Showing 5 results

Archival description
Only top-level descriptions Somme, 1st Battle of the, France, 1916
Print preview View:

David Jones letters to Colin Hughes

  • NLW MS 21830E.
  • File
  • 1969-1972

Six letters, 1969-1972, from David Jones, artist and writer, to Colin Hughes concerning the attack made by the 38th (Welsh) Division on Mametz Wood, 1916, in which David Jones took part, and the re-creation by him of the attack in part 7 of his In Parenthesis (London, 1937). The recipient quotes from these letters in his short study entitled David Jones, The man who was on the field: 'In Parenthesis' as straight reporting (Manchester: The David Jones Society, 1979).

Jones, David, 1895-1974

First World War diary

  • NLW MS 24093A.
  • File
  • 1916

British Red Cross Society's Note Book and Diary for 1916, of Corporal Howard Ll[oyd] Roberts of Borth, Cardiganshire, serving on the Western Front in France and Belgium with the 129th Field Ambulance of the RAMC, attached to 15th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, part of the 38th (Welsh) Division, containing diary entries for 16 January and 2 February-31 December 1916 (pp. 74, 78-174). The frequent references to water tanks and carts indicate Cpl Roberts was part of the 129th Ambulance's Sanitary Section.
The Division began the year in the Neuve-Chapelle sector, between Merville and Bethune (pp. 78-116), then in June was ordered to the Somme, taking part in the Battle of Mametz Wood during the 1st Battle of the Somme in July (pp. 121-124). On 31 July (p. 130) Roberts's battalion arrived at Poperinghe, Belgium, and spent the rest of the year in the vicinity of Ypres (pp. 130-174). Roberts was on leave in Birmingham and Borth, 3-10 April (pp. 96-98), and was hospitalised at St Omer with German measles, 4-15 May (pp. 104-108). As an artist Roberts contributed sketches to the New Year Souvenir of the Welsh Division for 1917 (see pp. 160-165). A sketch map of the British lines at Windy Corner, [Neuve-Chapelle sector], is on p. 65; a very small pencil sketch is on p. 124.

Roberts, Howard Lloyd, 1879-1935

Publications by Robert Graves

  • NLW ex 2334
  • File
  • 1966-1967

Copies of Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That (London, 1966) and The Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayaam, trans. by Robert Graves and Omar Ali-Shah (London, 1967), both with manuscript inscriptions by Graves, dedicating them to Owen Roberts who saved Graves's life at High Wood, 20 July 1916, during the Somme offensive, when both were officers with the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

Graves, Robert, 1895-1985

Reverend J. Lloyd Williams family papers,

  • NLW ex 2515.
  • File
  • 1892-1961, [2007] /

A manuscript and typescript copy of the autobiography of Rev. J. Lloyd Williams, Baptist minister, entitled 'The autobiography of an ordinary minister', 1942, together with a collection of letters from his son Private Trevor Lloyd Williams, 1916-1917, while serving as a soldier in the Somme during the First World War. Some of the soldier's personal papers are included and his 'From the line to the base. The personal experiences of one who was slightly wounded' in his hand, and transcripts of this account and the war letters are included in 'Trevor's war' compiled by the donor J. Stuart Davies, [nephew of Trevor Lloyd Williams] .

Williams, J. Lloyd, 1868-1949.

Robert Graves letters,

  • NLW MS 23931D.
  • File
  • [1966]-1973

Eleven letters, [1966]-1973, from the poet and novelist Robert Graves, to Owen M. Roberts, Bickley, Kent, his comrade in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, whom Graves credited with saving his life at High Wood in July 1916, during the Somme offensive (ff. 1-3, 5-12).
Also included is a carbon copy typescript letter from Roberts to Graves, 1 January 1968 (f. 4). The letters contain references to the battle at High Wood (ff. 1, 10), the Royal Welch Fusiliers (ff. 6, 8, 11), Siegfried Sassoon (ff. 1 verso, 2, 12 verso) and Harold Macmillan (f. 10 verso). Graves mentions Roberts in his autobiography, Goodbye to All That (London, 1929); Roberts's copy of the 1966 revised edition (see NLW ex 2334) contains an autograph dedication from Graves and a marginal gloss on p. 198.

Graves, Robert, 1895-1985