Thomas Gunn & William Thomas Moon

Private Thomas Gunn & Serjeant William Thomas Moon

Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapel, Sketty

Thomas Gunn
Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapel

There are only two graves in Swansea where two servicemen lie together. One is at Danygraig Cemetery, where a father and son are buried side by side. The other is here, at Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapel, Sketty, where Private Thomas Gunn and Serjeant William Thomas Moon share a single resting place.

Private Thomas Gunn

King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, 23rd Works Battalion
Died 16^th June 1921, aged 45

Thomas Gunn was born in 1880 at Kilsby, Northamptonshire, the son of Silvester Gunn and Mary Ann Endall, who had married in 1873 at Radway, Warwickshire.

1881 Census

The 1881 Census shows the family at 77 Cross Roads, Kilsby, where Silvester, aged 30, worked as a railway labourer, and Mary Ann, 29, kept house. Thomas, then just a year old, lived with his elder brothers, Henry (9) and Albert (6). Tragedy followed in later years, as Mary Ann died in 1886, aged only 36, and Silvester himself passed away in 1909, aged 74.

1911 Census

By the 1911 Census, Thomas was a 28-year-old labourer, boarding at 16 Michna Street, Aberavon, in the household of Elias Burbridge. Later, he enlisted with the King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, 23rd Works Battalion. His death occurred on 16^th June 1921, at the age of 45.

Serjeant William Thomas Moon

Royal Garrison Artillery
Died 16^th November 1921, aged 45

1921 Census

Lying in the same grave is Serjeant William Thomas Moon, of the Royal Garrison Artillery. Born in Swansea, he served during the war but endured ill health in its aftermath. By the time of the 1921 Census, William was recorded as a patient at the Glamorgan County Asylum, Bridgend, where he remained until his death on 16^th November 1921, aged 45.

Legacy

The shared grave of Gunn and Moon is unique in Swansea’s military burials. However, under the Termination of the Present War (Definition) Act, which fixed the official end of the Great War as 31^st August 1921, only Thomas Gunn was recognised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as a war casualty. Although Moon had also served, his circumstances meant he was not included on the official roll of commemoration.

Thus, two men lie together in the same grave, but only one is formally remembered as a war dead — a poignant reminder of how the definitions of war service shaped remembrance just as much as sacrifice itself.