Glyn Roberts is identified on a memorial plaque removed from the now demolished Bethel Welsh Methodist Church in Mold Road. He is shown along with three other chapel members, Albert Edwin Hopwood, Owen Jones and
Glyn was first identified in the CWGC lists as the son of Mrs. Kate Roberts of Llys Eifion, Cilcain, and in the UK Soldiers Who Died in The Great War 1914-19 (accessible on www.ancestry.co.uk) as having been born in Capel Curig and a resident of Pwllheli. Glyn’s connection to Buckley was established from contact with his great niece, Rhiannon Jones.
Glyn was born in 1892 in Capel Curig, one of ten children born to William and Kate Roberts. Sometime after 1901 the family moved to Plas ym Mhenllech, a farm near Tudweiliog on the Llyn Peninsula. Unfortunately, in 1905 William died of pneumonia leaving Kate a widow at 40 years old with ten children the youngest aged six months. She continued to farm with the help of her sons John 17, Robert 15, Glyn 13 and Llywelyn 11. Another tragedy struck the family when little Susannah was killed aged 2.
In September 1914 both Glyn and Llywelyn volunteered to join the Royal Welsh Fusiliers 10th battalion. In September 1915 they were sent to Belgium. Glyn was killed on the 3rd of March 1916 at the Bluff near Ypres. His death greatly affected poor Kate who found it difficult to cope with Remembrance Sunday and the associated Poppy Day. Glyn’s brother Llywelyn survived the war, although wounded, and was transferred to the Agricultural Corps in Flintshire. After the war Llywelyn spent some time in Canada, then returned to Wales, where he married and farmed Ty Newydd, Llanfair DC near Ruthin.
The circumstances of how Glyn was killed are recorded in the RWF War Diaries. The Commanding Officer (Lieutenant Colonel Steuart Binny DSO), Second in Command (Major Edward Freeman), Captain William Lyons and 10 other soldiers were killed while sheltering in a dugout called Gordon’s Post near The Bluff which suffered a direct hit by a Howitzer shell. The Officers were buried in Spoilbank Cemetery but there are no graves for the soldiers. Glyn Roberts is among the missing on the Menin Gate.
The CWGC records 15 soldiers from the RWF 10th Btn. Killed on March 3rd and buried at Spoilbank or remembered on the Menin Gate. In the RWF War Diaries, Thomas was reported “missing, reported killed” on the 2nd March, apparently as part of a successful action by the Battalion to regain trenches that had been captured by the Germans on February 14th. Glyn Roberts and the others had just returned to the dugout from this action when it was hit by the shell.
Kate Roberts continued to farm with her son John and her daughters, however the family decided to leave Plas ym Mhenllech quite suddenly and move to Flintshire. They first rented and eventually bought Bistre Farm, Buckley. Glyn’s family were Welsh speaking and so it was natural that they would join the Welsh Chapel. When John married, Kate and her daughters moved to Llys Eifion, Cilcain. Kate was living there with her daughter Kate jnr. and son-in-law John Jones in 1939.
It seems that Kate Roberts moved to Bistre Farm after the war. Glyn did not live in Buckley but Kate or her children asked for Glyn’s name to be added to the plaque in the Welsh Chapel. Glyn’s brother John Roberts farmed Bistre Farm until 1960 when the farm was bought by Bill and Jean Fisher.
Glyn was not originally namedon the Hawkesbury Memorial but was added in 2020.
