Command Base: St.Giles' Parish Church and Comemoration of the Centenary of the Armistice

Tuesday, 26 April 2022

St.Giles' Parish Church and Comemoration of the Centenary of the Armistice

Found these pictures while looking on my phone and thought they might be of interest to blog followers.

They were taken November 2018 are at St.Giles' Parish Church in Wrexham, showing the commemoration poppies for the centenary of the Armistice.

The Royal Welch Fusiliers lost close to 10,000 men in World War I and the 10,000 poppies displayed in the Royal Welch Fusiliers Chapel, were knitted by people from far and wide, from Australia to members of the St. Giles' congregation and local community.

Pictured is the beautiful stained glass window depicting uniforms of soldiers of the RWF through time, with St.David and the regimental goat, by the artist J.A. Nuttgens installed in 1989 to celebrate the tercentenary of the founding of the RWF in 1689. The window lists the battle honours of the RWF.

Also picture is the candle my daughters lit for their Great Great Grandfather, CSM John Robert Davies DCM of the Royal Welch Fusiliers who served in the Boxer Rebellion and the Relief of Peking in 1900, continuing to see service in India, Egypt, Gallipoli and Mesopotamia where in 1916 he died of his wounds and was buried in the British War Cemetery in Basra.

Of interest to American readers Elihu Yale the greatest benefactor of Yale University is buried immediately to the southwest of the church tower.

"Wrexham Tower, which rises over Wrexham Court, was modeled after the tower of St. Giles Court in Wrexham, Wales, where Elihu Yale is buried. An inscribed stone, sent from the old Welsh church as a gift to Yale, is set in the tower’s base". (The Courtyards, Saybrook College, Yale University).

Also buried in the churchyard is Sir Robert Palmer (1832-1910), of Cefn Park a survivor of the Charge of Light Brigade. Another local link to the Charge of Light Brigade is 'Balaclava Ned" the last survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade. Edwin Hughes was born 12th December 1830 in Wrexham, and died in Blackpool in 1927.