Brynley Llewellyn Joseph & Frederick Regan

 The Last Servicemen Buried at Bethel

The final war burials at Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapelyard belong to two men whose lives, though very different, are now joined in rest: Brynley Llewellyn Joseph and Frederick Regan.

Brynley Llewellyn Joseph

Family Background

1911 Census

Brynley Llewellyn Joseph was born in 1903, the son of Thomas and Annie Joseph. At the time of the 1911 Census, he was living with his family at 5 Shelley Crescent, Swansea. His father, Thomas, then 40, worked as a glass furnaceman, while his mother, Annie, also 40, managed the household. Brynley was recorded alongside his siblings: Thomas George, William Owen, and Elsie May.

1921 Census

1939 Register 

By the 1921 Census, the family were still living at 5 Shelley Crescent. Thomas was then employed as a furnace man at Lead and Silver Works. Brynley, aged 18, had previously been employed as a general labourer with Swansea Corporation but was out of work at the time. In 1936, he married Mary Ann, and the couple were later recorded in the 1939 Register living at 62 Gwili Terrace, where Brynley was again employed as a general labourer.

Military Service

H.M.S. Pekin

During the Second World War, Brynley served with the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class aboard H.M.S. Pekin. Originally launched in 1911 as the Peking, a four-masted barque built for a German shipping company, the vessel had a long and varied history. After service in the South American nitrate trade and post-war reparations, she eventually came to Britain, where she was used as a training ship under the name Arethusa II. Recommissioned in 1940 as H.M.S. Pekin, she was employed by the Royal Navy during the war years.

Death and Burial

Brynley Llewelly Joseph
Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapelyard
credit - findagrave 

South Wales Daily Post

Brynley died at home in Swansea on 11^th April 1945, aged 42, just weeks before the end of the war in Europe. His funeral and burial at Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapelyard were reported in the South Wales Daily Post on 10^th May 1945.

Frederick Regan

Family Background

Frederick Regan was the son of Baden and Fanny Regan. Unfortunately, very little information survives about his early life or family circumstances, and he does not appear prominently in census or register records available from the period.

Military Service

Frederick served with the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. Although specific details of his unit or service postings are not recorded, his enlistment placed him among the many young men who joined the artillery during the conflict, providing crucial support to Britain’s war effort at home and overseas.

Death and Burial

Frederick Regan
Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapelyard

Frederick died on 25^th July 1947, aged just 20 years. His death occurred after the war had ended, yet he was still recognised as part of the generation whose lives were profoundly shaped—and too often cut short—by military service. Frederick was laid to rest at Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapelyard, but unlike many others buried there, his grave does not bear a headstone.

Legacy

Brynley Llewellyn Joseph and Frederick Regan, though from different generations, represent the closing chapter of Bethel’s wartime burials. Brynley, a husband and labourer who answered the call of the Royal Navy during the final year of the war, and Frederick, a young gunner whose life ended just two years after the guns had fallen silent, both remind us that the shadow of conflict stretched far beyond the battlefield.

Their stories show us the breadth of war’s reach. Brynley, already in his forties, balanced family responsibilities with duty at sea, while Frederick, still barely out of his teenage years, belonged to a younger generation whose futures were forever altered by global war. Together, their resting places mark the bookend of sacrifice within the small bounds of Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapelyard.

Though Frederick’s grave bears no headstone, and Brynley’s service is remembered only in brief records, their presence in Bethel ensures they are not forgotten. Their names, lying alongside comrades from earlier years of the conflict, form part of a collective testimony to resilience, loss, and the cost of war borne by families and communities in Swansea.