Language Welsh

OF BRYNGWENALLT
DOLGELLY, N. WALES
"A DDUG ANGAU NI DDWG ANGOF"

SECOND LIEUTENANT GRIFFITH CHRISTMAS OWEN

'A ddug angau ni ddwg angof', the words on the Dolgelly (Dolgellau) war memorial are repeated on Griffith Christmas Owen's headstone. Translated from the Welsh they mean, 'when death comes it does not mean we forget'.
Owen was killed on 31 July 1917 leading his men in an assault on Pilkhem Ridge on the opening day of the Third Ypres Campaign. Between 31 July and 2 August the 11th Battalion South Wales Borderers lost 320 men killed, wounded and missing. Owen was among the missing, his body not discovered until 24 April 1928 when it was identified by his badges of rank and his general service uniform. By this time his name had been carved on the Menin Gate, dedicated by Lord Plumer in July 1927 to the "officers & men who fell in the Ypres Salient, but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death".
Owen is now buried in Sanctuary Wood Cemetery where his inscription, chosen by his brother, John Llewelyn Owen, links him back to the town of his birth and shares with it the same dedication.

MI Y YMDRECHAIS YMDRECH DEG

CAPTAIN THOMAS THOMAS

This Welsh inscription, a quotation from 2 Timothy 4:7, translates as 'I have fought the good fight'. The verse continues, 'I have finished my course, I have kept the faith'. It's a popular inscription but strange as it may sound it appears to be only popular on officers' graves. I can't think of any reason for this.
Thomas Thomas was commissioned into the 13th Battalion, Welsh Regiment on the outbreak of war. Raised in Llanelli in August 1914 it didn't cross to France until December 1915. Initially in the Ypres sector it moved down to the Somme in June 1916 where it took part in the capture of Mametz Wood. It was then moved north again to Ypres. On 31 July 1917 it took part in the capture of Pilkem Ridge where it suffered heavy losses. After being rested, the battalion returned to the front line on 20 August, going into the trenches along the line of the Steenbeek. Thomas was killed by shell fire on the 23rd.

TYDI GAN HYNNY
GODDEF GYSTUDD
MEGIS MILWR DA
I JESU GRIST

PRIVATE TOMMY THOMAS

Private Tommy Thomas was a carpenter from Mackay, Northern Queensland. He was born in Llanfyrnach, Pembrokeshire, Wales, where his parents lived until after the war. He enlisted in the Australian Infantry on 9 March 1915 and embarked for Europe on the 29 June that year. He died of wounds in hospital in Rouen on 15 September 1916.
His Welsh inscription comes from the English-Welsh Duoglott Bible, from the Second Epistle of Timothy, Chapter 2 verse 3:
Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

EI EWYLLYS EF A WNELER

BOMBARDIER DAVID WILLIAM DAVIES

'Dy ewyllys di a wneler' translates as 'Thy will be done' from The Lord's Prayer, 'Ei ewyllys ef a wneler' as 'His will be done'. Whatever the language this acceptance of God's will, sometimes amended to read 'Thy will not ours be done', seems to be the most common of all headstone inscriptions.
Bombadier David Davies's parents lived in Barry Dock, South Wales, which is where he was born in 1891. At some point he emigrated to Canada as that is where he was living when he enlisted.

EI ABERTH NID A HEIBIO
- A' I WYNEB
ANNWYL NID A'N ANGO
MAM

GUNNER EVAN EVANS

The lines come from 'Not Forgotten', a brief poem written by the Welsh bard Hedd Wynn, Private Ellis Humphrey Evans, to commemorate a friend killed in action in the early months of the war. The friend cannot have been Evan Evans because he was killed on the same day as Hedd Wyn himself.
Written in Welsh, the lines translate as, 'Neither his sacrifice nor his dear face will be forgotten. Mother'. The poem is inscribed on a plaque fixed to a statue of Hedd Wyn in his home town of Trawsfynydd. In translation it reads:

Neither his sacrifice nor his dear face will be forgotten
Though the Germans have stained their fist of steel in his blood