Bernard Lewis - Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and around Swansea

TRUE CRIME FROM WHARNCLIFFE

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Series

Barking, Dagenham & Chadwell Heath

Barnet, Finchley and Hendon

Barnsley

Bath

Bedford

Birmingham

Black Country

Blackburn and Hyndburn

Bolton

Bradford

Brighton

Bristol

Cambridge

Carlisle

Chesterfield

Colchester

Cotswolds, The

Coventry

Croydon

Derby

Dublin

Durham

Ealing

Fens, In and Around

Folkstone and Dover

Grimsby

Guernsey

Guildford

Halifax

Hampstead, Holborn and St Pancras

Huddersfield

Hull

Jersey

Leeds

Leicester

Lewisham and Deptford

Liverpool

London's East End

London's West End

Manchester

Mansfield

More Foul Deeds Birmingham

More Foul Deeds Chesterfield

More Foul Deeds Wakefield

Newcastle

Newport

Norfolk

Northampton

Nottingham

Oxfordshire

Pontefract and Castleford

Portsmouth

Rotherham

Scunthorpe

Shrewsbury and Around Shropshire

Southampton

Southend-on-Sea

Staffordshire and The Potteries

Stratford and South Warwickshire

Tees

Uxbridge

Warwickshire

Wigan

York

OTHER TRUE CRIME BOOKS FROM WHARNCLIFFE

A-Z of London Murders, The

A-Z of Yorkshire Murders, The

Black Barnsley

Brighton Crime and Vice 1800-2000

Crafty Crooks and Conmen

Durham Executions

Essex Murders

Executions & Hangings in Newcastle

and Morpeth

Great Hoaxers, Artful Fakers and

Cheating Charlatans

Norfolk Mayhem and Murder

Norwich Murders

Plot to Kill Lloyd George

Romford Outrage

Strangeways Hanged

Unsolved Murders in Victorian &

Edwardian London

Unsolved London Murders

Unsolved Norfolk Murders

Unsolved Yorkshire Murders

Warwickshire's Murderous Women

Yorkshire Hangmen

Yorkshire's Murderous Women

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First Published in Great Britain in 2009 by

Wharncliffe Local History

an imprint of

Pen and Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Bernard Lewis 2009

ISBN: 978-184563-087-4
eISBN: 978 1 78303 765 0

The right of Bernard Lewis to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers.

Typeset in Plantin by Concept, Huddersfield.

Printed and bound in England by CPI UK.

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of

Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime,

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Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics,

Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and

Frontline Publishing.

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Acknowledgments

M uch of the research for this book has been by way of the original press coverage in the Cambrian newspaper. In that respect I am very grateful to Mrs Marilyn Jones, Local Studies Librarian, Swansea City Council, and her team at the Cambrian Newspaper Index, an absolutely invaluable resource for any historian of nineteenth-century Swansea. Indeed, I would not have accepted the commission to write this book had I not known of the existence of the index.

I am also grateful to Mr Kim Collis and his colleagues at the West Glamorgan Archive Service, Swansea, for their assistance in producing microfilm rolls, documents and photographs and for giving advice with their usual efficiency. Similarly, the staff at the Glamorgan Record Office, Cardiff, and the staff at Swanseas superb new library also provided assistance and guidance.

Friends and colleagues rallied around in various ways to help me. A great friend of long standing, Jim Knight and his wife Pat, kindly gave me the Grand Tour of Pontarddulais and pointed out several memorials with Rebecca Riot connections. Dave Westron allowed me to use images from his photographic postcard collection of Swansea views. Noel Evans, Registrar of Cemeteries and Crematoria at Swansea City Council kindly granted me access to burial records relevant to the yellow fever outbreak at Swansea. Mrs Edith Morgan, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages at Swansea, also provided advice and guidance in my researches.

At the South Wales Police Museum, Bridgend, Ms Terina Shaw of the Visitor Centre kindly gave me permission to use images of numerous items relating to the Victorian police force that are held at the museum. Mr Mark Vivian, at the Mary Evans Picture Library allowed me to use two illustrations from the Illustrated London News.

The Penllergare Trust at Swansea - dedicated to restoring the estate grounds of the Llewelyn family - kindly gave me permission to use images that are held by trust member Richard Morris. Richard is a descendant of the Llewelyn family and was very helpful, producing one photograph from as far back as around 1846.

Mr Simon Lee of Cardiff provided me with information on the 1914 case of Sergeant Hopper, a by-product of his ongoing research into the 6th Battalion, the Welsh Regiment, in the Great War. Simon also contributed information to my earlier book on the Swansea Battalion.

Mr Spencer Feeney, editor of the South Wales Evening Post granted me permission to use material from its predecessor newspapers, the South Wales Daily Post and the Cambrian, and similarly the editor of the Western Mail granted permission for material from early editions of that newspaper.

Mr Rupert Harding at Pen and Sword Books, who asked me to contribute this volume to Wharncliffes Foul Deeds series, also deserves a mention. He has been a wise counsel and a source of ready encouragement. The production team at Pen and Sword Books have also produced this book to their usual high standards.

I am grateful to all of the above and extend my warm thanks to them.

Lastly, I must thank my wife, Elizabeth (Lib), for her willing support and cheery forbearance of a house and dining table once again all too often strewn with research papers, and a list of domestic chores that had temporarily been put on hold.

Introduction

S wansea is a city that has undergone a transformation in the last quarter century. Much of the industrial dereliction that blighted so much of the city has been swept away to be replaced by an enterprise zone, a marina and modern housing. The city centre is also undergoing major change while the impressive SA1 development is bringing back into use a previously long deserted and derelict docks hinterland.