THE latest community news from Barmouth

WI

THE president, Mari, speaking in Welsh, welcomed members and visitors. As the February meeting celebrates St David’s Day, Meirion was sung accompanied by Blodwen on the piano.

The speaker, Menna Lloyd Jones, a local retired registered nurse and midwife, was then introduced. She had a very varied career working mainly in Community hospitals and in the community. In 1990 she was tasked to research all eleven community hospitals in the Gwynedd Community Health Trust. She enjoyed it so much that she determined to do more research into medical history when she retired and this is when she discovered how much the people of Meirionnydd helped the sick and wounded soldiers during the First World War.

Her historical research has produced a book entitled The Forgotten Heroes of World War One. It describes the lengths that people went to treat those affected by the horrors of war. Menna’s talk was fascinating and extremely informative, telling us in detail about the forgotten heroes in and around Barmouth who gave their time freely nursing, cleaning, fundraising, knitting, sewing etc. to support and comfort the troops. Mr and Mrs Prys-Owen offered their home, Aber Artro in Llanbedr as a military hospital and when it opened in 1917 they received many gifts from the local community.

Meanwhile the two daughters of Mrs Prys-Owen were very pro-active in France, driving a motor-bath which provided 250 baths a day for the troops. Soldiers from all over the UK were sent to Aber Artro to convalesce. Thanks to the Prys-Owen family, volunteers and gifts from the local community the hospital was a great success.

At the beginning of the business part of the meeting, Mari gave birthday greetings to Karen, Val and Carol. The minutes from the last meeting were read and signed and suggestions for the summer outing were discussed.

The February newsletter was read and all relevant dates were noted and clipboards were circulated. The leisure centre wall was weeded by four ladies last week; this is an ongoing task making sure the wall is looking its best every month of the year.

Barmouth WI is taking part in the Be Proud of Barmouth campaign. They have promised to take charge of tidying a particular part of our community. The first working party will start in the next couple of weeks. Mari thanked the hostesses Karen, Val, Pauline and Rose and one of the guests, Sandra for helping.

The raffle was won by Mari, the daffodils went to Joan P. The competition for World War One and Two memorabilia was won by Sheila, second was Karen. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, 27 March, at 7pm in the Arts Room at the Dragon Theatre. The speakers will be Paul and Pauline Aslin-Working with the bees. If you want to know more about the WI go along. You will be made very welcome.

Publicity Association

THE Barmouth Publicity Association will hold its annual general meeting on Friday, 15 March at 7.30pm in the Min y Môr Hotel.

The main speaker on the night will be Liz Saville-Roberts, MP.

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