Ammanford pensioner discovers truth of war-hero grandfather

Gareth Griffiths, of Harold Street, idolised grand-dad David - known to all as Dai Isaac - throughout his youth and spent many happy hours with the veteran of Flanders Fields during his childhood, but knew little of the horrors the old man at his side had witnessed in the trenches during the Great War.

“He was a strong man, a quiet man” said Gareth. “He was a gentle giant, who loved fishing and the countryside.

“He kept ferrets and would take me out to catch rabbits when I was a boy.”

Gareth’s family knew that Dai – the first man from Llandybie to sign up for combat and a first cousin of Labour MP Jim Griffiths– had been wounded and had won a medal for valour, but the specifics of his heroics had remained a mystery for almost a century.

On his return at the end of the war he was presented, like others from the village who had fought, with a medal by the people of Llandybie.

“He never spoke about anything that had happened during the war,” said Gareth.

“When we were young we always used to ask about what he had seen, but all he would ever say was: “You do not want to know.”

“We knew he had won a Distinguished Conduct Medal medal for bravery, the British medal and the 14 Star, but very few details.”

Dai’s decision to join up was a shock in itself – when war broke out in August 1914, he was a 27-year-old married man with three children.

“The fact he already had a family must have made it extremely hard for him to go to war,” said Gareth, “but we know he was first in line to sign up.

“He must have felt incredibly passionate about doing his duty and going to fight.”

Dai Isaac joined the 1/6th (Glamorgan) Battalion of the Welsh Regiment in August 1914 and set sail for France on October 20. Of the 842 men who landed in France that day, only 30 would return home at the end of the hostilities.

Throughout the early years of the war he maintained communications lines along the front line until June 1916 when his unit was transferred to the 1st Division as a Pioneer battalion, at the very forefront of hostilities.

For four years, the family man from Llandybie endured the most horrific battles mankind has ever witnessed, including periods spent around Ypres and the Somme.

At some point during the war he was stabbed in the thigh by a German bayonet – one of the few mementoes of combat he kept.

“The fact he was stabbed in the thigh implies they were fighting hand-to-hand,” said Gareth.

“It is a horrifying to imagine him in that situation.”

That he returned home with his enemy’s weapon as a souvenir raises a dark question over the fate of the man who stabbed him.

Before the war was over, Dai would rise to the rank of sergeant.

A second souvenir he brought home was his regimental sergeant’s whistle – another item heavy with the weight of history.

“As a sergeant, it is likely he will have blown his whistle to order the men to go ‘over the top’ and charge the enemy,” said Gareth.

“What a truly frightening responsibility.”

The November 1918 edition of the London Gazette announced that Sjt D Griffiths 1/6th Bn, Welsh R (Llandebie) had been awarded the DCM for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. The medal was the second-highest award for courage given to British soldiers, second only to the Victoria Cross.

The London Gazette citation read:

‘He went forward with runners to the assistance of a wire party under heavy shell fire. While returning the officer was wounded. Serjt Griffiths dressed his wounds under continuous shell fire, and carried him to a dressing station a mile off. His behaviour was splendid.’

“It was down in black and white that he had carried this injured officer on his back for a mile while they were under fire,” said Gareth.

“I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like to run a mile while being shot at and under shell-fire, let alone while carrying an injured man.

“The fact he received a medal proves he was a hero and he saved that officer’s life, but those few words were all we ever knew.”

Dai refused to ever discuss the events of that day and the story eventually slipped into family lore until a visit to northern France rekindled Gareth’s curiosity.

“A few years ago our son and his wife took my wife and I to Ypres and that sparked the interest,” said the 78-year-old.

“Then my wife and I decided we would like to see where they had fought. In April we saw an advert in the Guardian for a coach trip to the battlefields during the summer.

“I knew I wanted to find out more about my grandfather. I knew he had won the DCM for carrying this officer, but we knew little of the circumstances.

“I thought it was time to try to find out.”

So began a journey of discovery which has taken Gareth to the regimental archives, libraries, and across the country – with help from friends and family.

Gareth and his family initially believed that the officer carried from the battlefield might have been his commanding officer, Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart MP and son of the third Marquis of Bute, because David named his son Ninian after the war.

However, Gareth’s relentless digging eventually confirmed that David’s medal was presented for an act of valour on April 18, 1918, during the German’s Spring Offensive at a place named Gorre Wood near the town of Bethune. Crichton-Stuart died in 1915.

Further research has shown that the only officer of the Welsh Regiment seriously injured on April 18 was Second Lieutenant Walter Arthur Henry Mills, a Gloucestershire man who survived the war and settled in Cardiff.

“It seems most likely that Mills was the officer my grandfather carried to safety,” said Gareth.

“It seems strange that he was two years younger than my grandfather.”

“The things I have discovered about my grandfather have cast a whole new light on the memories I have of him from my childhood.

“I think perhaps I understand a little more of what made him the man he was when he came home.

“I feel I have grown even closer to him now if that is possible.

“It has been an incredibly emotional journey.

“I am proud to say my grandfather was a hero and I am honoured to have been able to at last give him some of the recognition he deserves.”

The quest to illuminate the actions of a hero - while incomparable to carrying a dying comrade across a blood-soaked battlefield – may well be considered behaviour splendid in and of itself.