The Richard Burton Diaries (264 page)

94
Sir Philip Hamilton Gibbs,
Realities of War
(1920, revised edn 1929).

95
Maesteg (1931 population 25,570), an industrial town in the Llynfi valley, about five miles east of Taibach.

96
Shipyard Sally
(1939), directed by Monty Banks (1897–1950), starring Gracie Fields (1898–1979).

97
Rees Bowen, a deacon at Noddfa.

98
Alun Thomas (1926–91) went on to play first-class rugby for Swansea, Cardiff and Llanelli. He was capped 13 times by Wales, went on tour with the British Lions to South Africa in 1955, and returned as tour manager for the Lions in 1974.

99
Eifion H. N. Davies, a sixth-former, who went on to become a headteacher.

100
Presumably ‘Oh My Darling, Clementine’.

101
A Maesteg to Port Talbot bus crashed on Tydraw Hill. One passenger died two days later from injuries suffered.

102
Bucket of dung, or cow and horse manure. Richard would collect this from the mountainside and sell it.

103
Auntie Hannah Oates, Richard's first cousin once removed.

104
Mary Ann Jones was an elderly neighbour who lived on Inkerman Row East.

105
Four Daughters
(1938), directed by Michael Curtiz (1886–1962), starring Claude Rains (1889–1967) and John Garfield (1913–52).

106
Colin T. C. Eynon, a fellow pupil.

107
Truda Cound was a fellow pupil and a skilled tennis player.

108
Dai Owen, Richard's sister Hilda's husband.

109
Presumably Arthur ‘Bonehead’ Jenkins. ‘Flicks’ is a colloquial term for the cinema.

110
The Gorilla
(1939), directed by Allan Dwan (1885–1981).

111
Arthur Neville Williams, a fellow pupil, who lived in Cwmafan.

112
J. Beynon was a fellow pupil and a talented cricketer.

113
Pont, meaning Pontrhydyfen and sometimes written as ‘Ponty’, Richard's birthplace, about three and a half miles north of Taibach. Gerwyn Owen, eldest child of Dai and Hilda Owen, and Richard's nephew.

114
Richard's father, also named Richard Walter Jenkins (1876–1957), and sometimes referred to as ‘Dic Bach’ (little Dick).

115
‘Clearance’ refers to the quarterly clearance of personal debt at the Co-op. After clearance, members were allowed to trade again.

116
‘D.D.’ – Dillwyn Dummer. Jack Williams and Hubert Davies (not David), who both lived in Brook Street, Taibach.

117
Edwin Dummer, Elfed James's brother-in-law, who was married to Margaret Ann, and father of Dillwyn. A Mr and Mrs Hopkins ran a baker's shop nearby in Taibach: their son Anthony had been born in 1937.

118
Bowditch was a fellow pupil who lived in Margam.

119
David Henry Lodwig was a fellow pupil and a talented cricketer.

120
Eric Nelson, whose family ran a coal merchant's business in Margam.

121
Mrs Turner was a neighbour in Caradog Street and a member of Noddfa Chapel.

122
David Rees lived in Taibach. He was to die during active service in the Second World War.

123
In fact Narvik, in northern Norway, was not taken by Allied forces until 27 May, by which time the situation in France and the Low Countries had become so desperate as to render its capture irrelevant. Accordingly, Allied forces were evacuated from Norway by 7 June.

124
Presumably ‘in [the] cabinet’. Winston Churchill (1874–1965) replaced Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) as Prime Minister on 10 May 1940 and included in his new cabinet Clement Attlee (1883–1967), Arthur Greenwood (1880–1954), Anthony Eden (1897–1977), Archibald Sinclair (1890–1970), A. V. Alexander (1885–1965) and Chamberlain himself.

125
Ogmore by Sea is a coastal settlement four miles south of Bridgend, a popular destination for holidaymakers.

126
Ivor Jones, a fast bowler and first-class cricketer, lived in Brook Street, Taibach.

127
Rulers of the Sea
(1939), directed by Frank Lloyd (1886–1960), starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (1909–2000), Will Fyffe (1884–1947) and Margaret Lockwood (1916–90).

128
Billy Bennett (1887–1942) was a comedian, film actor and monologuist.

129
Uncle Charles Thomas was Richard's mother's brother.

130
Sandfields, to the immediate north-west of Aberavon, now covered by housing and industrial estates.

131
‘Archie’ Richard Davies.

132
Maxime Weygand (1897–1965) replaced Maurice Gamelin (1872–1958) as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces following Gamelin's dismissal on 15 May.

133
This sentence is written in pencil and in a different hand.

134
It was presented in modern dress. Trevor George had had a small part in the school's 1939 production of
The Doctor's Dilemma
.

135
Bragg (
Rich
, 34), apparently citing Philip Burton's then unpublished manuscript, misquotes as ‘am confident we'll pull through’.

136
Jake Williams, a fellow pupil, who later became a teacher.

137
Rydal School, Colwyn Bay. Stanley T. J. Walter, who lived in Abbey Road, Port Talbot, also played full back for Aberavon RFC.

138
Ynysmeudwy, an industrial settlement two miles north-east of Pontardawe, in the Tawe or Swansea valley.

139
Rose of Washington Square
(1939), directed by Gregory Ratoff (1897–1960), starring Al Jolson (1886–1950).

140
‘tick’ – ticket.

141
‘Smite’ and ‘Tadpole’ were nicknames given to teachers. ‘Tadpole’ was Mr Jack Nicholas.

142
Captain Fury
(1939), directed by Hal Roach (1892–1992), starring Brian Aherne (1902–86) in the title role.

143
Don Parr lived at 10, Mill Row.

144
Will Jenkins (1911–86), Richard's brother, had been in the Army for over nine years. He served in the Machine Gun Corps, and would be evacuated from Dunkirk.

145
The spelling is Cordey in the local press.

146
Tudor was the name of the house in the County School.

147
Patrick A. Lane, a fellow pupil and talented athlete, who later rose to a senior position in the National Coal Board.

148
The Four Feathers
(1939), directed by Zoltan Korda (1895–1961), starring John Clements (1910–88) and Ralph Richardson (1902–83). Richard was later to work for Alexander Korda (1893–1956) and with Ralph Richardson.

149
Mountain Ash, a colliery town (1931 population 38,386) in the Cynon valley, 17 miles north-east of Taibach.

150
In the sea.

151
Private study. Philip Burton,
Early Doors: My Life and the Theatre
(New York: The Dial Press, 1969), 81, notes that he ‘spent most of the summer of 1940 in bed, suffering from a rheumatic complaint that affected the heart’.

152
Ken Williams was from Pantdu, and a good cricketer.

153
GKB being Guest Keen and Baldwins, the local steel company.

154
‘Todd’ is A. Leslie Evans, a teacher at Central School and a keen local historian.

155
Frontier Marshal
(1939), directed by Allan Dwan, starring Randolph Scott (1898–1987).

156
Pyle, an industrial settlement five miles to the south-east of Taibach.

157
Trefelin (sometimes Trevelin) was a school in the Velindre area of Port Talbot, north of the town centre, on the west bank of the Afan. The Ynys cricket ground was at Ynys y Gored, on the east bank of the Afan, between Velindre and Cwmafan.

158
The west window of Franchi Bros. confectioners, situated at Huddersfield Buildings, Station Road, Port Talbot, was shattered when a bomb exploded in the street outside. A pair of houses on Tydraw Hill was split in two by another bomb. Nine bombs in all were dropped on Port Talbot, but no one was killed.

159
Additional Sunday shifts in the coal industry had been adopted so as to maximize production, although with the fall of France the market for South Wales coal collapsed.

160
The gasometer, which actually had been emptied earlier in the war, was a regular target for German attacks.

161
Billy Jackson.

162
The Ferry meaning Briton Ferry, south of Neath on the east bank of the Nedd and about four miles north-west of Taibach.

163
I Am the Law
(1938), directed by Alexander Hall (1894–1968), starring Edward G. Robinson (1893–1973). Richard was a great admirer of Robinson.

164
The Spitfire was the Royal Air Force's best-known fighter aircraft, heavily used during the Battle of Britain.

165
Mr J. Vyrnwy Davies, history teacher at the Sec, who later became Headmaster at Dyffryn Comprehensive, and whose nickname was ‘Tout’, a reference to the distinguished professional historian Thomas Frederick Tout (1855–1929).

166
Tom or Tommy Lane, also to be involved in the YMCA drama club.

167
‘Happy’ is Mr George M. Hapgood, ‘Bobby’ is Mr Robert M. Owen. Both were teachers at Port Talbot Secondary School. George Hapgood was a talented amateur actor and appeared in a number of P. H. Burton's productions. He also served as an air raid warden, and as a Flight Commander in the Air Training Corps.

168
Aberdare, the major town in the Cynon valley (1931 population 48,746), 16 miles north-east of Taibach.

169
Margam is the area immediately to the south-east of Taibach, including Margam Park.

170
The air raid sirens sounded on 17 occasions in the Port Talbot area in July 1940.

171
This may refer to either
I'll Give a Million
(1938), directed by Walter Lang (1896–1972), starring Warner Baxter (1891–1951) and Peter Lorre (1904–64), or to
I Stole a Million
(1939), directed by Frank Tuttle (1892–1963) starring George Raft (1895–1980) and Claire Trevor (1909–2000).

172
The Brombil valley opens out on to the coastal plain at Margam, south of Taibach.

173
Naughty Marietta
(1935), directed by W. S. Van Dyke (1889–1943), starring Jeanette MacDonald (1906–65) and Nelson Eddy (1901–67).

174
A protective cover.

175
Duggie Wakefield (1899–1951). Jack Benny. One imagines they were starring in different films.

176
Dillwyn Dummer had left school to work as a baker's roundsman for the Co-op.

177
‘Phillip’: Brinley Phillips.

178
Verdun Jenkins (1916–2002), Richard's brother.

179
The Arsenal Stadium Mystery
(1939), directed by Thorold Dickinson (1903–84), starring Leslie Banks (1890–1952).

180
The Flying Deuces
(1939), directed by Edward Sutherland (1895–1973), starring Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and Oliver Hardy (1892–1957).

181
Q Planes
(1939), directed by Tim Whelan (1893–1957), starring Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier (1907–89). Richard was to become a good friend of Olivier.

182
Charles Hockin, a friend of Richard's, who later became a schoolmaster in Taibach.

183
George Henry Bragg was caretaker/manager of the public baths (erected in 1900 but refurbished or rebuilt in 1938) on Forge Road.

184
Susie Preece was a fellow pupil at Port Talbot Secondary School. She would later be Richard's girlfriend.

185
Richard's brother David.

186
Where's That Fire?
(1939), directed by Marcel Varnel (1894–1947), starring Will Hay (1888–1949).

187
For a while Richard considered joining the police force.

188
Cassie is Richard's sister Catherine (1921–2011).

189
In 1940 the summer holiday was reduced to three weeks, to compensate for the fact that school hours were shortened (from 0945 to 1545) as a result of the blackout.

190
Year V was divided into two forms: Vm and Vt.

191
Gerwyn Williams (1924–2009) was already capped at rugby football by Wales at under-15 level and went on to win 13 senior caps between 1950 and 1954, including one against New Zealand in the victory of 1953. He was also a talented cricketer who represented South Wales.

192
Mr V. Davies, brother of J. Vyrnwy Davies or ‘Tout’.

193
A form of basketball.

194
Juarez
(1939), directed by William Dieterle (1893–1972), starring Brian Aherne, Bette Davis (1908–89), Paul Muni (1896–1967) and John Garfield.

195
P. Burton (
Richard and Philip,
14) quotes this line but misdates it as Wednesday 25 August.

196
The Goytre valley, today known as Cwm Dyffryn, opens out on to the coastal plain at the northern end of Taibach.

197
Over 1,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Swansea in the most serious attack in the area until then. High Street station was badly damaged. The death toll was actually 33, although another 100 people were injured.

198
Skewen is on the west bank of the Nedd, two miles from Neath itself. The oil refinery was at Llandarcy, south-west of Skewen. The fires continued for four days, and smoke drifted as far as Cardiff.

199
Barrage balloons were used in an attempt to defend Swansea Bay from air attack.

200
D. A. Cochlin, a fellow pupil.

201
‘Mitch’ is a colloquial expression for playing truant.

202
‘Stand off half’ often referred to today as ‘fly half’ or ‘outside half’. Elwyn Bowen was a talented athlete.

203
In the back row, often referred to as a ‘flank forward’ or ‘flanker’ today.

204
Thomas H. (often ‘Tom’ or ‘Tommy’) Mainwaring, a friend of Richard's.

205
Stanley Jones, a fellow pupil and a talented athlete, who lived in Cwmafan.