South Wales Police - Heritage Centre

[Bernard_Lewis]

I visited this 'museum' today with the Neath U3A. It was a very enjoyable visit. It's a small place and only opens on one day a week as a rule. Plenty of exhibits on policing through the ages in South Wales. If planning a visit I think it best to let them know in advance - it is a secure site, of course.

 

A project team there has produced booklets for each of the years 1914-1918 that chronicle the lives of South Wales policemen who were KIA.

 

They also have a booklet (18 pages) about policemen who served in the Welsh Guards and an impressive 34 page booklet on 'The Policeman Who Ended the War' - Ernest Rollings of Neath. He commanded an armoured-car unit that overran a German HQ in 1918 and he secured detailed plans of the Hindenburg Line which proved invaluable in breaching it.

 

Worth a visit over an hour or so and I suspect that copies of the booklets could be obtained by post for a modest donation.

 

(I'm hoping the Mods allow this post - I think there's a good chance they're too busy too check as tonight is their monthly voodoo disco dance and chicken sacrifice do...)

 

Bernard

[GrenPen]

Henry Arthur Tombs was born in Monmouth in 1885. He enlisted in the South Wales Borderers on or around 25 February 1903, service number 7964. It would appear that after serving three years with the colours, and returning to civvy street, he joined the police. He appears on the 1911 Census, residing at Abergavenny Police Station. His death was recorded on 19 September 1914, at the Battle of the Aisne. He had a widow named Sarah Ann (née Cecil).

Interesting to see the following statistics, with regard to former soldiers in the Police as at 1907
https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/270999-metropolitan-police-casualty-servicepension-records/?tab=comments#comment-2753333

[charlie962]

On 05/03/2019 at 20:43, Bernard_Lewis said:

Ernest Rollings of Neath

Discussed briefly  last year here