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Brass Binoculars

by Hollie Gaze
Swansea Museum Visitor Services Officer

New Donation

This simple pair of brass binoculars has a tragic history. The binoculars were aboard the SS Amazon, which sunk along the Margam Sands near Port Talbot on the 1st of September 1908.

The SS Amazon was a four-masted, iron barque; a sailing ship built by Barclay, Curle & Co at Greenock in 1886. On the morning of the 31st of August, the SS Amazon was towed out of Port Talbot Docks bound for Iquique (pronounced ee-key-kay) with 2,000 tons of coal. Iquique is a port in Chile that is well-known for its export of saltpetre, a mineral used in gunpowder and fertiliser. Ships would sail to Iquique with imports, such as coal, and return with the saltpetre.

There was a light breeze as the Amazon was taxied to Mumbles, where the breeze was quickly turning into a gale. The captain, Andrew Garrick, gave order to drop anchor. The decision was made to wait out the wind as they couldn’t get the ship’s head to the wind, so the tug left the ship and went back to port. As evening fell it became clear that the wind was not going to let up and was actually getting stronger. Another anchor was dropped. Hope of the weather clearing was dashed by the morning. The wind was so strong the anchors were unable to keep the ship still and were now dragging along the sea floor.

The Amazon’s broadside was to the wind so when the anchors snapped, the ship was blown south with no way of controlling its path. The ship and its crew were in a desperate situation, so the captain ordered them to don their lifebelts and to take to the rigging to avoid being swept into the sea. They flew their Red Ensign flag upside down – the signal of a ship in distress. They continued to be pushed south, passing the sands of Port Talbot until it was run aground at Margam Sands. The Amazon been blown south for approximately 7 miles.

Once it hit the sands it was battered by waves, causing the captain to be swept against the deckhouse. He was knocked unconscious but was tied to the mast by the ship’s carpenter. They tried to lower the ship’s boat, but it was destroyed by the tempest. The ship’s cook was swept overboard which spurred crew left on deck to climb up the rigging for safety.

It was now morning and people started to gather along the shore to see what was happening. They were so close they could hear the sailor’s distress, but the sands were perilous. With the waves and the soft sands, they could do little but watch the scene unfold helplessly. They tried to shoot a rocket line to the ship, but it failed to make it. The Mumbles lifeboat, Charlie Medland, was unable to get within a mile of the ship due to the shallow water. The Amazon began to sink into the shifting sands and the waves were now overtaking the ship. Three of the four masts snapped, sending sailors into the sea. Others jumped into the water, hoping to make it ashore. The main mast finally gave into the sea’s assault, sending the rest of the sailors into the sea. The sailor cries were heard by the people waiting at the shore and many onlookers collapsed in despair.

Finally, the tide withdrew enough to attempt to reach the remains of the Amazon, many risking their lives to save the sailors still in the water. One man, Charles Russell, jumped into the water and swam out to Christopher Sullivan who was still clinging to the remains of a mast. Russell was injured badly but managed to save Sullivan’s life. Others quickly made their way to the Amazon to find another sailor wedged in the wreckage, injured but alive. Henry Care swam out with a line and managed to save two sailors. Even after the brave efforts of sailors and spectators, only 8 of the 28 men aboard the SS Amazon were saved from the wreckage.

This pair of binoculars was found among the sand near the remains of the Amazon. They are fairly ordinary, although now badly tarnished as the sea water has eaten into the brass and fogged the glass lenses. Now in the museum’s collection, they will serve to remember the tragic fate of the SS Amazon and 20 of its crew.

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Rev. Emma Rosalind Lee

By Phil Treseder
Swansea Museum Education & Participation Officer

In January 2024 a film was realised with the title ‘One Life’. The film is based on the true-life story of Sir Nicholas Winton who is played by Sir Anthony Hopkins.

The film focuses on a scrapbook which was put together by the Committee for Czechoslovakian Child Refugees in 1939 and given to Nicholas Winton.  The group supported Nicholas Winton in organising Kindertransport trains of child refugees out of Czechoslovakia in 1939 to escape the Nazis.

The scrapbook is now in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

In the film, Nicholas Winton browses the scrapbook and stops at an article titled `What they have done to the Czechs’.  In the real scrapbook, to the left of that article is a newspaper cutting from the South Wales Evening Post.  It is a letter to the Editor dated 20th of April 1939, headed `Refugee Children; an appeal’.  The letter is from the Rev. Rosalind Lee, Cefn Bryn House, Penmaen, near Swansea.

The Rev Rosalind Lee was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham but would later settle in Swansea at Cefn Bryn House, Penmaen, with her brother who was a lecturer at Swansea University.  The house still exists and has a spectacular view of Three Cliffs Bay. Both were actively involved in the Gower Society.  The Rev. Lee bought several plots of land on the Gower to stop any development on them and then donated the land to the National Trust.

She became a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse during the Great War and then became a Minister with the Unitarian Church in 1919.  She was a member of the first committee of the British League of Unitarian Women from 1908 and become the National Secretary in 1929.  She would later be elected as President of the Unitarian General Assembly in 1940.

The Rev. Lee served as a Minister in Treorchy, Leicester, Hackney, and Stourbridge and as a district minister in South Wales.

In October 1939 she went to Prague to set up and run a `Friends Refugee Office’ with another Unitarian Minister John McLachlan.  They worked closely with Doreen Warriner, the only one of the three they include in the film.

A full list of the 669 mainly Jewish children they saved are online.  Unfortunately, the last train due to depart on the 1st of September 1939 with another 250 children on board, was prevented from leaving by the outbreak of the war and the majority of those children were subsequently murdered.

The British Government would not allow the transport of the children without guarantors in place who would look after the children and cover the costs.

The list of children includes information on names, dates of birth, and address’s in the UK and who the guarantor was.  From the list we can see that the Rev. Lee was guarantor or co-guarantor for many children.

Not all were based in Swansea, some she obviously managed to place with family and friends.  Some of the many children included were:

Ivo Englander, born 1924.
Eduard Kestenbaum, born 1930.
Ervin Kestenbaum, born 1926.
Renee Kestenbaum born 1928.
Katarina Kestenbaum, born 1931.

None of the above children would return to Czechoslovakia. The two Kestenbaum sisters Renee and Katarina would both, following the war, emigrate to the United States.  The brothers Eduard and Ervin would later apply for British citizenship in 1947 and remain in the UK. At the same time, they both changed their surname to Berry.

It appears that Eduard may have moved to Birmingham, whilst Ervin remained in Swansea.

A search of the Czechoslovakian Holocaust victims list under Kestenbaum only produces two names who may have been their parents.  Frantisek, born in 1898 was murdered on 13th August 1942 at Majdenek.  Hana (although on the record spelling is slightly different, probably a spelling mistake by the SS) was born 1897, and was murdered, place and date unknown.

The surname, Englander appears to be fairly common, so we were unable to locate the parents of Ivo, but it is probably safe to assume they were also murdered.

If they did survive the war, they would have been devastated to find out their son did not. Being the oldest of the five, Ivo became eligible to join up and he joined the Czechoslovakian Air Force operating in Britain. 

He was killed on the 1st of January 1945 whilst returning from patrol with Coastal Command.  In severe weather his Liberator plane crashed into the northern end of the Island of Hoy, Orkneys.

His body was taken to the mainland, and he is buried in Tain Cemetery, Scottish Highlands.

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Good Vibes

T Shirt – produced by GoodVibes group, YMCA Swansea

The T shirt was designed by young people in the GoodVibes group for the Swansea Pride march in 2021.

On the 2nd October 1857, the Cambrian Newspaper carried an announcement to say that “the first meeting of the Church of England Young Men’s Association will be held on the 6th October at 6pm in the National School, Oxford St”, (now the car park opposite the Grand Theatre) where “Pascoe St Ledger Grenville had kindly consented to give a speech”.

The following week, on the 9th October the Cambrian carried a report on the meeting.

The meeting was chaired by the Rev E B squire (Vicar of St Mary’s 1846 -76). In his address Pascoe St Ledger stated:

“Associations must be the means of bringing young men together and of finding them enjoyment and pleasures which they can’t find at home – giving them opportunities of employing their talents and enabling them to form associations and friendships which they may hold valuable and dear to them to the latest moment of life. In such cases an association, was most beneficial, some of the most eminent of the day have sprung from associations of this kind”.

Not much is known about the original group and its activities. However, a report in the Cambrian newspaper on the 4th January 1861 announced that the group were having a `Soiree’ at the Assembly Rooms on the 9th January where:

“Several gentlemen will make their first appearance in public”.

The only modern equivalent today is the debutant balls at which the aristocracy present their daughters to the monarch. However, during this period, these kind of events would regularly take place and mention both young men and women being introduced to society. It is the origin of the modern term, `Coming Out’.

YMCA Swansea was established in 1868 when the above group changed its name to the usual format of YMCA.

Just over a hundred and fifty years later in 2011, another association GoodVibes was established under the auspices of YMCA Swansea.

GoodVibes is an inclusive LGBTQ+ youth group that supports young people between the ages of 11-25. It provides a safe space that reduces feelings of loneliness and isolation. Young people can build peer friendships within a community so that they belong, contribute and thrive. It is a group where young people can be surrounded by likeminded individuals in an environment that promotes respecting other people’s choices, citizenship, and cultural identity. It provides young people with the confidence to explore their own identity around people that really understand and care.

GoodVibes operates on the foundation of strong values of inclusivity and diversity. Young people can come to GoodVibes without fear of judgment, harassment, bullying or discrimination and social pre-conceived norms. They can be 100% themselves and have a safe space to explore their identity. It is a group where young people can come and introduce themselves, their names, preferred names, pronouns, and favourite things. And what they receive from each other, and youth workers is acceptance, without question.

Swansea Museum took the T shirt into the collection as part of its policy of diversifying the displays.

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YMCA & the Swansea Museum Collection

Phil Treseder is the Learning and Participation Officer at Swansea Museum and also a Trustee of YMCA Swansea.

Currently researching the history of YMCA Swansea, these blogs highlight objects in the Swansea Museum collection linked to the YMCA along with a few from West Glamorgan Archives.

The eleven blogs will act as a pilot for a potential series of blogs on the YMCA from the substantial history and archive material that belong to the YMCA and provides a fascinating social history of Swansea, which hopefully will begin later in 2022.

Each blog will start with a reference to the collection and a description of the object or document as it appears on the museum or archive record.

YMCA Library Catalogue 1900

Swansea Museum Library Collection

The small A6 booklet is twenty four pages long, with another three pages of adverts. It lists the 699 books available in the lending library of YMCA Swansea in the year 1900.  At this time the YMCA was based in Dynevor Place, prior to moving to the purpose built YMCA on the Kingsway which opened in October 1913. The catalogue is divided into seven sections including theology, biography, history, fiction, poetry, voyages and travels and miscellaneous.

The 19th Century saw a considerable expansion in education and learning.  Swansea Public Library opened in 1887 on Alexandra Road following the donation of a significant book collection by Deffet Francis.

Prior to this, access to borrowing books was through subscription libraries.  In 1815 there were six subscription libraries in Swansea.

The most prestigious library and reading rooms in Swansea would open in 1841, at the Royal Institution of South Wales (RISW), now Swansea Museum.

In 1835 the Swansea Philosophical and Literary Society was formed, which soon gained a Royal Charter to become the Royal Institution of South Wales. In 1841 the building was opened.  The downstairs consisted of a lecture theatre, reference library and library and reading room. The reference library is currently staff offices and the main exhibition gallery was the main library and reading room.

This image of the main RISW reading room is from the early 20th century and is now currently the gallery where the natural history collection is displayed.

The initial Swansea YMCA library and reading rooms would have been similar but no doubt smaller, less grand and less books.  Unfortunately we are not aware of any surviving photograph.

YMCA Swansea was established in 1868 (or it could be argued 1857, to be covered in a future blog).  The primary aim at the time would be to divert young men form the temptations of the town of Swansea such as public houses, theatres and brothels towards Christianity and salvation through Jesus Christ.  The police report for example for Swansea in 1888 records nine brothels and sixty five prostitutes in the town.

The primary method would be the provision of a library and reading room. Today the majority of YMCA Swansea staff are Youth and Community Workers, so it may come as a surprise to know that the first paid staff post advertised in the Cambrian Newspaper was for a Librarian in 1872, salary £20 per annum.

The formal opening of the Reading Rooms is described in detail in the Cambrian newspaper on the 19th August 1870.  The location in the article is given as the corner of Dillwyn St and Herbert Place.

The report describes them as;

“The very handsome and commodious reading rooms and news club erected by Mr. Henry Jack, the spirited proprietor for the YMCA were formally opened on Monday evening last.  The principle room is capable of accommodating upon an emergency some 200 or 250 members and has not only been comfortably but luxuriously fitted up.  Through the whole width of the principal room runs a massive mahogany reading table and the comfortable lounges or seats are covered with rich velvet.  The fire place is of polished marble and the grates elegant in design”.

The report also quoted the Mayor John Jones Jenkins, Esq as stating;

“There was practically no room in which the young men of the town can congregate together for mental recreation and improvement. The only room which existed was the Royal Institution (Swansea Museum)… and the fees were rather above what the young people could afford to pay”.

The newspaper goes onto record the following newspapers and periodicals which have been subscribed to for the reading rooms.  National papers include The Times, Standard, Telegraph, Pall Mall, Punch and Judy.  Local papers include the Cambrian, Western Mail, Herald and Journal.  Periodicals to include, Sunday magazine, Good Words, Christian Observer, Christian World, Leisure Hour, Edinburgh Quarterly review and the English Mechanic.

The total income required for the reading rooms per annum would be rent £40, taxes £20, librarian £25, light, heat and cleaning £15 and subscriptions £25.

Unfortunately I have not been able to trace a photograph of the original library and reading rooms.  Actually identifying the building the rooms were located in was a challenge in itself.  The address described or given varied including Herbert Place, St Helens Road and the junction of Dillwyn St and St Helens Road. Herbert Place was the lane running first left off St Helens Road and ending behind what was Peter Allen Estate Agents. Obviously it was in the block of building opposite the current YMCA building.

However, recently a two page leaflet from 1968 celebrating the 100th anniversary emerged with a photograph of the location.  The original library and reading rooms was directly opposite and is still there. The upper floor above what is currently Subway and the Lifestyle Express shop.

The YMCA in Swansea the 1870s appeared to have struggled at first. Research is ongoing but it would appear that the aims of the founders were not matching up with the aims and needs of the young men. A new management committee however appears to have turned matters around by the mid-1870s.  By the end of the decade they were looking for new and larger premises which they found in the former Normal College building on Dynevor Place in 1882.  The new premises had a hall, gymnasium, lounge and of course the library and reading room. The formal opening of the new building by the mayor is reported in the Cambrian on the 2nd February 1883.

In a YMCA newsletter for 1884 `The Record’, a description of the new building is included as follows;

“Young men are most welcome to visit the YMCA in Dynevor Place which adjoins the Tramway Terminus, Gower Street.  Open from 9.30am to 10.30pm.  The commodious building includes:

Reading Room, light, bright and pleasant, well supported with newspapers, magazines and easy chairs. Lending library, stocked with books on biography, fiction, history, poetry, travel and bible studies

Sitting Room, cosy and comfortable, provided with piano, harmonium, writing tables, chess and draughts

Bagatelle Room

Ping-Pong Room

Secretary’s Office, where lists of lodgings and apartments can be seen.  Letters of introductions can be obtained to all parts of the world

Members Bath Room, supplied with hot and cold water and shower bath

Gymnasium, large and well equipped and fitted with hot and cold showers, baths, dressing room and lockers

Social gatherings, lectures etc. take place from time to time.  A literary and debating society started last month”.

The library and reading room would continue to be a feature in the current building on the Kingsway opened in 1913.  Research is ongoing as to the date of the closure of the library and reading room but it was still a feature during WW2.

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Refugee Week

By Phil Treseder
Swansea Museum Education & Participation Officer

On the 30th of March 2021, His Excellency, Libor Secka, the Czech Ambassador to the UK attended the Wales V Czech Republic football qualifying match for the 2022 World Cup.

Whilst in Wales he took the opportunity to visit several graveyards to pay his respects to fellow countrymen and refugees to Britain who paid the ultimate price whilst serving in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War 2.

The visit included St Hiliary’s in Killay. There are a number of RAF personnel buried there from various countries including the USA, South Africa, Canada and two from the Czech Republic.

Rudolf Rohacek and Josef Janeba were both part of 312 Squadron based at Fairwood Common during 1942.

Rohacek was born in 1914 in Marianske Hory. Following the fall of Czechoslovakia, he joined the Polish Air Force, then the French and finally the RAF.  He was killed on the 27th of April 1942 when his Spitfire crashed very near to Axbridge Railway Station.in Somerset. The most likely cause of the accident was oxygen equipment failure.

Janeba was born in 1915 in Kralove. He was killed on the 2nd of May 1942 when another Spitfire caught and broke off the tail of his Spitfire on take-off. He managed to bail out but had not gained enough height for the parachute to work. The spitfire crashed into Kilvrough farmyard, close to the South Gower Road. Janeba kept a diary, and the last entry is written by his friend and fellow pilot, Vojtech Smolik.

“He died in a plane crash on the 2nd of May 1942. He used his parachute, but the crash happened at a very low altitude, so the parachute could not save him.  He was my best friend. Honour to his memory”.

Photograph of the graves of Josef Janeba and Rudolf Rohacek

The Czech Ambassador also paid his respects to some of the fallen from another Czech Squadron, 311, a bomber squadron based for a while in Pembrokeshire, seconded to Coastal Command. One of the members of the squadron Vaclav Bozdech ended up being a refugee twice. Following the fall of Czechoslovakia he joined the French Air Force. Whilst serving with them he adopted a puppy who he named Antis and on the fall of France escaped with the dog and joined 311 Squadron, where the dog became the squadrons mascot. Unusual for a mascot, Antis went on the combat missions. On his return home, Bozdech had to escape again, this time from the communists and become a refugee for the second time. Antis saved him by first alerting him to a patrol of border guards and later pinning one of them down to allow them to escape and get back to Britain. In 1949 Antis received the Dickin Medal (a Victoria Cross equivalent for animals). In December 2024, the medal sold at auction for £50,000, plus commission.

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International Women’s Day

By Phil Treseder
Swansea Museum Education & Participation Officer

In December 2024, Wales International Women’s Team qualified for the first time for a major international tournament. Women’s football has had a difficult journey. The First World War provided a major boost, but the Football Association worried about its growing popularity effectively banned it in 1921 by threating to ban any clubs from membership that allowed women’s teams access to grounds and facilities.

Women’s football does date earlier than World War 1 and at times there was considerable resistance. A touring team named the British Ladies’ Football Club were in Swansea in July 1896.  A game was held against a men’s team (apparently the first ever such game in Swansea) which resulted in 4 – 4 draw. However, the gate was rather small and as a result the team could not afford the fares to Cardiff, their next destination.

The team did manage to get to Cardiff eventually, but the news was covered by the South Wales Daily Post on the 7th of August with the following commentary.

“So, the British Ladies’ Football Club managed after all to get out of the awkward predicament in which they found themselves on Tuesday and bade Swansea farewell for ever on Thursday. No one could but help sympathise with the poor girls in their sad plight, but at the same time I hope their severe lesson will drive home the conviction that football is not a game for women no more than darning stockings is an occupation for mortals of the masculine gender. The ordinary species of the new woman is almost intolerable, but when females turn out in bloomers on the football field the whole business becomes positively disgusting, and if a slice of bad luck, such as that experienced by the British lady footballers at Swansea, will have the effect of crushing out the practice I shall rejoice exceedingly over it. By-and-by there will be no holding these masculine females”.

One of the earliest known teams in Swansea was Baldwins United, formed during WW1. The team were women working at the National Shell Factory.

The woman who organised the team was Nancie Griffith Jones employed as a welfare officer at the factory. A keen sportswoman, she played football, hockey and water polo.  Later in life she would be awarded an OBE for services in the education sector. She would also spend WW2 as a prisoner of the Japanese as at the start of the war in the Pacific she was running a school in Singapore.

SM MI 6877.2 is a photograph of the team taken at St Helens ground pre or following a match and probably for a game played against Newport in April 1918 to raise funds for the Prisoners of War Fund. Nancie is sitting fourth from left in the front row.

National Shell Factory (Baldwins) taken in front of the old pavilion at St Helens ground.

The team surnames are given along with an initial.  However, some of the newspaper reports provide us with a first name. It is therefore possible to speculate on the full name and address of some of the team.

If anyone recognises them as an ancestor or know of anyone else in the team and can provide further information, please contact Swansea Museum via phil.treseder@swansea.gov.uk

The possible names given along with Nancie Griffith Jones are:

N Dalhgrin
L Quick (captain)
D Wise
D Thomas
E Griffiths
A Davies
G Gower
A Guy
K Roper
M Forrester
In a later game there is an E Mountfield

A few possibilities include:

The captain is named as Lizzie in a newspaper report. Possibly Lilian Elizabeth Quick born in 1895 in Wolverhampton and living in Margaret Terrace, St Thomas in 1911.  If so married Evan Gordon Davies in 1924.

K. Roper in the newspaper is named as Katie. There is a Catherine Roper born about 1900 living at 3 Wandsworth Street with her brother and uncle.

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Oxfam T-shirt

New Donation

In October of 1969 a group of young people gathered at midnight at Singleton Park. They were taking part in a 20-mile charity walk to Porthcawl that would take them up to 8 hours to finish. The donor of this t-shirt, along with the rest of the group were walking to raise money for Oxfam, a charity that fights poverty all around the world.  The front of the shirt has the logo ‘Oxfam Walk 69’ on the front and the back has the easily misunderstood slogan, ‘Help Stamp out Oxfam’.

Photograph looking down at a white t-shirt laid out in a rectangular box. White tissue paper sits underneath the t-shirt. The t-shirt has a bright , circular, orange logo in the centre that says Oxfam Walk 69.

The Swansea charity walk was part of a larger National Youth Walk movement that took place all around Britian. One of the most well-known walks was the summer walk to Wembley Stadium. 50,0000 young people started off at 12 different points to do their charity walk to the stadium, walking up to 30 miles. It was a hot day and quite a few of the young people were new to long distance walking, so the St John Ambulance crew were kept busy treating heat stroke and wounded feet. Those who reached the stadium were welcomed with a concert including the bands Love Affair and Dire Straits.

This T-shirt represents a new generation realising that making a difference to the world starts with a single step.

Followed by thousands of other ones.

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Bison & Buffalo Conservation

Bison & Buffalo heads before conservation

In our Natural History Gallery there were two Bovidae heads mounted on the wall that were in need of care and conservation. Time had taken its toll on the taxidermy heads so Laura, from LR Conservation, came to Swansea Museum to provide the expertise to conserve and clean them.

One is a head of an Indian Gaur Bison. This is the largest species of surviving Bovidae and are capable of killing tigers when provoked. Our bison head came from Kolhapur in Northern India and was donated in 1960. The bison head had serious damage to one horn, which needed to be carefully reattached. It had also been missing its glass eyes for many years.

damaged horn and ear before conservation – bison
repaired horn and ear with new glass eye – bison

The other Bovidae head is of a Water Buffalo that came from Kolhapur at the same time as the bison. There are two different types of water buffalo: swamp and river. We are still unsure which one our buffalo is. They are usually told apart by their body size, which isn’t terribly helpful with only the head. Our buffalo had shrinkage damage where the fillers used by the original taxidermist had dried up. In addition to some repair work, both heads needed a good conservation clean and polish.

cracks & dust before conservation – buffalo
after crack repair and cleaning – buffalo

Due to the expertise of the conservator, both heads are squeaky clean with shining eyes and gleaming horns. Once the mounts are made, both heads will be placed back into the Natural History Gallery.

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New Donation

World War 2 Pepper Pot

Sometimes the most unassuming donations can have an interesting story. The museum has had a recent donation from a local family of a metal cannister of black pepper. The outside looks a bit rusty, and the inside contains an ordinary paper bag of pepper. During World War 2 this pot of pepper was kept in the family’s air raid shelter. However, it wasn’t used for seasoning their rations. The donor’s grandmother kept it there as a last line of defence if the Germans invaded. She had it ready to throw in their faces to blind them so the family could make a quick getaway.

This donation is part of a collection of three items related to WW2 in Swansea. The other two items in this donation are photographs of the donor’s relatives who worked as a nurse and an ambulance driver during the war.

SM2024.1.3