War News

During the course of the First World War, many families and friends received letters home from the soldiers; telephone systems weren’t readily available at the front for general use and few homes had telephones. As well as this, telephone calls could not be censored by the Military in the same way as letters could.

Many letters ended up getting sent to locally read newspapers, and some were sent to the papers after they had reached their destinations at home.

Local newspapers also paid good tribute to the soldiers by including informative articles about the progress and current state of the War and the correspondent for Nelson and district, Mr David T Lewis of 35, Shingrig Road, Nelson was regularly updated by the inhabitants of the areas he covered.

The Express, based at Merthyr Tydfil was one of the main newspapers based in this area and provided weekly information to the public.

Some articles from The Merthyr Express that relate specifically to an individual soldier killed have been included into that soldier’s page. Here, I have included other articles of interest that mainly involve the men from the village of Nelson.

As earlier stated, the original source for these articles was the Merthyr Express, now on roll-fiche for public viewing at Merthyr Tydfil Public Library, High Street, Merthyr Tydfil. It is Mr Brian Phillips, of Shingrig Road, Nelson that I have to thank for taking so much time to view these rolls of fiche and providing me with the majority of this information.

List of Nelson men enlisted -

In May 1915, the Express published a list of Nelson men that had enlisted up to that date. The list included the names of the enlisted men, their Regiment and their current whereabouts at that time.

News articles -

1914

1917

1915

1918

1916

1919 Onward

Remembrance articles -

Two main articles were found relating to Acknowledgment and Remembrance of those fallen during The War. The first article, though printed in December 1918, after the war had ended, was titled “Nelson soldiers who have died so far”. The second article was from a 1922 edition.

Where any more articles come to light, I will include them in due course.

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