Notes

Age on Entry Pupils entering Form 1 were aged 12+ in the early days of the school. There was no Form 2 and the four-year course to School Certificate concluded in Form 5.
In 1897 the school was recruiting pupils for all Forms, as well as for Form 1, so for example Evan Howell Evans, aged 15.4 years, would have entered directly into a higher Form.

The Morgan Family of Maesydderwen, Mountain Ash, were estate agents appointed by Lord Aberdare at Dyffryn House. Three generations of the Morgan family held this position.

James Henry Comley’s father was the gardener, and later agent, to James Windsor Lewis of Plasdraw House.

Caroline Williams was one of the four daughters of Reese Williams, the Cashier at Werfa Colliery.

Winifred Howells was a member of the Howells of Maesgwyn family. They were farmers and landowners. Marie Howells the school’s peripatetic strings teacher was also a member of this family. Winifred and her three sisters eventually moved, in the early twentieth century, to Broniestyn House in Trecynon.

Margaret Ann Williams was the sister of William Rees Williams who, in 1937, became headmaster of the Aberdare Boys County School. The Rock Inn was near Aberaman Hall.

Trevor Farrant Williams was the son of the manager of the Tinplate Works that once stood at the bottom Meirion Street, Trecynon.

Victor W. Carney, [sic] probably William Victor Carney, was the uncle of Victor J. Carney, (1935–2015 and ABGS 1945–53). Victor J. became Registrar at Swansea University. The Carney family lived in Weatheral Street, Aberdare. William Victor became a mechanical engineer and worked in the mining industry. He died in 1943. His brother Frank Clarence Carney (1890–1942) also attended the school, 1903–05.

Thomas Marchant Harries established the firm of solicitors founded in 1919. The firm is still present in Cardiff Street, Aberdare.

Evan John Goronwy Jones was a son of the celebrated non-conformist minister Rev Rees Jenkin Jones (Hen Dŷ Cwrdd) of Broniestyn House. Goronwy attended the school for just two years, leaving at the age of 18 in 1899. He completed his secondary education at Kingsholme School, Weston-super-Mare. He became a medical practitioner; trained in Cardiff and London, and practised at Cardiff Royal Infirmary and Marylebone Infirmary, London. He served as a Medical Officer during the First World War, after which he moved to general practice in Swansea. He was born in 1881, and died in 1945.

William Henry Harmston was the son of Albert Edward Harmston who ran the Harmston Music Warehouse at 7 Cardiff St., in Aberdare. Willie became a pipe organ builder. He died in Sussex in 1959. Mr Harmston senior was also a musician and was organist at Green Street Wesleyan Methodist Church. He was the first to play the newly installed Conacher organ in October 1894. (This organ was subsequently replaced in the 1990s by a Sweetland organ, and is played by the current organist Sheridan George, ABGS 1951–58.) The RCT Photographic Archive has an excellent photograph of Harmston senior seated at the Green Street Methodist Church organ; Archive Item Number: 31/b/031.

Amongst the parental occupations of the 1897 intake, there were 9 colliers, 8 grocers, 7 farmers/agricultural workers, 5 publicans, 5 mining related occupations, and 3 drapers.

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