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West Glamorgan Archive Service reference SL WL 5/9/1

The poster is advertising a week long campaign to raise £20,000 to build a new support centre in Swansea for those veterans who served in WW1.  The end of the Great War coincided with the 50^th anniversary of YMCA Swansea. 

On the right of the YMCA Red Triangle logo is a notice which seems rather odd.  It states;

“The balance sheet of the National YMCA is published every six months, properly audited and is a document representing a marvel of enterprising work for God and humanity”.

The reason for the rather odd notice was that the appeal had already been effectively sabotaged and from a most unexpected quarter.

As well as providing YMCA huts at the front line, a considerable amount of work was being undertaken to support troops in Swansea.

50,000 meals had been served at St Andrews Hall (now Swansea Mosque), and where YMCA operated from May 1917 to March 1919. 80,000 sheets of writing paper given out to troops, sleeping accommodation provided to over 250 soldiers and sailors and

7,000 to 8000 free suppers provided. Food and accommodation provided also to 129 survivors of the Rewa, a hospital ship torpedoed in the Channel.

At an Executive Committee of YMCA Swansea on 1st October 1917 Mr. G. P. Cook-Davies stated that the number of Bit Badge Men in the town was about 900 (Bit Badge Men was a term for men who had done their bit but whom now were invalided out through illness or injury).  After discussion it was decided to appoint a delegation to meet with Sir John Llewelyn (YMCA Swansea President) to consider what could be done.  One idea considered was a hostel for soldiers and sailors and the need to investigate potential need.

In early 1919, the Red Cross notified the YMCA was that the building which had been turned into a hospital was expected to be handed back over on the 30^th March

It was agreed to hold an open meeting and in the meantime that the ground floor be used as a club for past and present members of H.M Forces.

A Jubilee planning meeting was held on the 15^th March.  The minutes are difficult to read but discussion involves a possible extension to the hostel as well as a new build erected to the men who have fallen in the war, on the model of the Red Triangle huts.

At a special meeting in March 1919 the appeal was launched with a target of £20,000

Ward lists were produced to target 20,000 houses via 260 canvassers and the Rev. James would target markets and businesses.

Newspaper adverts were also to be placed.  The appeal weeks would be the 28^th April to 10^th May. 300 posters and 500 window bills printed.

The appeal started well with the following promises:

Mr. Napier £200

Mr Cook £200

Richard Lewis £200

J. P Giles £100

S Palmer £52

W J Watkins £50

Total £802

The first indication of the appeal running into trouble comes in a minute dated 1^st April, under a heading the Bishop of Swansea.  The minute states:

“Mr Napier gave a brief report on the meeting of the National Council in London and stated that the Bishop of Swansea would be given an opportunity of substantiating or withdrawing his charge against the YMCA before a Commission appointed by the Council”.

A special meeting of the Executive Committee 16^th April minute states

“The Chairman referred to the Bishop of Swansea attack on the YMCA in the Times Newspaper.  In reference to the Bishops letter, Mr Highman gave exact information with regard to the Association building at Brecon and the success of that enterprise”.

The Cambrian newspaper reported on the allegations and subsequent inquiry by Lord Askwith on the 23^rd May 1919.  The central allegation by the Bishop was that the YMCA national body was competing with existing social organisations and that money subscribed for war purposes was now being used for peace schemes. It would appear that the criticism was triggered by something to do with Brecon YMCA but it is unclear what.  The report by lord Askwith rejected the Bishops criticisms. 

Although the Bishops letter to the Times had nothing to do with YMCA Swansea, the publicity effectively sabotaged the campaign.  The appeal was pretty ambitious anyway, particularly when it was only eight years since a similar appeal had raised the £20,000 for the cost of the building on the Kingsway.

In June the Rev Newton Jones reported that Len Palmer had succeeded in collecting £131, the highest amount secured by a member. The campaign figure now standing at £4548 with another £100 promised from Messrs Baldwin’s.  Another £250 was promised by the Butchers Association.

The minute’s state:

“Mr Napier moved thanks to Rev Newton Jones for his service as the campaign manager.  The campaign had not reached its target.  The attack upon the YMCA by the Bishop of Swansea and prevailing industrial unrest had doubtless influenced events.”

Mr Cook endorsed Mr Napier

“Campaign efforts had been largely controlled by unfortunate circumstances”

The appeal was finally closed with a total figure raised of £5692, well short of the £20,000 target.

Swansea Museum Collection

Black and white photograph and postcard showing an internal view of one of the wards at the converted Swansea YMCA taken circa 1918. Nurses and patients are clearly visible. Gelatine paper print.

The photograph is the gymnasium, (now Dojo) which is above the Llewelyn Hall Theatre.  The new building opened in October 1913 and within a year the 1^st WW has started.

There are a number of photographs by Chapman the High St photographer of patients and nurses at the hospital. It would appear that a few of his daughters were Red Cross volunteers and a son who was serving in the army, was a member of the YMCA.

An excellent book, Swansea in the Great War by Bernard Lewis has a detailed chapter on the medical provision in Swansea and contains another photograph by Chapman of the staff and patients on the roof of the building.

On the outbreak of war, the Swansea Red Cross Division began the search for suitable accommodation to convert to hospitals.  Early in the search in October 1914 they looked at both Sketty Church Hall and Llewelyn Hall (the YMCA theatre).

Heavy casualties suffered by the British Expeditionary Force in the early months of the war hastened efforts to find suitable premises as hospitals would be required sooner rather than later. It was also becoming clear that more than three Red Cross Volunteer Aid Detachments (VADs) would be required.

VAD 88 was based at Llewellyn Hall and received their first patients on the 3^rd December 1914.  With increasing number of casualties Parc Wern was also opened in 1915.

The Red Cross continued to search for a suitable single building as casualties mounted.  In the meantime a further ten beds were installed at the YMCA.

A special committee was appointed to look at a suggestion by Mrs Elswoth of the Red Cross that a hospital of eighty beds could be run if the whole of the YMCA was taken over.  However as Parc Wern had recently opened the project to take over the whole of the YMCA was put to one side. 

However by early 1917 with no end of the war in sight, a decision was taken to take over the building entirely.  In May 1917 the hospital was fully ready with 140 beds. A year later it had received a total 658 patients as compared to 308 in the previous two years.

The YMCA moved out of the building and down St Helen’s Road to St Andrews Church, now Swansea Mosque.

During the 4 years it was open 1443 patients were treated there.  This included 32 survivors from a hospital ship the Rewa who were landed at Swansea after being torpedoed in the Bristol Channel.

One of the nurses who worked at the YMCA hospital was Mary Morgan nee Corfield. An oral history interview was conducted with her in the 1980s and the tape is part of Swansea Museum Collection (oral history interview SM 1991.11.1.)

She describes how during the war the YMCA played an important support role providing soldiers with food and drink and paper and envelopes for writing. She trained as a nurse and then went to work at the YMCA where the shifts would be 6am till 2pm and then 6pm to 10pm.  Most of the casualties were transferred by sea to Cardiff and then onto Swansea.  Mary remembered that patients arrived with terrible injuries.  Despite the terrible injuries Mary enjoyed her work as a nurse and would have liked to pursue a career in nursing.  However her father put an end to her nursing career as soon as the war was over.

The YMCA Hospital was not for walking wounded or convalescence purposes. It is therefore quite remarkable that only one patient is recorded as dying there.  A second casualty who died is unidentified but was a local man and therefore was allowed to go home.  The one patient who died at the hospital was Lance Corporal Gordon Rankin Inglis, an Australian, wounded at Gallipoli.

At the end of March 1919, the hospital was closed and the building handed back to the YMCA.  It was not the end of the relationship as the Red Cross rented a club room in the building in partnership with the Royal College of Nurses (RCN).  This arrangement continued until the mid-1930s at which point they rented a room at 122 Walter Rd due to the unsatisfactory heating arrangements at the YMCA.