Swansea Grammar School

Swansea Grammar School was founded back in 1682 by Bishop Gore on a site in Goat Street in the centre of the town. After years of decline, it was rebuilt in the 1850s, an imposing building on the brow of the hill at Mount Pleasant. It has been known by a variety of names over the years, but at the time of the First World War it was Swansea Grammar School. It was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War and a new school was built in Sketty and opened in 1952. This is Bishop Gore School today.

The original war memorial was lost when the school was destroyed. A replacement was unveiled in the new school in 1957, along with a memorial for the Second World War. We hold two memorials at the Archives for the First World War: the first is a roll of honour, which lists the former pupils and staff who joined up during the First World War. This takes the form of a printed booklet, which was distributed as a supplement to the school magazine in 1917 in recognition of their service.

The second memorial consists of pages of printed photographs of men from the school who died in the war. It is harder to put in context, but we know it was collected by D. Rhys Phillips of Swansea Library as part of his commemorative collection of First World War literature. What we hold may be the proofs for a booklet that was produced, and it may be that part is missing, because there are 49 photographs in total, whereas the memorial in Bishop Gore School lists 76 names. It is included in this project because it includes their full name, rank, and of course the photograph itself, all additional information not recorded on the memorial at the school.

Download a large version of the school roll of honour, 1917 (PDF, 1 MB) (opens new window)

Download a large version of the photographs of ex-pupils who died in the war (PDF, 1 MB) (opens new window)

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