Local history

FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY NEWS

Our meeting for AUGUST has once again been cancelled due to the covid 19 situation. This will remain in place until further notice, hopefully not too far in the future. I would like to take the opportunity of mentioning belated birthday wishes to founder member of the Bridgend Branch Dilys Morgan who was 100 years young in July. All members and non-members please stay home and keep safe to aid our heroes in the NHS. The Len Evans Centre, Aberkenfig has also been closed until further notice. Any queries etc can still be answered via our website www.glamfhs.org.uk

Victoria Salmon

T.D. BAGG’S LUGGAGE SERVICE

The photograph shows a luggage cart parked sideways in Dock Street, possibly waiting for a customer from the Porthcawl Hotel opposite. A lack of development in that area suggests that the photograph may belong to the late 1800’s/early 1900’s; before the Railway Station opened at the end of the street in 1916 and after the Porthcawl Hotel was ‘extensively enlarged in 1891.’ (L.S. Higgins) The luggage service was provided by T. D. Bagg, Philadelphia Road. Although, Mr Thomas David Bagg came to live in Philadelphia Road, he, his wife Mary and children William and Elizabeth, had originally lived in Nottage during which time Thomas was a porter with the GWR. By 1891 they had moved to Philadelphia Road when Thomas had become a coal trimmer at a local colliery, possibly due to better wages. In 1901 Thomas is referred to as a Dock Labourer. Possibly this necessitated a needed supplement to his wages which may have motivated him to create his luggage business calling on his experience as a porter. Interestingly, his son, William had become a building contractor in the town by this time. Sadly, Thomas died in 1908, aged 58 years old.

Ceri Joseph

WOMEN OF COURAGE HEROINES OF SOE

Anne-Marie Walters was born in Geneva on 16 March 1923. Under the codename ‘Colette’ she served the Wheelwright network as a courier. Twenty years old when she arrived in France, on 4 January 1944, Anne-Marie was the SOE’s secondyoungest female agent. On 16 March 1944, Anne-Marie celebrated her twenty-first birthday. Her hosts provided a beautifully decorated birthday cake with twenty-one lighted candles. However, the candles soon emptied the room for they were pieces of detonating fuse painted pink by the group’s explosives expert! After D-Day the French Resistance became bolder and the Nazis more brutal in suppressing any opposition. On 21 June 1944, 2,000 Nazi soldiers attacked a village. During the battle, AnneMarie distributed hand-grenades to the Resistance and buried incriminating documents in a cave under a church. She also collected SOE money and took it with her when she and her colleagues withdrew from the village. In 1946, Anne-Marie published a book, Moondrop to Gascony, detailing her experiences in the SOE. Her book, beautifully written, won the John Llewellyn-Rhys prize in 1947. Hannah Howe, international bestselling author of Ann’s War (set in Porthcawl) and Eve’s War (set in France). https://hannah-howe.com

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