Holy Trinity Church in the parish of Felinfoel, Carmarthenshire

Description

Photography by John Ball - 22 February 2000 (with a Sony Mavica MVC-FD91 digital camera)

Felinfoel is just 1½ miles north of the centre of the town of Llanelli in the county of Carmarthenshire. Its name is probably best known in connection with the Felinfoel Brewery Company Ltd., makers of the famous Welsh "Double Dragon" bitter ale (see website link below). Felinfoel was once in the parish of Llanelli but is now a parish in its own right. The photographs, taken on a dull winter's day in light drizzle, show Holy Trinity parish church whose tall spire is a prominent landmark in the town. The spire appears to be weather-proofed with green copper or bronze.

Holy Trinity Church is also included in my Welsh Churches and Chapels Collection.

Image 1:

Holy Trinity Church viewed from the south-west.

Image 2:

The church viewed from near the southern boundary of its churchyard.

Image 3:

The extensive graveyard is on level ground and is well maintained. Most of the gravestones are in reasonably good condition and with one or two exceptions, the inscriptions are quite legible. The oldest graves, dating from the 1850s are in a large plot in front of the south wall of the church. Two interesting gravestone inscriptions are described below.

Image 4:

In
Memory of
JOHN EYNON,
who was upwards of 30 yrs.
Postmaster of this town
who died July 31, 1879,
aged 66 years.
-----
In the midst of life we are in
death.
In Loving Memory of
WILLIAM CHALINDER
of Llanelly
Born 4th November 1834,
Died 1st October 1888.

One wonders about the relationship between John EYNON and William CHALINDER. Why are they buried in the same grave? The 1881 census shows William Ed. CHALINDER, aged 45, living with his wife Mary Anne at Stonehedge, Llanelly. He is described as a commercial traveller.

Image 5:

(top panel)
JAMES SAMUEL
Bandmaster, Llanelly
Late 6th Dragoon Guards
Born 6th Nov 1854,
Died 10th May 1915.
Also his wife
ELIZABETH SAMUEL
Born 2nd Sept. 1867,
Died 24th Nov, 1934.

(bottom panel)
JAMES ROSCOE, the only son.
Lieut. North Staffordshire Regt.
who fell in action in Mesopotamia
25th Jan. 1917, aged 24 years.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (see website link below) provides further information about James Roscoe SAMUEL on its Debt of Honour, details as follows:

Second Lieutenant JAMES ROSCOE SAMUEL
7th Bn., North Staffordshire Regiment
died aged 24 on Thursday, 25th January 1917.

Second Lieutenant SAMUEL was the son of James and Elizabeth Samuel, of St. Edward's Vicarage, Barnsley, Yorks. Native of Llanelly. Remembered with honour, Amara War Cemetery, Iraq (formerly Mesopotamia); Grave Reference/Panel Number: XVI. A. 6.

Amara is a town on the left bank of the River Tigris some 520 kilometres from the sea. The War Cemetery is a little east of the town between the left bank of the river and the Chahaila Canal.
Amara was occupied by the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force on the 3rd June, 1915, and it became at once a hospital centre. Accommodation, on both banks of the river, was greatly increased during 1916, and in April, 1917, seven British and Indian General Hospitals, as well as other medical units, were stationed at Amara.
Besides the "Old Cemetery" (which became the present War Cemetery), other cemeteries were made at Amara for Hindu, Sikh and Muhammadan soldiers of the Indian Army and for Turkish prisoners of war. The graves brought in from other cemeteries and from the battlefields numbered in excess of 3,000.
The burial grounds or battle fields from which British graves were brought into Amara include, among other places made famous by the War,

Abu Rumman Mounds, occupied in April, 1916;
Es Sinn, where Field Ambulances were in September, 1915;
Fallahiya and Sandy Ridge, Field Ambulance positions facing each other across the river, North-East of Sannaiyat;
Imam al Mansur, a position occupied in December, 1916;
Orah, which became the Advanced Base in February, 1916;
"R19", near the right bank, between Kut and Bassouia;
Sannaiyat, passed in September, 1915, attacked in April, 1916, and taken in February, 1917;
Amara New Cemetery, on the right bank, which was begun in February, 1918, and used until July, 1920; it contained 71 graves; and
Shaikh Saad Old Cemetery, where 473 British officers and men were buried. In 1933 all of the headstones were removed from this cemetery as salts in the soil caused a rapid deterioration of the stone used. Instead a screen wall was erected with all of the names engraved upon it.
Links to external websites:

Felinfoel Brewery website - http://www.felinfoel-brewery.co.uk/

Commonwealth War Graves Commission website - http://www.cwgc.org/

• http://www.jlb2011.co.uk/walespic/archive/000318.htm (link opens in new window)