Cecil John Hopkins

Private Cecil John Hopkins – Welsh Regiment, 14^th Battalion – First Burial of 1915

Early Life

Cecil John Hopkins was born in 1894 in Mumbles, the son of John Hopkins and Annie Hopkins.

1901 Census

At the time of the 1901 Census, the Hopkins family was living at 1 Westfa Cottage, Llanelly. John, aged 38, born in Raglan, Monmouthshire, was employed as a domestic coachman. Annie, 39, was from Shaftesbury, Dorset. Their children were Blanche, 14; Ivor, 10; Cecil, 7; and Ernest, aged 2. Also present in the household were a boarder, Albert V. Sellers, 25, and his wife, Maude, 26.

1911 Census

By the 1911 Census, the family had moved to 28 Brunswick Street, Swansea. John, now 48, was still working as a domestic coachman, while Annie was 49. Their children at home included Ivor Claude, 20, employed as a domestic chauffeur; Cecil John, 17, working as a railway stoker; Ernest Tom, 12; Tom Albert, 9; and Cedric Joseph, aged 7. Also in the household were family relative Rosa Jane Dennis, 27, listed as a “guest”; boarder George Parker, 25, employed as a groom; and William John Jenkins, 31, a yard labourer, with his wife Blanche Eleanor, 24, and their infant son, Claude Alfred, aged 6 months.

Military Service and Death

North Wales Weekly News

Cecil enlisted with the Welsh Regiment, 14^th Battalion, becoming its first casualty of the First World War. He was living in lodgings at Wellington Road, Rhyl, when he died on 21^st February 1915, aged 21. His death was reported in the North Wales Weekly News.

Burial

Cecil John Hopkins
Danygraig Cemetery
credit - findagrave

Private Cecil John Hopkins was buried at Danygraig Cemetery, Swansea, his grave marking him as the first soldier of the Welsh Regiment, 14th Battalion to die in the Great War — and the first burial of 1915 among Swansea’s war dead.

Legacy

Cecil’s early death illustrates the vulnerability of the new service battalions formed in 1914, many of whose recruits never lived to see overseas combat. His grave at Danygraig connects him to Swansea’s wider story of loss in the First World War, standing alongside those of other local men such as Owen Owen, William Bromfield, and Thomas Lewis. Together, their memorials show the impact of the war on Swansea families during its earliest months.