In memory of Robert John Williams
Robert John Williams (pictured) was born in Llanfairfechan to Elizabeth Williams and her husband Henry, a shepherd, writes Adrian Hughes. By 1911 the couple were living at 3 Penyffordd Terrace, Penrhynside, with Robert, his two sisters and his two cousins.
Robert enlisted in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Llandudno and arrived in France in December 1915. He died three months later, on 23 February 1916, after being accidentally shot by a soldier of another Allied unit. He was 26 years old. He is buried at Guards Cemetery, Windy Corner, in the Pas de Calais region.
His next door neighbour, at 2 Penyffordd Terrace, was killed in the same area a few weeks later. Carpenter’s son John Mark Jones had also enlisted in the Royal Welsh at Llandudno and was killed, aged 33, during heavy shelling from the German lines on 18 March 1916. Two other local men died at the same time, Privates David Parry and Robert Jones, both of Llandudno. All three were buried together at Le Touret Military Cemetery by army chaplain Rev Hugh Jones. Before volunteering for military service he was minister of the Baptist chapel in Penrhynside – the chapel John Mark Jones had attended. The Rev Jones told a local newspaper later: “It was a sad and difficult duty for me to bury three dear sons of Wales in a foreign land.”
Return to Penrhynside war memorial page
