John Reville – Welsh Regiment, 11th Battalion

Private John Reville – Welsh Regiment, 11th Battalion

John Reville, born in 1917 in Swansea, was the son of John and Ellen Reville of Mayhill, a family rooted in the working‑class streets of early twentieth‑century Swansea.

Family Life

1921 Census

The 1921 Census records the Reville family at 11 Covent Street, Swansea. John Reville’s father — Ireland‑born John, recorded on the census as William, aged 29 — had been employed as a Fireman with Pacific Patent & Fuel Works, though at the time of the census he was out of work, a common hardship in post‑war industrial Swansea. His wife Ellen, aged 36, managed the home. Their children were James, aged 1, and John, aged 6 months.

Military Service

As a young man, John Reville enlisted in the Welsh Regiment, serving as a Private with the 11th Battalion. His service was cut tragically short when he died on 14 April 1940, aged just nineteen.

The South Wales Daily Post Reports His Death

The South Wales Daily Post carried the account of the inquest into his death. The paper reported that Private Reville drowned in the River Severn near Sudbrook after a rowing accident involving several fellow soldiers.

Evidence presented at the inquest described how the boat was driven against rocks, smashed, and sank rapidly. The men were thrown into the river amid a strong gale and powerful currents, conditions that made survival almost impossible.

Sergeant Hubert Thomas Jones testified to the suddenness of the disaster and the frantic attempts to save the men. Leonard Sidney Ward, master of the steam tug Benfleet, described the rescue efforts undertaken as soon as the wrecked boat was sighted. Despite their efforts, the conditions were too severe to reach Reville in time.

John Reville 
Cwmgelli Cemetery, Swansea
credit - findagrave

The coroner returned a verdict of accidental death, noting both the hazardous circumstances and the determined attempts to save the young soldier.

Burial

Private Reville’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.