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Aberdare Boys’ Grammar School

School History

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Names of pupils who were in the 1926 Entry

from School Records

Name Entry Form Age Address
Alistair Taylor Mackintosh Wilson
Richard Noel James
John Gwynno James
Gwilym Thomas Jones Humphreys
Joseph Edwin Aniss
Henry Wilson Davies
Kenneth John Davies
Merlin Davies
Ronald James Davies
Francis James Edgecombe
John Frederick Elston
Vivian Evans
Clarence George Gardener
David John Griffiths
George Edward Groves
Alfred Henry Howes
Sidney Eric George Hunt
William Dennis Hull
Henry Anthony James
Frederick Llewellyn Jenkins
Ebenezer Jones
John Lewis Jones  †
Spencer Robinson Jones
Vernon Jones
Thomas John Brinley Linton
William Mervyn Lloyd
Donald Mackintosh
Byron Moore
David George Parry
William Arthur Morris Rees
William David Rhydderch
Merlyn Richards
Oliver James Spratling
Geoffrey Henstone Sturdy
Reginald George Simmons
Edward Leslie Thomas
John William Williams
Thomas John Williams
David George Badham
Islwyn Cole
Daniel Davies
David Daniel Davies
Gordon Davies
Francis Donnelly
Morgan Edwards  †
Stanley Herbert Evans
Alwyn Forey
David James Forward
Joseph Herbert Grinnell
Graham Jayne
Oakwell Jenkins
David Kenneth Jones
David Thomas Jones
Meurig Jones
Melville Austin Lewis
Edwin Joseph Morgan
David Windsor Clive Morgan
Timothy David Parry
Benjamin James Phillips
Emlyn Powell
Leslie Smith
Alun Beddoe Stephens
Howard Sweet
William Owen Thomas
Glanffrwd John Williams
Mansel Williams
John Henry Winter
John Trevor Jones
Stuart Evans
III Classical
Vb
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IVA
1A
1A
1A
1A
1A
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1B
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1B
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3B
12.6
16.7
14
14.1
12.4
12.3
13.1
12.3
12.7
12.4
12.7
12.2
11.5
12.9
11.8
11.6
12.9
12.1
12.3
12.5
12.1
12.8
12.5
12.4
12.1
12.1
11.5
11.1
11
12.3
11.8
11.7
12.7
13.1
12.3
12.6
12.4
11.4
11.8
13.1
12.4
11.4
12.2
12.2
12.1
11.9
12.8
11.5
12.4
13.1
12.5
12.3
12.2
12.6
12.7
12.4
12.1
12.8
13
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13
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11.9
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13.1
14
Bonaccord, Harriet St, Trecynon
The Vicarage, Aberaman
The Vicarage, Aberaman
5, Plasdraw Rd, Aberdare
19, Graig Tce, Abercwmboi
204, Brynmair Rd, Godreaman
2, Gadlys Gardens, Aberdare
34, Ynysllwyd St, Aberdare
19, Rose Row, Cwmbach
131, Fforchaman Rd, Cwmaman
Seaton Carew, Abernant Rd, Aberdare
10, Commerce Place, Aberdare
58, Wind St, Aberdare
9, Belmont Tce, Aberaman
2, Engineers' Row, Abernant
3, Foundry View, Aberdare
23, Glanrhyd St, Aberdare
32, Wind St, Aberdare
The Vicarage, Aberaman
Brynfa, Abernant Rd, Aberdare
Royal Oak Inn, Cwmbach
29, Bell St, Trecynon
14, Bridge St, Robertstown
50, Broniestyn Tce, Aberdare
63, Cwmaman Rd, Godreaman
3, Merthyr Rd, Llwydcoed
19, Stuart St, Aberdare
10, Windsor Tce, Abernant
7, Little Wind St, Aberdare
10, Colliers Row, Abernant
Nant-ffyn, Brynawel, Aberdare
1, John St, Aberdare
10A, Margaret St, Trecynon
Central Free Library, Aberdare
4, Graig Place, Aberdare
25, Dean St, Aberdare
1, Bell St, Trecynon
9, Windsor Tce, Abernant
Ivy Cottage, Abernant
46, Belle View, Trecynon
4, Morgan Row, Cwmbach
8, Waterloo St, Cwmbach
3, Tudor Place, Aberaman
55, Gloucester St, Aberdare
3, Tower Rd, Hirwaun
22, Clarence Tce, Aberaman
18, Penbryn St, Gadlys
3A, Mount Pleasant, Trecynon
99, Brook St, Aberaman
22, Tudor Tce, Aberdare
11, Bond St, Aberdare
4, Bryn Tce, Cwmdare
Cottage Homes, Aberdare
9, Sion Place, Cwmbach
Miners Arms, Llwydcoed
28, Albert St, Aberdare
Abernant y groes Farm, Cwmbach
112, Brook St, Aberaman
15, Philip Row, Cwmbach
291, Cardiff Rd, Aberaman
57, Ynysllwyd St, Aberdare
12, Elm Grove, Aberdare
6, Llettyshenkin Cotts, Cwmbach
60, Bwllfa Rd, Cwmdare
12, Greenfield Tce, Cwmbach
23, Blaenant-y-Groes Rd, Cwmbach
5, Elm Grove, Hirwaun
22, Clive St, Trecynon
Railway Bar, Commercial St, Aberdare

War Casualties

Sgt John Lewis Jones died aged 27 on 4th Feb 1941 when his Bristol Blenheim Mk IV bomber ditched off Ramsgate, Kent, following battle damage from a Messerschmitt Bf 109 near Brest during a raid on Cherbourg. The pilot and another sergeant also died. He is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey.

Sgt (Obs) Morgan Edwards died in an accident on 17th May 1943, aged 28. He was in the Meteorological Department of the R.A.F. He is buried in Bryn-y-Gaer Cemetery, near Hirwaun.
He was brought up in Hirwaun before entering The County School. Following his time at ABCS, he went to U.C. Cardiff, where he graduated with a B.Sc.

– – – – –

All the boys in the list above started school in September 1926 except A.T.M. Wilson who arrived in January 1926. In addition to the Form 1 entries, a small number of boys entered into higher forms.

Notes

A T M Wilson, known as Alistair, was the son of Dr J M Wilson who had come to South Wales from Aberdeen in 1907. ATMW was at the County school for just two terms, but after his subsequent secondary education at another school he went to Cambridge in 1931 to read medicine where he became absorbed in politics, particularly with the Communist Party.
He transferred to a teachers’ training college in 1933 but did not teach subsequently. Returning to Aberdare he helped at his father’s practice, but in 1938 he resumed his medical studies at Cardiff and finally returned to Cambridge to finish his medical degrees, qualifying in 1940.
In 1939 he married Olive Greening, whose brother Edwin fought in the Spanish Civil War for the International Brigades. Alistair died in 1981.
ATMW was one of the three children of Dr J. M. Wilson, all of whom became GPs in Aberdare; from eldest to youngest: John (Jack) S.M. Wilson, A.T.M. Wilson and Isabel Mary M. Wilson, (all had ‘Macintosh’ included as one of their names).
Alistair won a seat on the Aberdare Urban District Council for the Communist Party in 1938 which he retained until 1950. He continued to contest local and parliamentary elections as the Communist candidate until 1978. He was very active in many campaigns within the Health Service, and in the wider community, he lectured on Marxism and Welsh History.
His sister Mary married Dr W. L. Codd (ABCS 1921–25), whose son Richard also attended the school (1963–71).
ATMW’s son, Alistair M, attended the school too, (1955–60); he went to London University and got a first in Astrophysics and then went to do a Ph.D. in Cambridge. Alistair was then recruited by NASA and went to work in Houston. After several years there he came back to UK and lived in Cambridge. Finally he moved to Perth, Australia with his American wife. He was the author of the book The Infinite in the finite, ISBN 0198539509, OUP Oxford (1995), a book about the development of mathematics based in its historical context.

Daniel Davies went to U.C. Cardiff.

David Daniel Davies was for many years Head of Biology at his old school; he was appointed in 1950 and retired from his post in 1979. After school he attended U.C. Cardiff where he graduated B.Sc. in Zoology, 1938, and M.Sc. Zoology 1939. He followed up with a Diploma in Education from the University of Liverpool 1940. After spending the war years in H.M. Forces he commenced teaching in 1945 at St Julian’s High School in Newport.

Henry Wilson Davies His family emigrated to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania after he had been at school for two years. In the USA he enrolled at the G. A. R. Memorial High School.

Ronald James Davies went to UCW Aberystwyth.

Morgan Edwards went to U.C. Cardiff.

Stanley Herbert Evans went to the Nautical School in Cardiff.

Clarence George Gardener went to U.C. Cardiff.

G.T.J. Humphreys was a son of Wesleyan Minister Rev E.J. Humphreys.

Henry Anthony James went to the University of Oxford. A son of Rev J.R. James of St Margaret’s Church, Aberaman, he followed in his father’s footsteps, and his two elder brothers, in becoming a Clerk in Holy Orders, (C. of E.).

Richard Noel James & John Gwynno James, also sons of Rev J.R. James of St Margaret’s Church, Aberaman, these boys went to Keble College Oxford and became Anglican priests. John Gwynno James has an entry in the Former Pupils section of this website.

Frederick Llewellyn Jenkins was one of the small number of boys from the school who progressed to St. David’s College, Lampeter – as it was then called.

John Trevor Jones went to UCW Aberystwyth.

Spencer Robinson Jones has an entry in the Former Pupils section of this website; it contains his biographical details.

Vernon Jones went to U.C. Cardiff.

William Mervyn Lloyd went to the University of Birmingham with a Commercial Exhibition.

William David Rhydderch went to UCW Aberystwyth.

Alun Beddoe Stephens was the son of a schoolmaster. The family emigrated to Canada after he had been at the school for two years.

Geoffrey Henstone Sturdy was the son of William Henstone Sturdy and his wife Edith, née Hunt. Geoffrey’s father died in 1925, less than a year before he transferred to the County School. Mr W.H. Henstone Sturdy, a Birmingham man, was appointed Town Chief Librarian in 1904 when the library was housed in its first home in the Church Club buildings in Seymour Street. In 1917 he organised the move of the library to its second location, on the first floor of a building at 37 & 38 High St High St on the corner of High St and Seymour St opposite St John’s Church. On the death of her husband, Graham’s mother Edith, (1880–1964), took over the post of chief librarian, and remained at the library until she retired in 1946. Geoffrey became a physicist specialising in radioactivity.

Howard Sweet (1914–91). We believe that Howard became a teacher of handicrafts possibly at the Gadlys School. Whilst teaching, he lived in Llwydcoed with his wife Gwendoline, née Lloyd.

Edward Leslie Thomas His family emigrated to Canada after he had been at the school for two years.

William Owen Thomas went to U.C. Cardiff.

Thomas John Williams (1915–99). proceeded to U.C. Cardiff in 1932 after obtaining his Higher School Certificate. He was for a period the organist at Bethel Chapel in Abernant.
 


Of the 64 Form 1 entries, thirty boys had fathers who worked in the mines, mainly as colliers. It is not surprising that several of these boys who left school in the late 1920s were marked as unemployed on leaving school. Others moved away to England, some worked locally as clerks, and one as a tram driver. Some were withdrawn from school because their families could not afford to keep them in full time education.