L Roberts has been difficult to identify. Identification has been from an obituary notice in BCA 13 November 1914 which records Private L Roberts RWF, KIA 9 September 1914 and who lived at 22 Stewart Road, Oswestry. Date of death and regiment lead to CWGC record for Private 6679 L Roberts, 2 Bn Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Military records list his forename as Llewellyn, born in Llandudno, enlisted at Wrexham. Other records gives him as an upholsterer, married to Ada Annie (Roberts) with children.

The best candidate is Llewelyn Roberts born in 1880 at Llandudno, the second son of Robert Luther and Ann Roberts. His father was a joiner and house builder. The family lived at 1 Clifton Road, Llandudno and by 1891 on Trevor Street. Here they had a younger daughter Myfanwy, all told there would be 8 surviving children. For Llewelyn no census records after 1891 can be positively identified.  His date of death and battalion, a regular army unit, suggest he was a former soldier – given the absence of census records and especially 1901, it is possible that he had joined the army, serving in Royal Welsh Fusiliers, in about 1899/1900 when he turned 18. By the time of the war it would seem he had left the army and was living in Oswestry and working as an upholsterer. He would also marry.

Llewelyn’s residence in Oswestry – at 22 Stewart Road – in 1911, was home to Corporal 13868 Percy Broster and his sister, Edith May Broster, Edith is listed as a boarding house keeper. It is possible that Llewellyn, wife and children were boarders or tenants at the address.

As a former soldier and reservist Llewellyn would have been mobilised on the day war was declared. He reported at Wrexham and then, by 7/8 August, had joined up with the rest of the 2 Bn RWF at Dorchester. From there the battalion moved on to embark at Southampton to arrive on 12 August 1914 at Rouen. Llewellyn was KIA about a month later on 9 September 1914 at the village of La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, during the Battle of the Marne when the German advance towards Paris was halted and turned. Llewellyn was buried in La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Communal Cemetery. He is also commemorated on Llandudno War Memorial.

Llewelyn Roberts, Llandudno War Memorial, detail. (Janis Menage)

On the same day as Llewelyn was KIA – 9 September 1914 – the first contingent of Oswestry Pals had paraded in Cae Glas Park and departed for the war. Thus far, Llewelyn is the first of Oswestry’s fallen soldiers.

Acknowledgements: Photo by Janis Menage

References and Sources

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