Mumbles Remembers – First World War - Oystermouth Cemetery
Mumbles Remembers – First World War
The War Graves of Oystermouth Cemetery (1915–1918)
Between 1915 and 1918, sixteen servicemen connected with the Mumbles and Oystermouth community were laid to rest here. Their graves — a mix of Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) headstones and family memorials — tell a story of devotion, courage, and grief that stretches from the trenches of France to the skies over Britain.
The sequence of burials at Oystermouth reflects the course of the war itself: early optimism, heavy loss, and finally the tragic toll of disease as the conflict came to a close. Each name represents a story — of a son, a brother, or a husband — whose life was shaped and shortened by the Great War.
John Malcolm James
Welsh Regiment – 1/6th Battalion
17 February 1915
John Malcolm James was the first military burial at Oystermouth Cemetery. Born in 1889, he was the youngest son of George and Sarah James of West Cross. Having recently joined the 6th Battalion, Welsh Regiment, he fell ill and died of pneumonia on 17 February 1915. Letters of condolence were sent to his parents from both King George V and Lord Kitchener, reflecting the solemn regard held for early wartime deaths.
Arthur Michael
Royal Irish Regiment
9 April 1915
Arthur Michael, born in 1889 in Oystermouth, was the son of Thomas and Anne Michael. He enlisted in the Royal Irish Regiment and was training in Ireland when he contracted spotted fever. He died at Longford Workhouse and was brought home to Mumbles for burial. His funeral was conducted with military honours and reported in the South Wales Daily Post.
Edward Talfourd Strick
Welsh Regiment – 2/6th Battalion
19 June 1915
Edward Talfourd Strick, aged 32, was the son of Thomas Noon Talfourd Strick and Mary Augusta Strick of West Cross. A solicitor by profession, he died following surgery at his parents’ home, Llanfair, in 1915. His funeral was reported in the Western Mail.
Llewellyn Thomas
Welsh Regiment – 6th Battalion
29 November 1915
Llewellyn Thomas was born in Swansea in 1867 and was one of the oldest serving officers of the 6th Battalion, Welsh Regiment. After serving in France, he was invalided home with dysentery. He died suddenly in Swansea only weeks after being declared fit to return to duty.
Graham Perkins
Royal Sussex Regiment – 1/6th Battalion
13 December 1915
Graham Perkins, born in 1895, was the only son of Henry Thomas Perkins and Elizabeth Harris of Swansea. He died at the Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot, aged 20, and was returned home for burial beside his parents at Oystermouth Cemetery.
Cyril Donald Thomas Jenkins
Royal Welsh Fusiliers / Royal Flying Corps
2 October 1916
Cyril Donald Thomas Jenkins, aged 20, of Trebanos House, Pontardawe, served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps. While flying an Avro 504A biplane near Cramlington, Northumberland, he crashed and was killed instantly. His death certificate recorded the cause as shock.
George Trevor Brown
Royal Flying Corps (attached Welsh Regiment)
12 February 1917
George Trevor Brown, born in 1892, was the son of John Samuel Brown, a Swansea ironmonger of Oxford Street. He was killed in a flying accident over Salisbury Plain, aged 25, and brought home for burial.
William Henry Supple
Welsh Regiment – 4th Battalion
25 May 1917
William Henry Supple, born in 1899, was the son of Robert and Mary Supple of John Street, Oystermouth. He enlisted in the Welsh Regiment and died at Pembroke in May 1917, aged only 18. His body was brought home to Oystermouth for burial.
Arthur Dennis Johnson
Royal Field Artillery
16 October 1917
Arthur Dennis Johnson was the only son of Arthur William and Clara Agnes Johnson of 25 Sketty Road, Swansea. He died at Bobbingworth, Essex, aged 33. Although an officer, his grave bears no military headstone, but he is remembered on his family memorial at Oystermouth.
Herbert Allen Webber
Royal Fusiliers – 2nd Battalion
28 April 1918
Herbert Allen Webber, born in 1895, was the eldest son of Alfred and Ellen Webber of Union Street, Swansea. He served with the Royal Fusiliers and died at Lincoln Military Hospital. The Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects record his rank as Lance Corporal at the time of death.
Arthur Hedley Tucker
South Wales Borderers – 1st Battalion
12 July 1918
Arthur Hedley Tucker, born in 1895, was the eldest son of David and Martha Tucker of Oystermouth. A printer by trade, he enlisted with the Welsh Regiment before transferring to the South Wales Borderers. He died of wounds at Leicestershire War Hospital, aged 23, and is buried on the family plot.
Benjamin Ernest Payne
Royal Welsh Fusiliers – 24th (Denbighshire Yeomanry) Battalion
20 July 1918
Benjamin Ernest Payne, born in 1890, was the youngest son of Thomas Spencer and Mary Ann Payne of West Cross. He died at Norwich War Hospital, aged 28. The 24th Battalion had recently fought at La Becque, part of the Allied advance on the Western Front. He is buried with his family beneath a military headstone.
John Stuart Lewis
Welsh Regiment – 7th Battalion
14 October 1918
John Stuart Lewis, born in 1889, was the son of Lewis and Mary Emma Lewis of Morriston. He enlisted at Cardiff in August 1918 but served only 62 days before dying of illness at Middlesbrough Military Hospital.
John Sydney Buxton
Welsh Regiment – 53rd Battalion
16 October 1918
John Sydney Buxton, born in 1900 in Peterborough, was the son of Richard and Beatrice Buxton of West Cross. He enlisted in the Welsh Regiment in September 1918, but within a month died of influenza at Kennil Park Military Hospital, Cardiff, aged just 18.
Edward Haydon Harries
Army Service Corps – M.T. Depot, Grove Park
2 November 1918
Edward Haydon Harries, born in 1884, was the son of David and Mary Harris of Swansea. He served in the Mechanical Transport Branch of the Army Service Corps, stationed at Grove Park Depot, Lewisham. He died at the Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich, aged 34, just days before the Armistice.
Alfred Baglow
Canadian Infantry – 54th Battalion (Kootenay)
3 November 1918
Alfred Baglow, born in 1870, was the eldest son of William and Mary Ann Baglow of Oystermouth. Having emigrated to Canada, he enlisted with the 54th (Kootenay) Battalion, Canadian Infantry in 1915. He died of influenza at Bramshott Military Camp, Hampshire, aged 48, just days before the war ended — the final First World War burial at Oystermouth Cemetery.
Legacy
Today, the sixteen First World War graves at Oystermouth Cemetery remain an enduring link between the people of Mumbles and the wider story of the Great War. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) ensures their preservation, maintaining the military headstones and family plots with the same care afforded to those in France and Belgium.
Each year, on Remembrance Sunday, wreaths are laid at the Mumbles War Memorial, and families, historians, and residents gather to remember these men — sailors, soldiers, and airmen — whose lives ended far too soon. Their graves, scattered across the gentle slopes of Oystermouth, remind us that the cost of war reached even the smallest corners of Wales.
They lie not forgotten, but remembered by Mumbles — a community that continues to honour their service and sacrifice more than a century later.
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