The Swansea Battalion left for France in December 1915 and didn't return to the UK until after the Armistice. Took part in the battles on the Somme (1916) and Passchendaele (1917). Plus the final battles of 1918 - its last casualty was on 7 November - 4 days before the armistice.

Who was the driving force behind the formation of the Swansea Battalion? The mayor of the time, Thomas Taliesyn Corker. He was a Neath man but with business interests in the town of Swansea.

He appealed for volunteers for a town battalion in August 1914 and eventually over a 1,000 men joined up (many others in the town joined other units).

Frank Corker was the mayor's son and he joined up and served in the Swansea Battalion. Frank went missing in action during a raid on the German trenches in June 1916. He was never seen again. His father had pre-deceased him by dying (some said of the strain of his war-time work) in March 1916.

On 10 July 1916 the Swansea Battalion, in conjunction with other units of the Welsh Division, attacked Mametz Wood on the Somme. Just nine days after the start of the 1916 Somme campaign - which saw the British army suffer 60,000 casualties including 19,000 killed on 1 July 1916 - the Swansea Battalion left the trenches and advanced on the wood which was hidden by the dust and smoke of a heavy artillery barrage.

The Swansea Battalion committed 676 men to the attack on Mametz Wood. When the losses were counted several days later (the wood having then been captured) there were around 100 Swansea Battalion men killed and 200+ wounded.

As an officer of the battalion said after the war ' The battalion did a great many things during the war, but the hardest thing it did was attack Mametz Wood'. 

I'm currently (May 2013) researching for a factual book to be published in 2014 - 'Swansea in the Great War'. The publishers will be Pen and Sword Books of Barnsley.

My other books are:

Swansea and the Workhouse - the Poor Law in 19th Century Swansea. 2003.

Swansea Pals - a history of the 14th (Service) Battalion, the Welsh Regiment in the Great War. 2004.

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Swansea. 2009.

Spent a couple of hours in the local archive office today, looking at various records including some material on a Swansea man who served on the front line with a 'Friends Ambulance Unit' - a medical unit made up of men who did not believe in fighting but wanted to 'do their bit'.

He actually assisted some French army units and received a  bravery award for helping the wounded while under fire. 

Got some information about Swansea and its people in the Great War? Please get in touch and let me know.

It might get into my forthcoming book 'Swansea in the Great War', to be published by Pen and Sword Books in late 2014, the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War.

Bernard Lewis

Just received 74 pages of records from a chum who was able to visit the National Archives at Kew. Relating to a 'Q-Ship' in World War I on which served a Swansea man. Basically a Q-Ship was a disguised tramp steamer that would unveil guns once a German submarine surfaced for an 'easy' kill.

Sadly, the man I am looking at drowned in an accident when a lifeboat was lowered to make the U-Boat commander think the ship was being abandoned thus encouraging the sub to surface.

Such are the awful chances of war...

Bernard Lewis