DAVIES, JOHN GWYNORO
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Rank:
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Text on stone:
Fusilier
14651752
21/09/1944
22
Royal Welch Fusiliers 4th Bn.
I. D. 2.
Dwed deigryn hallt iddo droi ffwrdd dwed
gobaith gwyn cawn eto gwrdd
(Tell him a salty tear turned away white hope we will again meet)
Additional Information:
Son of Thomas and Annie Davies, of Foel, Montgomeryshire.
He lived at Arddol Houe, Foel, Near Welshpool, Montgomeryshire, which was in the Rural District Council of Llanfyllin (and is the reason that several documents suggest he was from Llanfyllin).
Gwynoro Davies was the youngest child born to Thomas & Anne Davies (nee Thomas) and had a brother Tudwal Davies and four sisters, Nesta, Mona, Menna and Dilys Mary Davies.
Despite having a severe stroke which paralysed her down one side of her body following the birth of her first child, Annie Davies went on to have five more children.
Thomas Davies, Gwynoro’s father, was born in Foel, Llangadfan, his father John having moved there from Dinas Mawddwy and married Sinah (nee Rickett) from Llanwddyn. John Davies ran a shop – “Arddol House” selling groceries and he was also a corn merchant. The business was then carried on by his son, Thomas Davies and the last owner was Thomas’s eldest son Tudwal Davies (brother of Gwynoro Davies)and his wife Edith. The business had been in the Davies family for a total of four generations.
In the sixties Tudwal Davies moved with his family to London. The shop closed in the 1970s and
was converted into a private house. Tudwal later returned to Oswestry where he died in 2002.
Gwynoro Davies also worked in the shop prior to signing up in WWII.
Sadly, John Gwynoro Davies was killed in action on 21 September 1944, at the age of just 22 years and is buried at Valkenswaard War Cemetery, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands,
Dwed deigryn hallt
Iddo droi i ffwrdd
Dwed gobaith Gwyn
Cawn eto grwdd
The verse roughly translates into English as:
Tears of sadness fear
that we will turn away,
But hope allows us to believe
That we will meet again.
In Foel, Near Welshpool, Powys, Mid-Wales just inside the brick porch of the entrance of Ebenezer Chapel, a plaque has been erected to the memory of John Gwynoro Davies
In Memory of
J Gwynoro Davies, Arddol House,
who fell in battle in the Netherlands”
Gwynoro was originaly buried at the Dutch village of Oerle, before being transfered to the Valkenswaard War Cemetery.
There is also an inscription in Welsh on his parent’s grave in Llangadfan Cemetery
“Dy ewyllys di a wneler”
“Thy will be done”
His name is also inscribed on the Village Hall commemorating the fallen on WWI & WWII