Showcase result

Pontfadog

Pontfadog war memorial in the county of Wrexham, north Wales, is of granite and is in the shape of a plain Celtic cross. It stands on a plinth with a two-stepped base. The memorial is situated beside the Brown Road from Chirk (B4500). On the face of the cross looking out towards the road is a sword of sacrifice in relief.

In 2008 War Memorials Trust offered a grant of £350 to cover the cleaning of the war memorial and repainting of the lettering.

The memorial was built some time after May 1918 by Maile and Son of Euston Road, London; the original drawings are still in existence. A service was held on Sunday 7th November 1948 to unveil the additions made to the memorial after World War Two. The unveiling was done by Mrs. M.T. Williams.

The names of all the local men who served in the First World War are recorded on the faces of the plinth in metal lettering; three of the faces show the names of “Those who served” and on the fourth face nine men are listed under the heading “To the Glory of God and In Memory of ”. On this face also are the names of the four men of Pontfadog who died in the Second World War. Two of the faces have a quotation in Welsh on them; on the face with the names of the men who died is written “Ffyddlawn nyd angau” and under a list of those who served “mewn anghof ni chant fod”.

One of the men on the memorial listed as having served, rather than having fallen, is Capt. B.W.D. Brooke. Captain Bertram Willes Dayrell Brooke was a member of the family of White Rajahs who ruled Sarawak (now part of Malaysia) for a hundred years. He was the son of Charles, the second of these rajahs, and brother to Vyner of Sarawak, the third and final rajah. He relinquished his own title in favour of his son. Capt. Brooke held the title of "Tuan Muda" (literally "Little Lord") and the style of His Highness. In 1946, Rajah Vyner ceded Sarawak to the Colonial Office, in exchange for a sizeable pension for him and his three daughters. Anthony Brooke, the designated heir (the son of the man on the memorial) renounced any claim to the title in 1951. Capt. Brooke died in Weybridge in Surrey in 1965 and is buried in Sheepstor Churchyard, Devon, along with the White Rajahs.

Of the four men on the memorial who died during the Second World War, Gunner Hughes died in France in 1940, before the German invasion. Flight Sergeant Davies was a member of a crew of a Stirling which was shot down over the Netherlands during a sortie to bomb Kassel in August 1942. Five of the eight men in the crew died in the crash, and three were taken prisoner. Gunner Jones died during the Italian Campaign in May 1944 and Corporal Williams of the Royal Army Medical Corps died in Normandy in the week after D-Day. 

Further information

War Memorials Trust reference WM1073
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: 38235

For bombers lost in the Second World War

If you have a concern about this memorial please contact the Trust on conservation@warmemorials.org

Return to search results | Start a new search