Ronald Elvie Bevan of Oxwich

A young soldier who gave his life in Normandy

Early Life and Family

 Ronald Elvie Bevan

Ronald Elvie Bevan was born in 1918 in the village of Oxwich, on the Gower Peninsula. He was the youngest child of Arthur Bevan and Rose Ann Grove, who were married in Swansea in 1894.

Ronald’s father, Arthur, died in April 1919, when Ronald was still an infant. Arthur was laid to rest in the churchyard of St Illtyd’s, Oxwich, leaving his widow Rose to raise their large family alone.

The Bevan Family in 1921

1921 Census

The 1921 Census offers a glimpse into Ronald’s early childhood and family life. At that time, the Bevan family was living in Gander Street, Oxwich, under the care of his widowed mother, Rose Alice Bevan, aged forty-nine, who was recorded as undertaking household duties. Her older children helped support the household: Frederick George, twenty-two, worked as an agricultural labourer; Eleanor Maud, eighteen, and Evelyn Mary, sixteen, were both employed as domestic servants; and Clifton Melvyn, fourteen, also worked on local farms. The younger children — Harry Grove, eleven; Joyce Martha, seven; and Francis William, five — were still at school, while the youngest, Ronald Elvie, was just two years old. Together, they formed a large rural family bound by hard work and resilience in the years following the Great War.

Service with the Welch Regiment

As a young man, Ronald followed in the footsteps of many Welshmen of his generation by joining the Welch Regiment, one of Wales’s proudest infantry units.
He served with the 1/5^th Battalion, a Territorial Army formation that became part of the 53^rd (Welsh) Infantry Division during the Second World War.

By the summer of 1944, the 1/5^th Battalion was fighting in Normandy, following the Allied landings of D-Day (6^th June 1944). The Welsh Division was heavily engaged in the fierce struggle to break through the German defensive lines south of Caen — a campaign marked by courage, exhaustion, and heavy losses. Ronald had risen to the rank of Corporal, a position of trust and leadership within his section.

Killed in Action: Normandy, July 1944

On 21^st July 1944, during the bitter fighting south of Caen, Corporal Ronald Elvie Bevan was killed in action. He was twenty-five years old.

At that time, the 1/5^th Battalion, Welch Regiment was part of the 158^th Infantry Brigade within the 53^rd (Welsh) Division. The division had landed in Normandy earlier that month and was taking part in Operation Pomegranate and subsequent assaults aimed at capturing the high ground near Évrecy and Bougy. These actions were intended to draw German forces away from the American sector before the launch of Operation Cobra, the major breakout from the Normandy bridgehead.

The terrain was difficult — narrow lanes, thick hedgerows, and well-defended villages — and casualties were heavy on both sides. The Welch Regiment’s battalions were repeatedly called to advance through shell-torn fields under constant mortar and machine-gun fire. It was amid these relentless engagements that Ronald lost his life.

Ronald Elvie Bevan
Bayeux War Cemetery
credit - findagrave

He was laid to rest in Bayeux War Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth burial ground in France. His headstone stands among those of comrades from across the Welsh regiments who fell during that same campaign.

Legacy and Remembrance

In Oxwich, Ronald’s name is remembered among those who gave their lives in the Second World War — young men who left their coastal homes to serve in distant lands. His story is also one of family endurance: born as his father’s life was ending, raised by a widowed mother in the difficult years after the First World War, and ultimately giving his own life in the second great conflict of the century.

Today, Corporal Ronald Elvie Bevan’s grave in Bayeux War Cemetery lies beneath the carved badge of the Welch Regiment and the timeless words of remembrance:
“Their name liveth for evermore.”

In his home village, Ronald’s sacrifice is also commemorated on his parents’ grave in the churchyard of St Illtyd’s, Oxwich, where his father Arthur rests. The inscription ensures that, though he fell far from home, his memory endures among the family and community that shaped his short but honourable life.