Roberts, Llewelyn

Llewelyn Roberts

21378, Private, 14th Royal Welsh Fusiliers
Killed in action, 6 October 1918, aged 25
Believed buried at Prospect Hill Cemetery, Gouy, France

CWGC registered (Son of Mr and Mrs W Roberts, of Llandudno; husband of Dorothy Roberts, of Mount Pleasant, Penrhynside, Llandudno)

Llewelyn Roberts, the son of a plasterer William Roberts and his wife Eliza, was born at Llandudno on 30 January 1893. Living at “Craig-y-Orsedd”, Maelgwyn Terrace, Winllan Aveue, Llewelyn attended Lloyd Street School and transferred to the new Dyffryn Road School in 1905 which he left in April 1907. In the Census of 1911, Llewelyn (18) was described as a grocer’s assistant.

It would appear that Llewelyn moved to Sale in Cheshire and at the beginning of 1915, he enlisted at Manchester into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He joined the 14th (Service) Battalion that was forming at the time at Llandudno. His regimental number was 21378. The 14th RWF was a formation within the short-lived “Welsh Army” which eventually became the 38th (Welsh) Division. After initial training at Llandudno, the division moved to Winchester in August 1915 but not before Llewelyn had married Dorothy Anne Jones of Penrhynside. Llewelyn Roberts disembarked in France on 2 December 1915. Llewelyn and Dorothy’s daughter Dorothy Eliza Roberts was born at Penrhynside on 27 January 1916.

Sadly, Llewelyn’s army record no longer exists and little is known about his particular three years of hard fighting on the Western Front. His regiment suffered severe casualties during the action at Mametz Wood during the Battle of the Somme and did not return to action for over one year. In 1917, the battalion fought at the Third Battle of Ypres and in 1918 it was back on the Somme fighting the battles of the Hindenburg Line and the final advance in Picardy.

Having advanced into recently-evacuated German trenches on 5 October 1918, the 38th (Welsh) Division found it could advance no further because the Germans had reorganised themselves into another defensive line which ran through Mortho Wood near the village of Bony. The war diary for the 14th RWF describes how on the following day it sent out a patrol to force away through Mortho Wood but it came back reporting that it was strongly held. No casualties were recorded in the diary but it was on this day that Llewelyn Roberts was killed in action aged 25. Two days later, the wood was taken.

Whether or where Llewelyn Robert’s remains were buried is somewhat uncertain. A special memorial in Prospect Hill Cemetery, Goui reads: “Believed to be buried in this cemetery”.

After the war, Dorothy Anne Roberts lived at her parents’ home of No 1 Mount Pleasent, Penrhynside. She died in 1979.

Known memorials:

• Prospect Hill Cemetery, Gouy, France
• Llandudno Roll of Honour
• Llandudno War Memorial
• Memorial Chapel, Holy Trinity Church, Llandudno
• Penrhynside War Memorial