David Alfred Roberts – Welsh Regiment, 2/5th Battalion

Private David Alfred Roberts – Welsh Regiment, 2/5th Battalion

Early Life and Family Background

Alfred Roberts and Martha Davies marriage certificate St John‑juxta‑Swansea

David Alfred Roberts was born in 1917 in Swansea, the son of Alfred Roberts and Martha Davies, who married in 1906 at St John‑juxta‑Swansea. The Roberts family were part of the working communities of Brynhyfryd, where coal mining and large households shaped everyday life.

1921 Census – Eaton Road, Brynhyfryd

1921 Census

In the 1921 Census, the Roberts family were living at 51a Eaton Road, Brynhyfryd, Swansea. Alfred, aged 33, worked as a Coal Miner Hewer for the Pentre Colliery Co., while his wife Martha, aged 34, kept the home. Their children present were Gladys, 13; Rosina, 12; Lilly, 10; John Henry, 9; Edna, 7; Margaret, 5 — all attending school — and David Alfred, aged 3. The census reflects a busy, close‑knit household typical of Brynhyfryd in the early twentieth century.

1939 Register 

Loss of Father and 1939 Register

Alfred Roberts died in 1930, leaving Martha a widow. By the 1939 Register, only David, then a Packers Labourer (Tin Worker), remained living with his mother at 51b Eaton Road. The rest of the children had moved into homes of their own, marking the transition of the family into the inter‑war years.

Second World War Service

David enlisted in the Welsh Regiment, serving as a Private with the 2/5th Battalion. His service placed him among the many Swansea men who joined the regiment during the early years of the war.

Death Reported in the South Wales Daily Post

David’s death on 11 September 1941, at Worthing, was reported in the South Wales Daily Post. The newspaper recorded that his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Roberts of Eaton Road, had received official notification that their son had been accidentally killed while on military service. Roberts had been in the Army for eighteen months and was twenty‑four years old at the time of his death.

Before enlistment, he had worked at the Elba Works, and was well known in the Brynhyfryd district. The report carried his photograph in uniform, a solemn reminder of another young Swansea life lost during the war.

David Alfred Roberts
Cwmgelli Cemetery, Swansea
credit - findagrave

Burial

David’s body was brought home to Swansea and laid to rest at Cwmgelli Cemetery, where he is remembered among the Second World War casualties who rest there.