Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

13 articles on this Page

Advertising

<——""— THE DAY OF REST.

A ROBUST EASTERN POLICY.

[No title]

PERSONAL.

MR HOWELL M.P., .AND THE LADY…

---__---------welshNonconformists…

News
Cite
Share

welshNonconformists AND THE ARMY. COLONEL DAVIES-COOKE'S VIEWS. Colonel Bryan G. Davies-Cooke, late A.D.C. to H.M. Queen Victoria and to H.M. King Edward VII., writes to the "Times:"— My attention has been drawn to correspond- ence between Colonel Howard and Colonel Owen Thomas re the alieged hostility of the Welsh Nonconformists to recruiting for the Territorial Army, and, both those gentlemen having intro- duced my name into the controversy, I ask you to allow me the privilege of reply. Both of them are old friends of mine, and I am sure that neither of them would make any statement unless he believed in its perfect accuracy. As to Colonel Howard's charges against the Nonconformist ministry, I consider they are part- ly made out and admitted by some of them, but is it quite fair to tar them all with the same brush ? I took over the command of the 2nd V.B. Royal Welsh Fusiliers in August, 1873, and at one time suffered much from the hostility of ministers and chapels. I scorned the attacks and determined to live them down and show my opponents that a well-ordered Volunteer regi- ment could be a pattern not only to the service, but to those outside; such was my object. I was a strict disciplinarian, and took for my motto, "Favour to none, but kindness and justice to all," and working on those lines for 24 years left the regiment with two battalions 1600 strong and fully officered I had a great number of "Non- conformist privates, two companies almost wholly so, with two Nonconformist captains. I had no trouble; I never had an unkind word during the whole of my 24 years. In one matter Colonel Owen Thomas's memory has played him false. I was very particular as to attendance at church parades, and when I found that men were shirking, by pretending to be what they were not, they were marched to church and" fell in" outside, and "stood easy" till service was over (that took place only when there was no place of worship for their parti- cular denomination). It was a cure. I never inquired what denomination or politics a man was. All I wanted was that ho should do his duty. I encouraged Nonconformists to have service in their own chapel. A very smart, good lad died, and as his dying request asked his mother to consent to a full military funeral. The whole community were greatly pleased; they had never seen that most impressive scene, "a military funeral." I was told of lads whose lives were completely changed for the better after joining the Volunteers, and the tone of neighbourhoods was improved. A father of three fine lads told me that they were all Volun- teers, and added, "If I had six more, they should all be in." In a P.S. the Colonel states:—I have been in- formed that the Right Hon. Lloyd George, M.P., was once a private in the Portmadoc Company of my old regiment; he hkely could throw some tight en tbe vubject.

COLWYN BAY URBAN DISTRICT…

I ' ' "" ! FOOTBALL.

ANGLING,

DEATH OF MRS WATKIN DAVIE…

!FESTINIOG URBAN DISTRICT…

THE "PIONEER" REGISTRY BUREAU.