Choir represents Wales at Mametz battle centenary
TREORCHY Male Choir will represent Wales when it leads the centenary commemorations of the Battle of Mametz Wood in France next week.
Choristers have been invited by the Welsh Government and South Wales Division of the Western Front Association to appear at the Somme battleground for a special remembrance service on Thursday, July 7.
They will participate in a ceremony next to the iconic sculpture of a Welsh dragon on top of a three metre stone plinth tearing at barbed wire which was erected to remember all those fallen heroes.
The choir will be joined by the Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan, First Minister Carwyn Jones and Secretary A RHONDDA community shop will be at the heart of an exhibition to commemorate 100 years since the Battle of Mametz which will be held in Cardiff this week.
The Battle of Mametz exhibition will run until July 9 in the main hall of the Pierhead building in Cardiff Bay.
Craft Of Hearts in Tonypandy has contributed of State Cairns.
It will be a poignant moment for the Treorchy Male Choir in particular as almost 1,000 men from the two Rhondda Battalions alone gave the ultimate sacrifice at the Battle of Mametz Wood in July 1916.
The descendants of two of the survivors of the battle are members of the for Wales Alun several thousand poppies to the exhibition created by volunteers from the South Wales valleys and beyond which will feature in the exhibition.
There will also be a collection of World War I items, artwork by a selction of Welsh artists and a film which will screen stories from the war that claimed the lives of so many young men from the Welsh valleys. choir. Choristers Arthur Miles and Norman Cox will each lay wreaths in the memory of their forebears.
Under the baton of conductor Jeffrey Howard, the choir will perform a selection of specially requested items, including Llef, O Valiant Hearts and Jesu Lover Of My Soul.
Choir chairman David Bebb said: “Rhondda communities lost many of its husbands and sons during those dark days and I know the choir will represent the valleys by paying its respects to those who died for our freedom.”
The choir will also perform an evening concert at the Cathedral of Basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières in nearby Albert.
The Battle of Mametz Wood saw the 38th (Welsh) Division face horrendous casualties as they were sprayed with machine gun fire from the German enemy.
Focusing on German positions in the woodland, the Division, which was made up of two battalions from the Rhondda, saw thousands killed or wounded from July 7 to 12 1916.
Around 1,000 men from the Rhondda went in to battle that day, but only 135 answered the roll call the following morning.