The men were attested and enrolled at the Custom House in Cardiff, before travelling to Porthcawl,
where they were billeted. At the end of 1914 the battalion moved from Porthcawl to Colwyn Bay,
breaking their journey in Cardiff to parade through its home city, with some of the recruits wearing
“Welsh grey” cloth uniform. Eventually, on 4th December, they embarked for France. The City
Batallion spent the first few months on the Western Front in the Givenchy-Festubert-Laventie area,
where it lost about 50 men. Amongst the casualties was the Commanding officer, Lt.Colonel Frank
Gaskell, who was killed in action.
(Lt Colonel Frank Gaskell from a painting hanging in the Mansion House Cardiff)
The batallion then moved onto the Somme in June. They suffered dreadful losses at Mametz Wood.
These were incurred mainly in the attack on the Hammerhead on the 7th July, when the batallion’s
right flank was cruelly exposed to machine gun fire from Flatiron Copse and Sabot Copse. At the
Battle of Mametz Wood, it suffered 450 casualties, including over 150 dead. The 16th (Service)
Batallion, Welsh regiment, sustained further heavy losses particularly in the Third Battle of Ypres
,and was eventually disbanded in early 1918. But it is hard to disagree with the words of a survivor
of Mametz Wood, William Joshua: “On the Somme, the Cardiff City Batallion died”. Oliver
Hughes, took part in the action of the 38th Division at Mametz Wood on 7th July 1916. He was
wounded by mach