Records of the Glamorgan Parliamentary Recruitment Committee Minutes

[Cymro]

Hello all,

I'm currently engaged in research for a book on my home town of Neath and area in South Wales (Briton Ferry, Resolven, Seven Sisters and other surrounded villages included). One aspect of the book will deal with recruitment in the area, beginning in August 1914. Local newspapers have proved fruitful in this regard and I'm also hopeful that the minutes of the Borough, Urban and Rural District Councils will also contribute significantly.

In the newspaper articles, there are several references to the recruitment drives, certainly in 1914-15, operating under the auspices of the mid Glamorgan Parliamentary Recruitment Committee. The big question for me is, do the minutes of this committee or other branches of it operating in Glamorgan exist, and if so what archive are they in?

If anyone has come across either this or any other reference material that you think may be relevent to my research, I'd be very grateful to hear from you.

With best regards

Jon.

[clive_hughes]

Hello Cymro,

Back in the early 1980s I completed a thesis on Army recruitment in Gwynedd 1914-16. My focus was on North Wales but I can't recall that any county/district had a "Paliamentary Recruitment Committee" - the Parl. Recruiting Cttee. was the overarching organisation based in London, which amongst other things published the main recruiting posters. Their records are at the National Archives Kew. See Roy Douglas' article "Voluntary Enlistment in the First World War and the Work of the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee" in The Journal of Modern History Vol. 42 part 4, December 1970 (though there may well be more up-to-date studies by now).

Caernarfonshire and Carmarthenshire were the only two counties who formed County Recruiting Committees as such, mainly to handle "Kitchener" formations raised under the Welsh National Executive Committee for 38th (Welsh) Division. The WNEC papers - under the title of the "Welsh Army Corps" - are at the National Library of Wales Aberystwyth. I do know that this very large collection includes a good set of 1914-15 Recruiting Orders for the No.4 (Glamorgan) Recruiting District as issued by Major Lucas, but they are instructions to Recruiters, and so have little in the way of news of what's going on in the localities.

I did come across other initiatives however - East Denbighshire had a recruiting movement all of its own early in 1915, mainly a Territorial Force effort, again with records at the NLW. After the War a history of the Welsh effort was proposed, to be funded and published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, I think. Some assorted articles were gathered together but it ran out of steam/time/money: what exists is held by the Archive of Bangor University. It does include some material relating to South Wales.

I wonder if the newspapers you saw were confusing the main PRC with some other local body? I could be wrong there, of course, but didn't come across any reference to such bodies or their records during my research in the 1970s. The relevant county record offices could be asked whether they have papers, as also the NLW; and not forgetting the Cardiff Central Library which was the largest and main Welsh repository until the NLW and County Archives got up a full head of steam!

Hwyl,

Clive

[Bernard_Lewis]

I have a copy of the final National Exec Cttee report. Its in Neath...I'm in Munich at present!

I'll have a look when I get home later this week.

Bernard

[Cymro]

Diolch Clive,

I was aware of your thesis, although I haven't got my paws on it yet. Those recruiting orders for No 4 District certainly look interesting. The West Glamorgan Archives have provided some wonderful material for the project, but it's a bit on the recruiting side. I'm going through the council minutes at the moment to find references. The Glamorgan Archives online catalogues is pretty disappointing isn't it and because I'm away from Wales at the moment, and they don't provide a telephone number, I've sent a couple of emails, but have not had any info on anything relevent yet. I'll keep trying as I'm sure there'll be something there.

I'll dig out my newspaper references and get back to you with the terminology used.

Thanks again.

Jon

I have a copy of the final National Exec Cttee report. Its in Neath...I'm in Munich at present!

I'll have a look when I get home later this week.

Bernard

Cheers Bernard,

I'll look forward to hearing from you. I've got some things to talk over with you as well. Could you drop us a line when youre back and I'll give you a call?

Best wishes

Jon