Danygraig Cemetery and Its Connections to the Crimean War

St Thomas, Swansea: A Township on the Tawy

St Thomas in 1833: A Growing Riverside Settlement

St. Thomas, Swansea
Ordnance Survey
Glamorgan XXIV
Published 1884

In 1833, Stephen Lewis, in his Topographical Dictionary of Wales, described St Thomas as “a township, forming that part of the parish of Swansea which is in the hundred of Llangyvelach, in the union of Swansea, county of Glamorgan, South Wales, half a mile east from Swansea; and containing 683 inhabitants.” He noted that the district, which had “greatly increased in population and importance,” stood on the left bank of the River Tawy near its mouth, connected to Swansea by a ferry that could be forded for several hours around low tide. Lewis recorded the sweeping changes then underway: the construction of the eastern pier, stretching six hundred yards across the river’s mouth and enclosing a capacious basin, and the creation of Port Tennant, the private enterprise of H. T. Tennant, Esq., who also financed the Swansea and Neath Junction Canal. This canal linked Port Tennant to Cadoxton and the Neath Canal, providing a cheap and efficient route for transporting coal and culm from the valleys to the coast. The hamlet included part of the Cremlyn Burrows, a marshland running along Swansea Bay, and had once contained a chapel of ease to St Mary’s, long since lost to the encroaching sea. Within its bounds stood the seat of Tan‑y‑Graig, and by the Reform Act of 1832 the township was incorporated into the electoral limits of Swansea.

St. Thomas, Swansea
Ordnance Survey
Glamorgan XXIV
Published 1900

The Opening of Danygraig Cemetery

A New Municipal Burial Ground for Swansea

Father Charles Kavanagh
Danygraig Cemetery
credit - findagrave

Situated on the lower slopes of Killay Hill, Danygraig Cemetery opened on 1 January 1857 as Swansea’s first municipal burial ground, created to relieve the dangerously overcrowded churchyards of the town. Its inaugural burial was that of Father Charles Kavanagh, whose sudden death from cholera in 1856, at the age of forty‑seven, marked both a personal tragedy and a symbolic beginning for the new cemetery.

Father Charles Kavanagh

Father Charles Kavanagh and the Catholic Community

A Priest from Lisbon to Swansea

Father Kavanagh had been sent to Swansea after completing his studies for the priesthood in Lisbon, arriving at a time when the Catholic population of the town—predominantly Irish—was steadily rising. More than three hundred Catholics were recorded in the 1840s, many having settled in Swansea even before the Irish potato famines, and their number increased dramatically from 1,369 in 1851 to 2,800 by 1859.

St. David's Church
Rutland Place, Swansea

Church Building, Schooling, and the Greenhill Mission

During his ministry, Father Kavanagh founded St David’s Church, Rutland Place, and within four years a school had been added to serve the growing community. The Irish population was concentrated in the industrial districts north of the town, an area that became known as Greenhill, where overcrowding and poverty were acute. The cholera epidemic of 1849 struck Greenhill with particular severity, and for two relentless months Father Kavanagh conducted more than 170 funerals, a measure of both the scale of the outbreak and the burden placed upon him.

Land for the Dead and a Legacy for the Living

His influence extended beyond pastoral care: he played a central role in securing land for new cemeteries at Oystermouth and Danygraig, and shortly before his death he applied for the lease of land at Greenhill. Several years later, at a cost of £10,000, this site became the location of St Joseph’s Church, designed by P. P. Pugin, a lasting testament to his early efforts. His funeral in 1856 was a civic occasion attended by the Mayor of Swansea and members of the Corporation, reflecting the esteem in which he was held.

St Thomas and the Shadow of Empire

Crimean and Indian Mutiny Street Names

At the same time, the district of St Thomas was expanding, with new streets laid out and named in commemoration of recent imperial conflicts. Balaclava Street, Inkerman Street, and Sebastopol Street recalled the battles of the Crimean War, while Delhi Street echoed the Indian Mutiny.

The Crimean War: Causes and Settlement

Napoleon III of France

Tsar Nicholas I of Russia

The Crimean War, fought between October 1852 and February 1856, arose from disputes over the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land. Although the churches reached an accommodation with the Ottoman Empire, neither Napoleon III of France nor Tsar Nicholas I of Russia would yield. Nicholas issued an ultimatum, and although Britain brokered a compromise he accepted, the Ottomans demanded alterations that pushed the conflict towards war. The eventual settlement came with the Treaty of Paris in 1856.

Crimean War Veterans at Danygraig

Cambrian Daily Leader

Hugh Conway

Hugh Conway: A Veteran Laid to Rest

Nearly sixty years later, on the eve of the First World War, Danygraig Cemetery again became the resting place of a figure linked to the Crimean conflict. In March 1914, Hugh Conway, a Crimean War veteran, died in Swansea and was buried with full military honours at Danygraig.

Cambrian Daily Leader

Newspaper reports in the Cambrian Daily Leader of 19 March 1914 and 20 March 1914 recorded the event, noting his long service and the respect accorded to him.

1911 Census

At the time of the 1911 Census, Conway—listed under the name Henry—was living with his wife Mary at 23 Vincent Street, recorded as a naval pensioner born in Scotland.

Other Crimean Veterans in Swansea

Other Crimean veterans connected with Swansea included William Owens, who died in 1909 and was buried at Mumbles, and William Morgan, Thomas Evans (died 1903), and Henry Mansfield (died 1905), both of whom were laid to rest at Danygraig Cemetery. Their presence in the cemetery adds another layer to its historical landscape, linking the municipal burial ground not only to the growth of Victorian Swansea but also to the wider military history of the nineteenth century.