00:10I'm Ruth Thomas. I live in Carnarvon with my family.
00:16The town is famous for its castle, which we probably take for granted,
00:20but soon a little bit of my family history will be within its walls forever.
00:27And this is it. Here's a photo of my relative John Pritchard, who died in the First World War at
00:33the age of 21.
00:35This photo has been in my family for generations, and I've always intended to donate it to the Royal Welsh
00:41Fusiliers Museum in the castle.
00:44But for some reason, something's been holding me back. It's like I have this need to find out more about
00:49the man in the photo.
00:52In loving memory of my dear son and loving brother, Private John Pritchard, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, who was killed in
01:01action.
01:02November the 6th, 1917, aged 21 years.
01:09His task is o'er, his work is done, and he is fully blessed.
01:14He fought the fight, the victory won, and entered into rest.
01:39I don't have much information about John.
01:41What I do know is that he lived in Brindy, which is a village on the west coast of Anglesey.
01:50I don't have much information about John.
01:50I'm off there now to meet Nerys Jones, one of my cousins, to see if she has some information about
01:57John, because it'd be great to learn more about him.
02:06So, how are we connected then?
02:10Ah, the family tree.
02:12So this is the line, this is how we're descended from John's generation.
02:17OK, so you're descended from Margaret, John's sister, I'm descended from Thomas, John's brother.
02:25Yes.
02:26So, John was your great-uncle.
02:29Great-uncle.
02:30So he's my great-great-uncle.
02:33Yeah.
02:34Have you got any other information for me about John?
02:36When he volunteered for short service in the military, there's this document to prove it, and this is the only
02:45thing we have that even mentions that he was actually a baker.
02:49Oh, was he a baker, was he?
02:50Yeah.
02:5119 years and two months, when he signed up.
02:54Yeah.
02:55Did he volunteer then?
02:57We're not historians, I'm not sure.
02:58No, I know.
02:59Well, I'm not sure what this means, but short service for the duration of the war.
03:04And if you look, there's his little signature there.
03:08This is a postcard.
03:09OK.
03:11It's stamped, Kinmel, Phil.
03:15Yeah.
03:15So we know he's at a training camp.
03:17He's not actually away yet here.
03:19OK.
03:20He's this boy.
03:21Oh, yeah, there he is there, yeah.
03:22He looks so young.
03:24So on the back he's written.
03:26Yeah.
03:27What do you think of this group of our huts?
03:29Don't we look happy, aye?
03:32Yeah.
03:34Exclamation mark, look.
03:35Yeah.
03:35So he is.
03:36Yeah.
03:36Yours sincerely, John.
03:38Yeah.
03:39And sent that to his house, Brindy Isav.
03:42Brindy Isav in Brindy to Christ.
03:44OK.
03:46Do you know what's funny?
03:47Let's have a look at this, because I couldn't help but notice.
03:50So you've got maybe two smiling, or maybe three, but they all look quite serious and
03:56miserable.
03:56They do look serious.
03:57So this, to me, shows his sense of humour.
04:00Yes.
04:00And then the way he goes, aye, that's something that my son says now, aye.
04:06We've got this census here, the 1911 one.
04:09And then here we have Johnny Pritchard.
04:12I like that name.
04:13Johnny Pritchard is more of an affectionate name, isn't it?
04:16Here's a picture of him with his mother.
04:17Yeah, she looks really proud of him there.
04:19Yeah.
04:20I have a photo of John, of that sitting, throughout my childhood.
04:26It was always on the wall in my grandmother's house.
04:28Do you want to see it?
04:28Yeah, I'd love to see it, yeah.
04:31This is it.
04:33This is an illustration or a drawing of him on that day.
04:37Yeah.
04:38So I think they've taken this before he goes.
04:40Yeah.
04:41And because he hasn't come back, they've made something a little bit more permanent for
04:45the wall.
04:46He was a good-looking chap, wasn't he?
04:48He must be something in the DNA.
04:50Bless him.
04:55I learned so much from Nerys about the importance of the community John lived in, the village of
05:01Bryn Dyr.
05:02The family home isn't there anymore, but this painting shows what it probably looked like
05:07at the time.
05:09We do know that John was Dyrn i Fylltyr Sgwr, with his whole life within this village, with
05:15its two mills, railway station, and at its heart, the chapel, where John was the secretary
05:23of the young people's society.
05:32Within this close-knit community, the impact of the war would have been devastating.
05:43John Pritchard Bryndi Issa, Royal Wash Fusilier, Tachwedd, Chweched, 1917, Oed, 20.
05:57I mean, they were all young men, they were all somebody's son, somebody's brother, somebody's
06:11friend, and they should never be forgotten.
06:16We've got Owen Tomos, William Owen, William Roberts, John Roberts, Hugh Roberts, William
06:24Williams, John Pritchard, John Jones, Robert Hughes, William Griffith, and Richard Owen.
06:56Watching my 17-year-old son, Daniel, playing football with his mates, I can't help think
07:01about John.
07:03It's strange, but Daniel even looks a bit like him.
07:06And then I think about what were John's hopes, and what were his dreams.
07:13Where's the girl?
07:18Oh, where's that?
07:20Go to jail.
07:21Go to jail, yes!
07:23So, yeah, I found out that John, he volunteered for the army when he was 19.
07:31So when I think of your ages now, you're 19 and you're 17, you could go to the army, couldn't
07:38you?
07:38And what do you think about that?
07:40I mean, I wouldn't want to go.
07:43Not at all.
07:44I've got many things I'd like to do instead of going to war.
07:47What would you like to do with your life?
07:49I was planning to be an engineer with well-made money and spend it on different things that
07:57I enjoy.
07:58That's something John wasn't able to do as he died so young, at only 21.
08:04So imagine I could be dead now in four years if I went to war, and I'd have the rest
08:10of
08:10my life just wasted.
08:20Carnarvon Castle has been home to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers Museum for over 60 years.
08:26So naturally, I believe John's photograph belongs here.
08:33I'm meeting Colonel Nick Locke, a military historian, to find out what happened to John.
08:39Are you okay?
08:40Are you okay?
08:40Are you going to pop that down?
08:40Yeah, I will.
08:41I'll put this down here.
08:43Most people, when they think about the First World War, they think about the trenches on
08:46the Western Front in France and Flanders.
08:48But there were other campaigns going on.
08:51This was a truly global conflict.
08:53And so a lot of the Welsh soldiers who were territorials when fought out in the Middle East, and they
09:02fought in Egypt and then in Palestine against the Turkish army to defeat the Turkish Empire.
09:10So we're very lucky that we have his service records.
09:14So this gives us lots of information about his service, where he was trained, and then where
09:21he went on to fight.
09:22And so he signed up in November 1915.
09:26And then in June 1916, he was shipped out to Egypt to join the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.
09:33And they were involved in a number of battles around Gaza on the coast.
09:38The first and second battles of Gaza were pretty bloody fights.
09:42And effectively, there were defeats for the British.
09:44And so he was involved in both those.
09:47And you can see here the map of the third battle of Gaza.
09:51Up in the far corner there, that's Gaza on the coast.
09:54Yeah.
09:55And they would have come across the Sinai deserts.
09:57So they came up with this plan to attack Beersheba.
10:01The 7th RWF, which is the battalion that John was in, was involved in that attack.
10:07So Beersheba was secured at the end of October 1917.
10:11And then they were pushing north into the Judea hills.
10:14And a particular hill, Tel Kufra, was in this area here, which was a high piece of ground
10:20and dominated the local area.
10:22And you can see a photograph of it here.
10:23So the Turks were up on top of this hill here.
10:25And that's where the 7th Battalion attacked on the 6th of November 1917.
10:30During that battle, that's when John was killed in action.
10:37The casualties of the Royal Welsh Brigade had been 36 officers killed and wounded,
10:42and 585 other ranks killed and wounded.
10:46Wow.
10:46I mean, it's probably the most significant engagement that this brigade fought in
10:51for the whole of the Palestine campaign.
10:52And in this particular picture, after the battle, this is actually a temporary graveyard
10:57that was dug by the British for their casualties.
10:59And so he may well be buried here to start off with.
11:02And then at the end of the war, they were moved down to Beersheba,
11:05to a Commonwealth war grave cemetery where he lies now.
11:16So these frames were produced commercially and families purchased them to act as a memorial in their homes
11:24for the love when they've lost.
11:26And you can see the elements are the photograph of the soldier.
11:30And then at the top here is a bronze plaque inlaid into the frame,
11:34which became known as the Death Penny because every soldier who was killed,
11:38the family received this as a memorial to them.
11:41So, Ruth, I'm really delighted to say, having done the research that we've done,
11:45we would be very happy to put this on display
11:48and for the photograph to be included in our online database,
11:52which is called Faces of the Fallen.
11:53And so he will become part and parcel of that permanent display
11:58and memorial to our fallen soldiers from the regiment.
12:06May I present to you John Pritchard, Royal Welsh Fusilier,
12:11locally known as Johnny Pritchard, Brindy Issa.
12:18Family and friends have gathered to see John's photo being put on display,
12:22honouring his memory and making sure he's never forgotten.
13:03Family and friends have gathered a lot of tourists at all over the years.
13:08Family and friends are the one to please.
13:09It's the very important thing to see John's photo being put on display,
13:09and I have been telling them to see John's photo.
13:09I'm reading about the reading of the letter that was a Breathe Penny Marie have made.
13:10I've been reading about the pretty much
13:11and you had to see John's photo being put on display and look at the entrance.
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