Powys Digital History Project 

Cwmdeuddwr National School 8
The Great War

The home front
The Great War did not affect home life in the way that the Second World War did but many family were stricken with the loss or maiming of a loved one and thoughts of those in Radnorshire must always have been with their kin in France and other theatres of war. For Mr Llewellyn Davies, the long-serving master of Cwmdeuddwr School the beginning of the war brought further staff problems as this entry in the School Log Book from 1914 indicates.
Cwmdeuddwr
School
Log Book
log book entry

 

"Mr Leslie Price, Assistant Master, has enlisted in the R.A.M.C [Royal Army Medical Corps] with the consent of the Local Authority & Managers. He will be reinstated at the end of the war.
Mr Price, although wounded in France, did return to the school in 1919.

Tragedy and Victory
In May 1916 Mr Davies received the news which every household dreaded. He entered his tragic news in the Log Book.

 Powys
County Archives
R/E/PS/9/L/1
log book entry 
 

"The Headmaster has received the news that his only son Lieut. Ralph Llewelyn Davies, Royal Air Force - and Flying Instructor of pilots at Feltwell, Norfolk, has been killed - aeroplane accident.
Under the circumstances the managers resolved to close the school today for the Whitsuntide Vacation - 2 weeks-."
 

In November 1918 Cwmdeuddwr children joined Rhayader children in a march of victory around the town. For Mr Davies, like many others, victory had come at a terrible price.

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