John Wheatley, Writer

February 05, 2013

Anglesey during the Great War

THE RED DRAGON COMMEMORATING THE ATTACK ON MAMETZ WOOD, 1916

Anglesey became the main route from London to Ireland in the middle of the nineteenth century, and the two great landmarks of the Menai Strait, Telford`s suspension bridge and Stephenson`s Brittania Bridge had been in place for more than fifty years when the new century dawned. In other respects, early twentieth century Anglesey was still an undeveloped territory. The copper boom of Amlwch was well in the past, and the town`s later shipbuilding fame was now fading. The economy was still predominantly agricultural, and poverty, malnutrition and high infant mortality were still rife.

With the onset of war in 1914, however, Anglesey was not to remain a remote backwater. The declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare, directed at the Atlantic convoys, meant that the Irish Sea was its own theatre of war, and the port of Holyhead became a major military naval base. At the same time, the establishment of the Royal Navy airbase at Maltraeth, from which reconnaissance balloons and the earliest aeroplanes were launched, was the beginning of a long tradition, continued after the establishment of the RAF, of aeronautical presence on the island.

At Llanfaes,near Beaumaris, the Kingsbridge Camp, established for military training in 1911, was enlarged to accommodate 800 personnel of the Royal Anglesey Engineers to build pontoon bridges, railways and stockades, before being drafted to France.

If you go to the town of Menai Bridge today, you may well find yourself taking a pleasant stroll to the church of St Tysilio on its own little island projecting into the Menai Strait. The Belgian Promenade, linking St Tysilio`s island to the town, was built by Belgian war refugees, grateful for the hospitality the islanders had shown them.

THE BELGIAN PROMENADE NEAR MENAI BRIDGE

Men of Anglesey also responded to the call typified by the famous Kitchener poster: Your County Needs You. David Lloyd George was a passionate advocate of Welsh enlistment, and the Welsh 38^th Division took part in many engagements on the Western Front, including the infamous battle of Mametz Wood, during the Somme offensive, where many lives were lost, advancing across open ground towards the heavily fortified wood.

JOHN WHEATLEY`S recently published novel “The Exile`s Daughter” is set on Anglesey in the years leading up to the outbreak of war in 1914, and follows the fortunes of Lauren Bucievski, a Polish exile, and Jimmy Jilkes, a soldier of the Welsh 38^th Division who enlists and fights on the western front.