On Armistice Day, Wednesday 11th November, Mr Walters led an extremely moving ceremony in the Stone Hall. During the service Tabby H gave a beautiful rendition of the “Last Post”, Mr Walters read the The Ode of Remembrance from Laurence Binyon’s poem, For the Fallen and our Head Students reminded us about the four Hywelians who appear to have been killed as a direct result of WW1 and WW2.
Gertrude Roskell
Born in Penarth in 1878, Gertrude Roskell was the daughter of John Burrow and Mary Gertrude Roskell. Her father, a commercial clerk, passed away she when was eight years old and in 1888 she was accepted at Howell’s as an Orphan of Foundation.
In the First World War, Gertrude was member of the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment). She was working as a nurse in Alexandria, Egypt, where she died of appendicitis. She is buried in Chatby Military Cemetery, Egypt.
Kate Banks
Kate Banks was born in July 1870 in Risca, near Newport. Having passed the required examination, in April 1883 Kate appeared before the school governors with her father, a Head Manager of a tinplate works in Risca, and was accepted at the school as a pay boarder. She left in 1888 to become a governess.
During the First World War Kate was based at Chew Magna in Somerset, living at Cleeve House. When not teaching she was a member of the VAD, helping out in a nearby Voluntary Aid Hospital, Gournay Court, a country house which was used as a military hospital. Tragically she died of septicaemia at Worthing, Sussex, as result of poisoning a finger while washing bandages at a Red Cross hospital.
Barbara Williams
Barbara Williams was the daughter of Thomas and Annie Williams of Ninian Road, Cardiff. Her application to Howell’s School was made by her father in 1935 when she was 12 years old. She started at the school in May of that year.
Barbara was a member of the WAAF and was at RAF Cranwell, a flying training school in Lincolnshire where officer cadets bound for ultimate high office were trained. She was killed during an air raid and is buried in Cathays Cemetery, Cardiff.
Elizabeth Cook
Elizabeth Cook’s home was at Homefield, Talbot Road, Llantrisant. She was born in 1918 and started boarding at Howell’s School in January 1927 at the age of eight, leaving at the end of the 1933.
In 1941, Betty was working as a mannequin. She died on 17th May that year at Llwynypia Hospital, Rhondda, from multiple injuries sustained in an air raid.
It is an honour to recognise the Hywelians and the important contribution they made.
Click here to watch the ceremony.