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Aneurin Cadwalader Williams looks back to his youth spent on the Leckwith Estate in Dinys Powys and evokes an age none of us today have ever experienced. With his soft South-Walian burr, he chronicles his days as a garden boy at Cwyrt Yr Ala, home of the Brains family, in the heyday of a country house garden in 1914.

Aneurin Williams was born at The Bullcroft in Michaelston on the 5th of October 1898, the son of a farmer. Before he joined the army he worked at Cwyrt Yr Ala and recollects the old gardener and other servants at the big house in 1914 鈥� all of them trained in the rigorous tradition of 鈥減rivate service鈥� .

Even before he left the local church school at Dinas Powys, young Aneurin would supplement his pocket money by catching rabbits. He began work as a "garden boy" aged 14, earning nine shillings and sixpence 9s 6d (45p) a week, all of which he gave to his mother. She would then give him sixpence back.

When war broke out on the 4th of August 1914, Williams volunteered for the Red Cross at the local town hall. A month later, when he saw his pals were signing up to go to War, Aneurin wanted to go too. He wasn鈥檛 even 16, so he lied about his age.

Aneurin Cadwalader Williams served as a driver with 285th Battery, 91st Brigade Royal Field Artillery on Western Front from 1915 to 1918.

Location: Cwrt_yr_ala_House, Dinas Powys, Cardiff CF64 4HN
IWM Sound Recording made in 1987
Image: Cwrt-yr-ala House, courtesy of the National Monuments Records of Wales

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