In memory of Meredith Richard Williams
Meredith Richard Williams was baptised in St Mary’s Church in February 1885, writes Dai Sheppard. His parents were Jane Williams and Griffith Williams, a gardener known as Guto Dwr Hallt (“Guto Salty Water”).
In 1891 Meredith was living with his parents and older brothers and sisters in Lawnt. Griffith was working as a fisherman. By 1901 Meredith was living with his sister Jane Ann Jones in Cader Road. Over the years he appeared before magistrates for offences including trespassing at the GWR railway station, poaching, drunkenness and fighting.
He married Winifred Evans in Borth chapel in autumn 1909. The couple later lived in Railway Terrace with their five children. Meredith worked as a “moss and fern dealer” and florist, and volunteered with the Territorial Army.
As a Private with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, he took part in the disastrous attempt to invade Turkey via the Gallipoli peninsula in 1915. He wrote to Winifred in August 1915 from a Maltese hospital to tell her he was recovering from illness and was “lucky to come through without a scratch”.
He was discharged from the army in April 1916 but recalled in July, despite having a “history of dysentery” (probably the reason for his hospital treatment in 1915). In April 1917 he travelled to join the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force. At Marseille he and c.2,500 other soldiers boarded the troop carrier HT Cameronia for the journey across the Mediterranean to Alexandria, Egypt. The ship was sunk by a German submarine on 15 April. Most on board were saved but Meredith was among the lost. He was 32 years old.
His body was never found. He is commemorated in Alexandria on the Chatby Memorial to those lost at sea, and in St Mary’s Church, Dolgellau. Winifred was awarded a weekly war pension of £1 11s 3d (c.£70 in today’s money). She remarried after the war and lived in Fron Yew, South Street.
Return to Dolgellau war memorial page
