Llewellyn Rees – Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Hawke Battalion

Able Seaman Llewellyn Rees – Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Hawke Battalion

Early Life

Llewellyn Rees was born in 1886 in Swansea, the son of Thomas Rees and Esther Rees. His early years are not extensively documented, but like many young men from Swansea’s industrial communities, he later answered the call to serve during the First World War.

Naval Service

Llewellyn enlisted in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) and served as an Able Seaman with the Hawke Battalion of the Royal Naval Division. This unusual formation consisted of naval reservists who were trained and deployed as infantry on the Western Front, fighting alongside regular army units through some of the most demanding campaigns of the war.

Hawke Battalion on 14^th January 1918

By January 1918, the Hawke Battalion was holding front‑line positions on the Western Front as part of 189^th Brigade, 63^rd (Royal Naval) Division. Although no major offensive took place on 14^th January 1918, the battalion was engaged in the relentless and hazardous routine of winter trench warfare. During this period, the division occupied an active sector of the line while the British Army braced for the anticipated German spring offensive.

Conditions were severe: trenches were waterlogged, freezing, and often in disrepair, while the men endured snow, ice, exhaustion, and widespread illness. Even outside major battles, the front was dangerous. The Hawke Battalion faced frequent enemy shelling, sniper fire, and trench‑mortar bombardments, as well as patrol clashes and minor raids that could erupt suddenly along the line.

It was in this hazardous environment of daily attrition that Able Seaman Llewellyn Rees was wounded. His subsequent burial in a major hospital cemetery strongly suggests he was evacuated from the front with serious injuries or illness, a fate shared by many men of the Royal Naval Division during the winter of 1917–1918.

Death

Llewellyn Rees was died from wounds on 14^th January 1918, at a time when the Hawke Battalion was under constant strain from harsh winter conditions and continuous enemy activity. Though no large operation occurred on that date, the dangers of the front line were ever‑present, and casualties were common even in periods of relative quiet.

Burial

Llewellyn Rees
St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, Seine‑Maritime, France
credit - findagrave

Able Seaman Rees is buried at St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, in Seine‑Maritime, France. Rouen served as a major centre for British General Hospitals during the war, receiving large numbers of wounded from the Western Front. His burial there indicates that he was transported from the battlefield but succumbed to his wounds or illness shortly after reaching medical care