Details of some of the boys in 3 Classical, 1926

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Evan Jenkins came from Richmond Terrace, Abernant. He was raised at Bethesda Welsh Congregational chapel Abernant. He became an English language Congregational minister in the Monmouthshire valleys and lastly at Newport. He died at a comparatively early age.
Absalom Williams went to Bangor Normal College with his friend David Samuel (below). Abse Williams, as he was known, was the captain of the rugby team playing wing forward. Abse was shot down and lost over the North Sea during a bombing raid in the second World War.
Mansel Davies became Professor of Chemistry at Aberystwyth. There is an account of his career in the former pupils section. He was the son of Tom Davies, one time Headteacher of Abernant Junior School.
David Hopkin Samuel went to Bangor Normal College. From there he went in 1932 to teach at Fulham, in West London, returning to Aberdare in 1938 as Music and Sports master at Aman Secondary School, Godreaman. He returned to Aman after War Service in the RAF. He became Head Teacher at Abernant in 1954 (succeeding his cousin L N(ick) James, father of D Gordon James, later Town Clerk and Vicar of Aberdare), and transferred as headteacher to Cwmdare in 1966, when he succeeded David Herbert Davies, brother of Mansel Davies. D.H. Samuel was still in that post when he died, aged 62, in 1975. DHS was the father of John (ABGS 1952-1960), Rhian (AGGS 1955-62) and Mair (AGGS 1960-1967).
Anelyf Wyn Rees lived at 28 Cemetery Road in Trecynon. After school he studied at UCW Aberystwyth where he gained a First Class degree in Economics (1934), moving to Geneva in Switzerland for his Masters; following this he went to Minnesota where he taught at Carlton University in Duluth. He served in the Special Operations Executive during WW2, 1939-45. (His wartime file at the National Archives in Kew became publicly available relatively recently, in 2004). He was granted the honorary rank of CaptaIn in the British Army in March 1951. He lectured in South Africa, initially at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg and then in Durban. He then taught in the USA for four years before emigrating in 1961 to Waterloo, Ontario, Canada where he was the founding Principal of Renison College, Waterloo. He also held the position of professor in the history department of the University of Waterloo. He died suddenly in July 1971 at the age of 58 while still in office.
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 PhD 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 where he and his American wife now live. He is 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.
David Walter Morris was the son of W.D. Morris, Hosier and Outfitter of 39 Commercial St. There is a substantial article written by Walter about the shops of the town centre in the Miscellaneous Section of this website. After becoming a student teacher he went to University College, Southampton then taught firstly in Surrey, and then Sussex. He finished his career as a Head of a Primary School in Pulborough, West Sussex.
Morien Bedford Morgan spent most of his career at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough, where he eventually became Director. After leaving Farnborough he was elected Master of Downing College Cambridge.
Gwyn Ivor Thomas produced an MA thesis on the History of Aberdare. A copy of this is held in the Aberdare Library.
Joseph Elfyn Thomas Jones was known by his contemporaries and throughout his life as JET Jones. He was from Morris Street, Cwmaman and became a pharmacist, ending up as manager of the Co-op Pharmacy in Cardiff Road, Aberdare, on the opposite side of the road from the main building. He was the last elder, secretary and treasurer of Moreia-Aman Welsh Congregationalist Chapel, Cwmaman.
George Maclaren Humphreys was awarded an MBE in the Birthday Honours List for 1951. At that time the official citation read: George MACLAREN HUMPHREYS, Esq., A.F.R.Ae.S., Senior Experimental Officer, Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, Ministry of Supply, Boscombe Down.
William Kenneth Pugh lived in Gwynfa, Cwmbach; he went to UCW Aberystwyth in 1931, graduating in Chemistry and Agricultural Chemistry in 1934. Before the war he was employed by George Hadfield & Co, the fertiliser manufacturer, and worked in Liverpool. Then, in 1941, he joined the army and eventually became a Staff Sergeant in the REME specialising in radio communications. In 1945 he married Muriel Doreen Eliott from Caldicot and went back to work for Hadfields, settled in Hawarden in Flintshire, and was based at their office in Chester. He became the Chief Technical Advisor for the company, which was eventually taken over by Fisons in the 1960s. He died in May 1995.
William’s elder brother Arthur Ronald Pugh, (ABCS 1920-28), after graduating from Aberystwyth in Economics and Political Science, in 1931, entered teaching where, after war service in the RAF, he eventually finished his career as Headmaster at the Knoll Secondary School in Neath.
Tom Barling was one of the three sons of the well known colliery manager Gilbert Bailey Barling (1890–1969). Tom was the eldest of the three boys. A brother W.F. (Fred) Barling, County School 1929–35, died in 1990. He, like Tom, went to Birmingham University and for many years taught French, and latterly until his retirement was deputy head of The Haberdashers’ Ask’s Boys School, now situated in Elstree. The youngest brother, Mansel, lives in Gloucestershire. He went to UCW Aberystwyth and was subsequently a lecturer in agriculture.
From 1949, Tom lived in Teignmouth, South Devon, working as a senior lecturer in education at Exeter University until 1977 when he retired. Tom and his brother Fred were leading lights in the Christadelphian religious movement.

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