In memory of Robert and Richard Williams
Robert William Williams and Richard Ellis Williams were sons of Hugh and Jane Williams. When the 1911 census was taken, Hugh was a labourer, Robert was a locomotive fireman (stoker) and Richard a farm worker, aged 16.
The brothers were then living with their parents and two siblings at 2 Tan y bont, Capelulo, in the parish of Dwygyfylchi. By 1915 Hugh and Jane had moved to Tan-y-Clogwyn, near the Fairy Glen Inn in Capeulo.
Robert (known as Bob) had joined the Penmaenmawr Territorials (volunteer reserve soldiers) in 1907. Richard (Dick) was also in the Territorials by the outbreak of war. Both joined the 6th Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in 1914. While they were training at Morfa Conwy, their brother Ifor cycled over to say goodbye and deliver clothes their mother had knitted. Ifor was to serve in the Royal Navy in the war.
The Penmaenmawr company of the battalion was known as the ‘Quarry Boys’ on account of so many of them being employed at Penmaenmawr’s quarries.
Along with many other Allied troops, in 1915 the Penmaenmawr lads landed on the beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula, Türkiye, where they suffered heavy casualties inflicted by Turkish and German machine gunners dug in on the cliffs above. The area was of great strategic importance for controlling supply routes to Russia via the Black Sea, but the attempt to invade Turkey through the peninsula was a costly failure.
Dick was badly wounded at Gallipoli on 10 August. A comrade later recalled: “We put him to lay on one of the stretchers. The poor lad was shouting for his mother. There was poor hopes for him.” Richard died at sea on 11 August 1915 as he was being taken to a military hospital in Greece. He was 20 years old. He is buried at East Mudros Military Cemetery.
Bob was killed by a sniper at Gallipoli on 12 November 1915, aged 25. He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial to the Missing, as he has no known grave. His fiancée, Megan Thomas, never married.
The parish magazine recalled in 1927: “The brothers were held in high esteem in their native village. The hearts of all went out in very deep sympathy for the parents, who were bereft of both sons in the course of three months.”
With thanks to Steve Tiernan, Adrian Hughes and Anne Pedley
Return to Dwygyfylchi war memorial page
