My father was born in Llanrwst, and attended the County and Grammar School before joining the Post Office in 1940. During World War 2 he was with the 4th and 8th Battalions Royal Welch Fusiliers and took part in the D-Day landings. He was a keen sportsman. He worked for the Post Office in Llanrwst, and became Postmaster in Dolgellau and Llandeilo before retiring. He wrote children's stories and had a book of poems printed. Read about Dad's life here.
WILLIAM OWEN DAVIES 1923 - 2002
William Owen Davies, my father, was born on the 15th March 1923 in 64 Denbigh Street, Llanrwst, the eldest of Idwal Glynne and Winifred Myfanwy Davies' four children. He is pictured here with his mother left. and aged 3 on the right.
|
He was the eldest son of Idwal Glynne and Winifred Myfanwy Davies, pictured above. |
|
|
COUNTY SCHOOL LLANRWST |
This school report from 1933 shows great promise.
|
REPORT ON ATTENDANCE, CONDUCT AND PROGRESS |
|
Term ending December 22nd 1933 |
| NAME William Owen Davies AGE 10yrs 9 months CLASS 4 |
|
No. of Pupils in Class 33 REMARKS; A good steady worker, |
Position 2nd |
 |
 |
LLANRWST GRAMMAR SCHOOL
 |
 |
Educated at Llanrwst Grammar School, he was a keen athlete, winning the Victor Ludorum in 1939 and 1940 and runner up in 1938.
Here are some entries in the 1939 School Magazine, relating to Wil's sporting achievements at the school, during the 1938/39 academic year.
|
Athletic Sports |
|
Glorious summer weather added the 'finishing touch' to the Athletic Sports held on July 22nd, 1938, which was as well-organised as ever by Mr R. H. Jones. On this, the last occasion upon which Mr R. H. Jones was present as a member of the Staff, it was fitting that the presentation of prizes should be made by Mrs R. H. Jones. The untiring efforts of Mr R. H. Jones in the organisation of the Sports and the valuable help of Mrs R. H. Jones in chosing the prizes have brought unbroken success to this function. May we offer our heartiest and sincere thanks to them both. |
|
Football 1938 -39 |
|
Team; R. H. Roberts; N. S . Powell; W. O. Davies; Arthur Roberts; |
|
SCHOOL FIXTURES AND RESULTS |
|
Cricket 1938 |
|
Team; - A. W. Smith; H. R. Jones; S. Roberts; N. S. Powell; R. H. Roberts; J. E. Owen; W. O. Davies; W. B. Lloyd; P. N. Roberts; D. R. Pugh; and D. G. Thomas. |
|
The team enjoyed a fairly successful season, six matches being won out of eleven played. The most outstanding performance was that of N. S. Powell who scored 61 runs against Dolwyddelen |
|
Home 18 - 66 v Wireless College |
DAYS AT GORSEDD GRUCYN
Wil enjoyed many a day at the family farm of Gorsedd Grucyn, where his great grandparents lived and spent several times there. These days are recalled by him in this letter extract, which he sent to the current owner David Davies (no relation) or Dei Bryniog, following a visit there in 1999.
 |
The visit took me back sixty years, when I was spending a lot of time in Gorsedd. If there was no need to muck out the cowshed and the stables, I would be walking the fields, especially at the time of ploughing the Gorsedd sheepwalk, when the lapwing was nesting. |
 |
The hen would walk yards before rising into the air so nobody would know where the nest was, but if there were four eggs in the nest with their pointed ends towards the middle I didn't touch them as the hen had started hatching them.Nain used to fry lapwing eggs for me, and they were delicious (a stronger taste than hens' eggs) with home baked bread and fresh butter. |
Lapwing eggs |
Another pleasure was catching moles with a trap and making sure that I rubbed my hands in the soil, otherwise the mole would scent my body. By making sure no light went into the hole I was sure of a mole by the morning.
| Catching leverets (a leveret is a young hare, as you know) - once I saw one I would give a cough, and the hare would freeze. Then walking slowly behind her (a hare can only see to either side of her) and picking her up before letting her go. |
 |
Catching hares with a snare in the hedge at the bottom of Gorsedd sheepwalk where the hare path led through the hedge, setting the snare the length of a fist and a thumb to the bottom of the snare (the length of a fist for a rabbit). Then Jo would sell them for 2/6 in town . . .
 |
 |
 |
Views of Gorsedd on that delightful August day in 1999, when Wil and family again visited Gorsedd Grucyn |
Delightful days in Paradise, Dei?
By now we have settled in a small town where nothing moves but the traffic.
Best wishes to you all, and thank you for your welcome.
Wil a Jean
(William Owen and Jean Davies)
(Original Wesh transcript is at the end of this page. English translation: Rowena Evans)
PLAYING SPORT
Wil played cricket and football for Llanrwst.
LLANRWST CRICKET CLUB
 |
 |
Llanrwst Cricket Ground, which is adjacent to the football pitch. This is where he once took 8 wickets for 38 runs. Pictured right is all that remains of the club's cricket pavillion from those days.
LLANRWST FOOTBALL CLUB.
His brother in law Eric Roberts recalls a goal he once saw Wil score for Llanrwst Football Club, which he describes for me below;
.JPG) |
 |
The football player 'positions' indicated below differ to the ones used today. In those days these were the positions used;
|
Goalkeeper. |
Reproduced here are league tables for the period in which he played for Llanrwst Town. Llanrwst were League Champions in 1947/48, but I cannot ever recall Dad mentioning playing for a championship winning team.
|
Vale of Conway League |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1945/46 |
Pl |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Pts |
|
Llanddulais FC |
12 |
10 |
1 |
1 |
52 |
24 |
21 |
|
Llandudno Junction FC |
12 |
8 |
2 |
1 |
37 |
12 |
18 |
|
|
12 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
30 |
25 |
14 |
|
Penmaenmawr FC |
12 |
5 |
0 |
7 |
37 |
33 |
10 |
|
Llanrwst Town FC |
12 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
27 |
38 |
10 |
|
Colwyn Bay FC |
12 |
3 |
1 |
8 |
26 |
35 |
7 |
|
Dolgarrog FC |
12 |
1 |
0 |
11 |
20 |
61 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1946/47 |
Pl |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Pts |
|
|
18 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
87 |
33 |
31 |
|
|
18 |
3 |
0 |
5 |
71 |
27 |
26 |
|
Dolgarrog FC |
18 |
8 |
4 |
6 |
52 |
30 |
20 |
|
Penmaenmawr FC |
17 |
8 |
3 |
6 |
50 |
52 |
19 |
|
Llnadudno FC Res |
18 |
8 |
1 |
9 |
54 |
53 |
17 |
|
Llysfaen FC |
18 |
7 |
2 |
9 |
56 |
52 |
16 |
|
Betws Y Coed FC |
17 |
5 |
4 |
8 |
39 |
52 |
14 |
|
|
18 |
4 |
5 |
9 |
42 |
58 |
13 |
|
Dolwyddelan FC |
16 |
4 |
3 |
9 |
37 |
58 |
11 |
|
Trefriw Spa FC |
18 |
4 |
1 |
13 |
37 |
63 |
9 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1947/48 |
Pl |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Pts |
|
|
20 |
16 |
1 |
3 |
91 |
31 |
33 |
|
Dolgarrog FC |
20 |
14 |
1 |
5 |
75 |
40 |
29 |
|
Machno United |
20 |
13 |
1 |
6 |
88 |
36 |
27 |
|
Llandudno FC Res |
20 |
11 |
3 |
6 |
62 |
41 |
25 |
|
Llysfaen FC |
20 |
9 |
5 |
6 |
79 |
46 |
23 |
|
Llandudno Junction FC Res |
20 |
9 |
3 |
8 |
57 |
62 |
21 |
|
Dolwyddelan FC |
20 |
7 |
4 |
9 |
49 |
67 |
18 |
|
|
20 |
6 |
4 |
10 |
36 |
71 |
16 |
|
Betws Y Coed FC |
20 |
3 |
5 |
12 |
32 |
58 |
11 |
|
Trefriw Spa FC |
20 |
3 |
3 |
14 |
38 |
67 |
9 |
|
Blaenau Ffestiniog FC Res |
20 |
3 |
1 |
16 |
40 |
128 |
7 |
POST OFFICE
 |
|
He started work with Llanrwst Post Office in 1940 as a Sorting Clerk and Telegraphist. His starting wage was 13/6d a week. His father also worked there as a postman.
WORLD WAR II
Dad , like so many others would not talk a lot about his war days. However his granddaughter Kim was asked to talk to their grandparents about what they did during the war, a
nd Dad wrote this account for her. William was called up to the army in 1942. He is pictured with his mother Winifred Myfanwy, Anti Carrie and sister Ceinwen, during some war leave.I was in the Grammar School (form 5) when war broke out. There I remained until August 1940, when I started work at the Post Office in Llanrwst as a counter clerk.
However, on the 12th February 1942, I was conscripted into the army. A day which would change my life completely.
I very well remember leaving home for the first time, aged eighteen. I had to catch the 8 o'clock train from Llanrwst to Cardiff. On the way to the way to the station, I heard a Welsh programme on everyone's wireless set as I walked along, and I could hear a party singing "R wyf innau'n milwr bychan, yn cychwyn ar fy nhaith!" - I am a little soldier, starting on my journey!
I was initially attached to the 4th Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers as
Fusilier DAVIES W.O. 14200775
|
Llandudno Junction |
I had to change trains at Llandudno Junction, where I met Huw Jones from Pencaerisiog, Anglesey, who could not speak English and he asked me if I would keep him company. |
I soon realised that strangely, many of my friends, who were more like brothers to me, were being stationed overseas, including Huw - and I was being left behind all the time.
|
|
However, my turn soon came to join the 8th Battalion of The Royal Welch Fusiliers, in Yeovil, Somerset. This would be the first time for me to camp in a tent with the rest of the soldiers. By now, I was well used to the uniform and nailed boots! |
Army Book 64 |
B Company 8th Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers. November 1942
In time, I was moved to Swanage, Dorset. From there, on to work at Corfe Castle. By now marching ten miles meant nothing to me but sore feet.
Time soon came to move again, this time to Bournemouth, where I learned to ride a 500cc Norton motorbike, and spent some time with the Field Security Police. I was now enrolled in the Battalion's 'Intelligence Section', where I had to learn about military aircraft from each country and how to read maps, as I had to arrange convoy routes from one place to another. Again several of my friends were being sent abroad, but I had to remain here. This happened throughout the time I was in the army.
|
Dover Castle |
I was sent to the Isle of Wight to learn more about explosives. From here to Beaulieu, where two of us looked after gallons of petrol. Then to Dover and a stay at The Citadel. - a castle on high ground, where it was possible to tell the time on a Calais clock in France, through a telescope! Here there were four large cannons which would fire shells over to France. I was also at Dover Castle, learning more about military work. |
DOVER CASTLE HISTORY;
In the twentieth century the castle played an important role in both world wars. The castle was armed with anti-aircraft guns and searchlights, supplemented during the Second World War with Radar.
.jpg)
In May 1940, the evacuation of 338,000 allied soldiers from Dunkirk was directed from a command centre in the converted Georgian underground barracks, at Dover Castle. New tunnels were built to house an underground hospital and the combined headquarters for the three services. After the war the army remained in the castle until 1958; five years later the whole of Dover Castle was handed over to the Ministry of Works for preservation.
MY NEXT MOVE
I moved on to St Margaret's Bay, where I stayed in underground offices. Here I received details of German shipping in codified form. I had to decode and forward the information to the relevant administrative sections. There soon followed a long journey for me from Dover to Berwick on Tweed by motorbike, to show convoy drivers the way there, and stopping overnight in Saffron Waldren, where I taught American soldiers how to read maps and find their way during day or night. Then on to St Neots, Morpeth before reaching Berwick on Tweed.
Following this excursion, I went to Maidstone. Here five of us were guinea pigs. Each of us were given a sedative of three different colours, followed by an IQ test. The results differed greatly.
On another occasion, we were given a map of a part of France and had to state its suitability for infantry and tank warfare - it was an area between the beaches and Caen, where we later operated!
By this time, plans were afoot to land in France.
