In memory of Owen and Lewis Williams

Portrait of Owen Williams of BenllechOwen and Lewis Williams were sons of John and Tryphena Williams of Gwynfryn. John was headmaster of Ty’nygongl School.

Lewis worked in a bank in Warwick before joining the army and serving with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was promoted to Second Lieutenant in April 1916 but was killed in the Somme region of France on 18 August 1916. He was 23 years old. He has no known grave. He is one of more than 72,300 servicemen commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval.

Tryphena was already a widow by the time Lewis died. Hugh, another of her sons, was wounded while serving as a Gunner and was recuperating in a Yorkshire hospital by autumn 1917. He too had worked in a Warwickshire bank before joining the war effort.

Owen, pictured left, was the couple’s eldest son. He was educated at his father’s school and at Beaumaris Grammar School. During the war, he was a Driver with the Warwickshire Field Artillery and Royal Horse Artillery. He was wounded on the Western Front and died in a military hospital in Belgium on 30 September 1917. He was 30 years old and is buried at Dozinghem Military Cemetery.

Return to Benllech war memorial page

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