The name DC Harries may no longer be familiar to Guardian readers, but one hundred years ago he was a key figure in the area.

In the days before smart phones, camcorders and digital cameras, Harries was one of the men who recorded life in the years before, between and after the two world wars.

His images of day-to-day life in the Amman and Towy Valleys offer a unique insight into the past, as he recorded the lives and landscapes of a generation.

A photographer who primarily operated from his studios in Quay Street, Ammanford, and 48 Rhosmaen Street in Llandeilo, his images catalogue the changing nature of life in the region from the very beginning of the 20th Century up to the early 1950s.

However, the archive of his photographs contain many pictures of residents going about their daily business, working, and living their lives.

Following his death, thousands of glass negatives of his pictures were donated to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth (NLW) where they have been stored as a valuable archive of everyday life in Wales.

Amongst these images are several hundred glass negatives of studio portraits of soldiers from the Great War. Many are pictures of soldiers who served with the Welsh Regiments and many are photographed with loved ones, suggesting that they are of local men.

Sadly, the bequest to the library was of the negatives alone and therefore no record has been kept of who these men were or what stories they could tell.

NLW curator Will Troughton has taken on the unenviable task of attempting to identify as many of these images of the past as he can.

“Unfortunately there is no record of who these men are,” said Will.

“To date I have catalogued and described two hundred negatives but only managed to identify one individual, Benjamin Aneurin Roberts, a young man from Llandeilo who enlisted in South Africa and joined a Scottish Transvaal Regiment.”

Records show Benjamin was killed in 1916.

“Many of the portraits show men with overseas service chevrons and wound stripes which date them to 1916 or later but most cannot be dated too accurately other than 1914-1918,” said Will.

“Some have their medals, suggesting that they had their photographs taken after the war.”

Many of the men pictured may well be the fathers, grandfathers or great-grandfathers of Guardian readers.

If you recognise any of the men pictured please contact the Guardian – steve.adams@southwalesguardian.co.uk – and we will be happy to pass on the information to Will as he attempts to build a vital record of the valley men who served their country during World War One.

You can see many of DC Harries pictures online at cymru1914.org/en/browse/photographs and at the National Library of Wales’ online archive at llgc.org.uk.

 

South Wales Guardian: