishguard, West Wales Enlisted: 18-1-1915, Liverpool, New South Wales 13th Battalion Australian Infantry Occupation prior to Enlistment: Labourer Departed Australia 13-4-1915 Died of Wounds, Greece 23-8-1915 Son of Winifred Harries, Fishguard, Prembrokeshire, Wales Resting: Portianos Military Cemetery, Lemnos, Aegean Islands, Greece Honoured Australian War Memorial Panel 69 |
West Wales War Memorial Project - Thomas was born at Fishguard in 1893, the son of Mrs. Winifred Harries, 63, High Street, Fishguard. He emigrated to Australia in 1913, working as a Farmer, and enlisted there at Liverpool, New South Wales on 23 January 1915. He joined the 5th Reinforcements for the 13th Battalion, which embarked at Sydney aboard HMAT Kyarra on 13 April 1915 bound for Gallipoli via Egypt. Thomas joined the Battalion on Gallipoli on 13 July 1915, and was badly wounded at the Battle of the Nek on 9 August 1915. A Hospital Ship brought him, along with many others, back to Lemnos to the Army Hospital, but he Died of Wounds there on 23 August 1915 aged 22. He is buried in Portianos Military Cemetery, Lemnos.
2nd Lieutenant William Rees REYNOLDS 5021
Born: Bundaberg, Queensland Enlisted: 18-6-1915, Queens Park, New South Wales Occupation prior to Enlistment: Clerk 33rd Battalion Australian Infantry Died: 12-10-1917 aged 24years Honoured: Ypres Menin Gate Memorial Son of William Rees Reynolds and Mary I. Reynolds, of "The Astor," Macquarie St., Sydney. |
West Wales War Memorial Project -William was the only son of Captain William Rees Reynolds, and Mary Reynolds, of Cilwenan Hill, Dinas Cross, Pembrokeshire, and of 'The Astor', Macquarie Street, Sydney, Australia. William was educated at Llandovery from 1909 until 1910, and was also educated at the Church of England Grammar School, North Sydney, Australia. William's intention was to be a farmer, and on completion of his schooling, he enrolled for a course of Instruction at Wagga Experimental Farm. However, with the advent of War, instead of chasing his dream, William enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 18 June 1915, joining the Australian Army Medical Corps at Sydney. William was later posted to England, and became an Instructor, serving on Salisbury Plain. However, William wanted action, and so transferred into the Infantry, and was soon commissioned as Second Lieutenant into the 33rd Battalion, AIF, which was part of the 3rd Australian Division. The Battalion had to wait until the emphasis of British and Dominion operations switched to the Ypres Sector of Belgium in mid-1917 to take part in its first major battle; which was the battle of Messines, launched on 7 June. The battalion held the ground captured during the battle for several days afterwards and was subjected to intense artillery bombardment. One soldier wrote that holding the line at Messines was far worse than taking it. The battalion's next major battle was around Passchendaele on 12 October. The battlefield, though, had been deluged with rain, and thick mud tugged at the advancing troops and fouled their weapons. The battle ended in a disastrous defeat. The 33rd Australian Battalion was called up to attack Crest Farm, where a previously captured pill-box had been re-taken by the enemy. It was in this attack that William was killed, along with five fellow officers of the Battalion. He was 24 years old, and has no known grave, and so is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.
William is also Honoured on the Dinas Cross War Memorial Dinas Cross is a small village sat in a picturesque location between Fishguard and Newport in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The War Memorial to the men of the Parish that gave their lives during both World Wars takes the form of marble plaques fixed onto a masonry wall and is situated alongside the main road through the village, in front of the local school. |