Wales

Appeal for Welsh WWI memorial

A World War I society has launched an appeal to commemorate the Welsh soldiers who were killed in one of the conflict's most infamous battles.

Hundreds of troops from Wales were amongst the 70-thousand British soldiers killed at the Battle of Passchendaele, in Ypres, Belgium.

The battle lasted from July to November 1917 and the Passchendaele Society in Belgium wants to raise 60,000 euros (£52,000) for a Welsh memorial there.

The organisers say they hope it will become a memorial to all Welsh soldiers who were killed in what came to be known as The Great War.

The North Wales Rugby Choir is performing a concert in Belgium to mark the launch of the appeal.

Retired police officer Peter Jones is co-ordinating the appeal in Wales and will attend the launch in Belgium. He says it is important to remember the Welsh soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice: "It's very worthwhile. Everybody else has got a monument out there - the Irish and the Scottish - but we don't have anything at all.

"On the Somme in France there is a memorial for the Welsh but not here.

"There is a lot of support for it. Whether that support will be converted into cash we will have to see."

Of all the horrifying battles of the First World War, the Battle of Passchendaele was one of the most bloody. A deluge of rain - the heaviest in the area for 30 years - made mud so deep that men and horses drowned.

The battle ended when British and Canadian forces captured Passchendaele, but not before it had produced a casualty list of 325-thousand Allied soldiers and 260-thousand Germans.

Welsh language poet Hedd Wyn was one of the most high-profile casualties of the battle.

He was killed at the battle of Pilckem Ridge and posthumously won the 1917 National Eisteddfod chair six weeks later.

Picture: Library and Archives Canada