Pair honour relatives’ bravery at the Somme

TWO Queens Dragoon Guards from Wales, visiting the Somme together to mark the centenary of the beginning of its commencement, have discovered their great-grandfathers fought alongside each other at the Battle of High Wood and the Battle of Flers-Courcelette – the first battle where tanks where deployed.

Talking to each other on the emotional visit, Captain Mark Evans, 49, from Cardiff, and Major Howard Smith, 59, from Bargoed, realised their greatgrandfathers served together in the 2nd Battalion The Welsh Regiment.

Maj Smith’s ancestor Private Thomas Lewis, from Brithdir, had six children and was 40 when he volunteered for battle as one of Kitchener’s Patriots.

The coal miner was awarded four medals, including the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the oldest and one of the highest British awards for gallantry, for rescuing a wounded soldier under fire.

Fighting with him in the same regiment was Sergeant William Alfred Albert Huish, great-grandfather of Capt Evans.

Sgt Huish, a regular soldier from Cardiff, was 39 when he arrived in the trenches. It was his second taste of battle. He fought in the Boer War and was mentioned in dispatches.

In World War I he was awarded three medals – the Victory, the War and the The 1914–15 Star, collectively known as “Pip, Squeak and Wilfred”.

Both men survived the war and their great-grandsons will wear their medals on their uniforms when they attend official commemorations in France today.

Afterwards they are going to High Wood to lay a wreath.

Maj Smith, of the 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards (The Welsh Cavalry) and a reserve officer with 160th Infantry Brigade and Headquarters Wales in Brecon, said visiting the ground where his ancestor fought had been emotional.

“I found myself talking to him in High Wood and apologising for taking so long to get there. It is poignant,” he said.

Detailing why his great-grandfather received one of the highest medals for bravery, Maj Smith said it reduced him to tears.

“He ran 100m in front of the trenches to get a wounded soldier under intense fire, aged 40.

“He ran out in front of the Germans and picked up the dead weight of a man and brought him back coming under fire the whole time.

“I am intensely proud. It brings me to tears.

“As a child I listened to his daughter, my grandmother, talking about it.

“The whole thing was outrageous when you think about the horror.”

Pte Lewis survived the war and died in 1944 just after saying farewell to his oldest son John Lewis, as he went off to fight in D-Day.

John Lewis, Maj Smith’s greatuncle, also survived battle and was reputed to have saved renowned Welsh war journalist and broadcaster Wynford Vaughan Thomas from battle fire on the Normandy beaches.

Capt Evans, formerly of 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards (The Welsh Cavalry) and now a reservist in 3rd Battalion The Royal Welsh in Maindy and curator at Cardiff Castle’s Firing Line Museum, said the stories of the World War I soldiers should not be forgotten.

“It is poignant walking in my great-grandfather’s footsteps. You feel immensely proud. Both our great-grandfathers were in the trenches three years,” he said.

“My great-grandfather never talked about it and a lot of it got forgotten about. We shouldn’t forget what they did.”