Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland: Clubmakers

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Clubmakers

Cecil Ewart Griffiths
Newtown/France
Cecil Ewart Griffiths was born in 1894 in Berriew, Monmouthshire, the son of Harry and Jane of The Cottage, Pentrellivor, Berriew, and he was still living with his parents and siblings at the time of the 1911 census where he is recorded as a ‘golf pro’s assistant’. I assume this would be at the nearby Newtown/St Giles club where the professional was Ernest Lewis

He was called up for one year’s home service with the Territorials (Royal Welsh Fusiliers) in 1914 and, when he attested, on 5 October he gave his occupation as golf professional. He may have taken over from Lewis as, despite Jackson’s Register showing Lewis as professional in 1914, he had, in fact, taken up the professional’s post at Aberystwyth by, at the latest, 1913. Of course, the one year’s service was extended and the Territorials were also sent abroad. Cecil embarked with the South Wales Borderers for the Dardanelles at Devonport on 7 July 1915. By December of that year he was in hospital in Malta suffering from frostbitten feet and was invalided back to England.

On 13 June 1917 he was posted with the 2nd South Wales Borderers to France (his service record uses this regiment interchangeably with 2nd Monmouthshire). He was wounded in action and treated at the Canadian General Hospital in Étaples and then sent to the 5th Northern General Hospital in Leicester. The Llangollen Advertiser Denbighshire Merionethshire and North Wales Journal announced this on 31 August and added the further golfing snippet that ‘Before enlistment …. Pte Griffiths was a golf professional in France’. (I am assuming this meant being an instructor in the summer months at one of the fashionable French resorts). However, by the time the paper was out Cecil Griffiths was dead, on 27 August 1915, from gunshot wounds to the face and septicaemia. He is buried in Bettws Cedewain (St Beuno) Churchyard with the headstone Headstone: 285129 Private / C.E. GRIFFITHS / Monmouthshire Regiment / 25th August 1917 age 23 / Oh blessed voice of Jesus / which comes to hearts opprest. / Tablet: Beloved son of / H. & J. GRIFFITHS, / Pentrellivior, / "At rest."

He is commemorated on the Bettws Cedenain war memorial and the Berriew one.

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