NEATH/PORT TALBOT – POIGNANT SCHOOL WAR MEMORIALS FIND FINAL RESTING PLACE

Poignant school war memorials find final resting place

Two war memorials commemorating “the boys” of a former Port Talbot school who died in World War One and World War Two have found a new home after two years in temporary accommodation.

The memorials were removed from Glan Afan Comprehensive School (formerly known as the County Grammar and Port Talbot County Boys’ School) in 2016 when it was demolished to make way for a new homes development and to facilitate Neath Port Talbot’s £40m Ysgol Bae Baglan which also saw the closure of Dyffryn, Cwrt Sart and Sandfields Comprehensives, along with Traethmelyn Primary School.

The memorials, displayed in Glan Afan’s School Hall for many decades, were taken to Port Talbot’s St Theodore’s Church for safe keeping and have now finally found a new home in Port Talbot Civic Centre where they have been given a thorough cleaning.

A short service of reflection took place in front of the memorials in the Civic Centre this morning (November the 9th).

Situated near the centre’s main reception area, the two memorials contain the poignant words “To the glory of God and in memory of the boys of the school who fell in the Great War” followed by the dates (1914-18 and 1939-45) of the titanic conflicts.

In their new location, the metal memorials are set on a wall next to two galleries displaying pictures of pupils from the same school who died in the two World Wars so visitors can not only view names on the memorials, they can also match many of them to their photographs.

The Leader of Neath Port Talbot Council, Cllr Rob Jones, said:

“It’s quite rare to have school ‘old boy’ war memorials like this and it’s fitting we’ve found a permanent home for these memorials just as we approach the 100th anniversary of the ending of World War One.

“With the photo galleries we have here of the fallen from the old County School, which later became Glan Afan Comprehensive, people from all generations will be able to put faces to the names of these brave ‘boys’ who gave up their lives for their country.”

The Royal British Legion is once again organising three main annual Remembrance Services in Neath Port Talbot on Sunday, November the 11th.

Here are the arrangements:

PORT TALBOT

The Deputy Mayor, Councillor Scott Jones, will join the Parade from outside the Grand Hotel, Port Talbot, to the Cenotaph in Taibach’s Memorial Park, for the Remembrance Service and Wreath Laying followed by the Salute and March Past outside the Grand Hotel. Parade will start at 10.15 am.

NEATH:

The Mayor, Councillor Dennis Keogh, will be in attendance for the Salute and March Past at the Town Council Offices Neath at 10.45 am and afterwards in St. David’s Church at 11.00 am for the Remembrance Service. Following the Service there will be a Parade to the Memorial Gates at the entrance to the Gnoll Grounds for the Laying of Wreaths.

PONTARDAWE:

Service at St Peter’s Church at 9.30am, followed by a walk to the War Memorial on Herbert Street for the Laying of Wreaths.