About
HOw it started
Upon moving to Merthyr in 2010 and in the years that followed, it always struck me as strange that there were multiple war memorials scattered around with names (Pant/Cefn/Troedyrhiw etc), but that the main war memorial was locked away in Pontmorlais, with no record of any names. Fast forward to 2019 and a chance advert on ebay caught my eye, where a 1914/1915 trio of WW1 medals were up for sale to a Merthyr man who had been killed in WW1. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name and I didn’t purchase them, but it made me look into how many men had died from Merthyr at the time and how were they commemorated.
Formally the initial number estimated as to have died in just World War 1 totals over 1140. World War 2 is unknown. As I started researching, it became apparent that there was a huge gap in this research, with no formal commemoration.
This slowly morphed into the Facebook page “Merthyr Tydfil Remembers – The WW1 & WW2 Memorial Project”. Initially set up as a facebook page for somewhere to post some of my research, it became apparent that people across the Borough have found the articles and pictures really interesting. The end result is this webiste, which I hope you will find as engaging as I did researching.
The aim of this site is to find out about the men and women who gave their lives in both wars. Where they lived, where they served & their actions which resulted in the ultimate sacrifice, their lives. The end goal is to be able to have a full memorial list which is accessible for everyone, to allow us to always remember.