Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapelyard Soldiers Remembered

Across two world wars, Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapelyard became the final resting place for servicemen whose stories of courage, sacrifice, and loss still resonate today. From the trenches of the First World War to the battlefields, skies, and seas of the Second, the chapelyard holds the memories of those who never returned home. Their graves form a roll of remembrance within this quiet Swansea ground, linking local families to the great tides of history and reminding us of the enduring cost of global conflict.

First World War Roll of Honour

Second Lieutenant Ivor Kenneth Colquhoun

Welsh Regiment (14th Battalion)

Born in 1894 at Mumbles, Ivor Kenneth Colquhoun the son of John and Elizabeth Colquhoun, Ivor Kenneth was educated at Swansea Grammar School before working as an assistant draper. At the outbreak of war he enlisted in the Manchester Regiment, later gaining a commission in the 14th (Swansea) Battalion, Welsh Regiment in March 1915. He died at his family home in Uplands on 9th September 1915, aged just 21, and was the first war casualty buried at Bethel.

Private Samuel George Evans

Welsh Regiment (6th Battalion)

The son of George and Annie Evans, Samuel George Evans worked as a collier before enlisting in the 6th Battalion, Welsh Regiment. He served overseas but returned home suffering from illness brought on by his war service. Samuel died on 24th October 1915, aged 22, and was laid to rest at Bethel, his short life emblematic of the heavy toll the war took on Swansea families.

Private Thomas Gee

Royal Field Artillery

Thomas Gee served with the Royal Field Artillery during the Great War. He died on 13th November 1917, aged 33, and was buried at Bethel.

Lieutenant Noel Parry Davies

Royal Air Force

Noel Parry Davies was the first airman to have been buried at Bethel. He served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps, later part of the Royal Air Force. He died on 8th April 1918, aged 19, and was brought home for burial at Bethel.

Private Philip Llewellyn Searle

Royal Engineers

Philip Llewellyn Searle son of William and Sarah Searle, Philip was serving with the Royal Engineers when he died on 3rd November 1918, aged 24. He was brought home to be buried at Bethel.

Private Brinley Archibald Richard Chapman

Machine Gun Corps

Brinley Archibald Richard Chapman was the son of Richard and Margaret Chapman of Swansea. Serving with the Machine Gun Corps, he died on 15th November 1918, aged just 20, and was buried at Bethel.

Private Henry Harris

Royal Field Artillery

Henry Harris served with the Royal Field Artillery and died on 22nd November 1918, aged 35. He was buried at Bethel.

Private Richard Evans

Canadian Infantry

Having emigrated to Canada before the war, Richard Evans returned to Europe as part of the Canadian Infantry. He died on 26th February 1919, aged 34, and was buried at Bethel, his grave a reminder of Swansea’s sons who had settled overseas but returned to serve.

Gunner Thomas Gunn

Royal Garrison Artillery

Thomas Gunn, aged 45, served with the Royal Garrison Artillery. He died on 16th November 1912, and was buried at Bethel.

Private William Thomas Moon

The King’s Regiment

William Thomas Moon, also aged 45, served with the King’s Regiment. He died on 16th November 1921, and was buried with Thomas Gunn at Bethel. Unlike his comrade, Moon is not commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Second World War Roll of Honour

Private Alfred George Webb

Welsh Regiment (17th Battalion, Home Defence)

The first Second World War burial at Bethel, Alfred George Webb died on 13th January 1940, aged 42. He was the son of Alfred Augustus and Elizabeth Webb, and his funeral marked the beginning of a new chapter of war losses remembered in the chapel grounds.

Aircraftman 2nd Class Wilfred Cecil Morgan

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Wilfred Cecil Morgan, aged just 19, died on 29th October 1940 following illness while serving with the RAFVR. A former pupil of Alexandra Road Sunday School and keen rugby player, his body was returned home for burial at Bethel.

Ordinary Seaman Douglas Allenby Rose

Royal Navy, H.M.S. Drake

Douglas Allenby Rose died on 4th November 1940, aged 23, one of 27 victims of the Norton Fitzwarren rail disaster while returning to duty. His funeral took place in Swansea, with burial at Bethel.

Lance Sergeant Milton Price Lewis

Royal Artillery (52nd Field Regiment)

Milton Price Lewis, who had enlisted in 1939, died at Colchester on 14th March 1941, aged 23. His body was returned to Swansea, and he rests at Bethel beneath a Commonwealth War Graves memorial plaque.

Sapper William Charles Frederick Evans

Royal Engineers

William Charles Frederick Evans, son of William Richard and Emily Pretoria Evans, died on 5th June 1942, aged 22. He had been evacuated from Dunkirk and served in the Royal Engineers. He was brought home for burial at Bethel.

Fusilier Ronald Noel Kingdon

Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment, 12th Battalion)

Ronald Noel Kingdon, son of Percival and Jeannie Kingdon of Lonlas, Skewen, died on 18th April 1944, aged 23. His funeral was reported in the South Wales Daily Post, and he was laid to rest at Bethel.

Sergeant Sidney Frank Davies

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Sidney Frank Davies, aged 29, was killed in action on 30th September 1944 when his Stirling bomber crashed near Horseheath, Cambridgeshire. His body was brought back to Swansea and buried at Bethel.

Flying Officer Walter Dennis Waller

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Walter Dennis Waller, aged 23, died on 5th March 1945 in a Halifax crash during training with 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit from RAF Riccall. His funeral was reported in the Herald of Wales, and he rests at Bethel.

Stoker 2nd Class Brynley Llewelly Joseph

Royal Navy, H.M.S. Pekin

Brynley Llewellyn Joseph, aged 42, died at home in Swansea on 11th April 1945 while serving with the Royal Navy. He was buried at Bethel, his service noted in the South Wales Daily Post.

Gunner Frederick Regan

Royal Artillery

The last serviceman buried at Bethel, Frederick Regan died on 25th July 1947, aged only 20. The son of Baden and Fanny Regan, he rests at Bethel, though his grave bears no headstone.

Reflection

Taken together, the stories of the servicemen buried at Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapelyard create a moving tapestry of Swansea and Sketty’s wartime history. Though small in number, their graves stand as powerful reminders of how world events reached into the quiet streets and homes of this community. Each stone tells a different story: a young officer who never returned from the Western Front, an airman who died within weeks of enlistment, a sailor killed in a railway disaster while returning from leave, and a soldier who endured France only to die later of illness. Others had travelled far — one from Canada, another through Africa — before their journeys ended here in Sketty.

Bethel became, in its own way, a place where the global met the local. From the trenches of the First World War to the skies and seas of the Second, these men’s stories are woven into the chapel yard, binding the sacrifices of war to the daily lives of families and neighbours who mourned them. For those families, Bethel was not only a place of worship but a place of remembrance, where grief was carved into stone and shared by the wider community.

Their graves are more than individual memorials. Together, they form a collective witness to the cost of war, reflecting the breadth of service — young and old, officers and privates, locals and those with ties far beyond Swansea. They anchor national history in local soil, reminding us that war’s toll was not distant but deeply felt here, among the lanes and chapels of Sketty.

Today, as we walk through Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapelyard, we are invited not only to remember the fallen but to carry their legacy forward. Their names remind us that peace is fragile and precious, and that remembrance is not simply about the past, but about shaping a future rooted in compassion, justice, and enduring gratitude.