A DOLGELLAU author has released his second book on the First World War, focussing on memorials at Arthog, Bontddu and Llanfachreth.

‘Three Memorial 1914-1918’ by Dai T Sheppard includes the story of a soldier who was accidentally shot by one of his own comrades, two brothers who were killed in Palestine and of men who lost their lives in prisoner of war camps.

This is Dai’s second volume on First World War memorials in Meirionnydd, the first being ‘Dolgellau and the Great War’.

“Following a favourable reception to ‘Dolgellau and the Great War’ in 2014 I undertook the task of recording the lives of the men who are remembered on the Great War memorials in the villages of Arthog, Bontddu and Llanfachreth.

“Why these three memorials? Quite simply, because they are the three communities closest to Dolgellau with public memorials to the dead of the First World War and which overlap with the boundaries of the Dolgellau and District Memorial,” Dai explained.

“It is also partly in response to requests from people with village connections for information about their backgrounds.”

He went on: “Naturally, the numbers on the three memorials are lower than on the memorial in Dolgellau: 13 in Arthog, eight in Bontddu and 15 in Llanfachreth, but their stories are as moving as those in the first volume.

“Some of the men are also named on the Dolgellau and District Memorial as well as on a village memorial, and five who are named in Arthog are also remembered in Llwyngwril. However, in some cases further information has been uncovered which was not available in 2014.”

To compile the information, Dai has drawn on a number of sources including newspaper articles, censuses and service records.

Using those sources, he has been able to find out more about the men behind on the names of the memorials.

See the full story in this week’s Meirionnydd edition of the Cambrian News