Mametz: Aled Rhys Hughes and David Jones

During the Battle of Mametz Wood in early July 1916 nearly 4,000 soldiers of the 38th Welsh Division were killed, wounded or declared missing. In 1937 this forest was the focus of David Jones’ experimental poem ‘In Parenthesis’, an account of his own harrowing experiences in the battle.

A hundred years later, the wood still bears visible evidence of the terrible battle and loss of life, with ammunition shells and disintegrating boots in the undergrowth, and the shapes of former bunkers and trenches visible. Inspired by this important landscape in Welsh history, as well as David Jones’ seminal work, photographer Aled Rhys Hughes tried to answer the question: does this landscape have a memory of what happened here one hundred years ago? From July-December 2016, the National Library of Wales displayed Mametz: Aled Rhys Hughes and David Jones, an exhibition of Aled’s photographs of a contemporary Mametz Wood. Items from the David Jones archive were shown alongside these striking images of the scene, which even today, still bears the scars of battle.

Right: Mametz: Aled Rhys Hughes and David Jones, National Library of Wales, 2016 © Aled Rhys Hughes