The Richard Burton Diaries

by Richard Burton

  19 ‘Ray’ is Richard's friend Raymond Pike. Glen Parkhouse lived at 8, Mill Row, Taibach.

  20 ‘Eastern’ refers to Richard's former school, the Eastern Boys’ School, Margam Road, Port Talbot.

  21 Richard means Inspector Hornleigh (1938), directed by Eugene Forde (1898–1986), starring Gordon Harker (1885–1967) and Alastair Sim (1900–76).

  22 Uncle Ben James (1900–70) was Elfed's brother. His back had been broken in an underground accident at Newlands colliery and he was paralysed from the waist down. The game referred to is Monopoly, which began life in the USA and which was being produced by John Waddington Ltd in the United Kingdom from the late 1930s onwards.

  23 Afan W. and Gwylfa P. Powell were identical twins who lived at 40 Caradog Street, Taibach. The Powells also attended Noddfa Chapel.

  24 ‘Sandies’ is Sanderson's barbershop, Commercial Road, Taibach.

  25 Richard saw The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) directed by H. C. Potter (1904–77), starring Fred Astaire (1899–1987) and Ginger Rogers (1911–95).

  26 ‘Town’: Port Talbot.

  27 Eddie Miles was a fellow pupil who lived in Somerset Street, Taibach, and who later served in the Royal Navy. Plum was the nickname of Royston Palmer, another pupil, who lived in Brook Street, Taibach, and who later became a teacher.

  28 Repairing shoes using a cast-iron last.

  29 Richard's cousin Marian James (1928—), the eldest child of Elfed and Cis.

  30 Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, first published 1843–4.

  31 ‘The Side’: the mountainside up behind Caradog Street. Elfed owned a glasshouse up above Inkerman Row East on the mountainside.

  32 This probably refers to the practice of posting the team sheet for sports teams on the noticeboard. It is not clear whether Richard was simply not selected for the team in question or whether the game was cancelled because of the state of the pitch.

  33 Union Pacific (1939), directed by Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959), and starring Barbara Stanwyck (1907–90).

  34 ‘Edie’ is Edith Jenkins (1922–66), Richard's sister.

  35 ‘Sis’ is what is written. He might have meant ‘Cis’, but as she was his sister (although he had already referred to her elsewhere as his mother) it is possible he meant ‘Sis[ter]’.

  36 In fact four boys (aged between five and seven) had drowned when the ice on Dankyr Pond, on which they were playing, gave way, and one man (Mr Jenkin Powell, aged 58), who attempted to rescue them, also died.

  37 Alan James was Elfed and Ben's nephew.

  38 Evan Dummer, whose brother Edwin was married to Margaret Ann, Elfed James's eldest sister. ‘Gob’ is a slang term for spitting.

  39 ‘Noon’ often appears as short for ‘afternoon’.

  40 Ben's wife, referred to by Richard as ‘Winifred’, ‘Winnie’, ‘Win’ and even ‘Wyn’.

  41 Richard may be referring here to a part-time job as a newspaper delivery boy, which he had started at the age of eight.

  42 ‘Middles’ probably refers to the ‘Middle School’ team, as opposed to the ‘Seniors’. ‘B. County’ is Bridgend County School. Bridgend is a town 10 miles to the south-east of Taibach (1931 population 10,029).

  43 Trevor George was a close school friend of Richard who went on to become a headmaster. He played rugby for Aberavon and was also a talented cricketer.

  44 David Jenkins (1914–94), Richard's brother, a policeman, lived in the small town of Llantwit Major, 18 miles to the south-east.

  45 Spies of the Air (1939), directed by David MacDonald (1904–83).

  46 Toffolux: a tube of toffees, made by Mackintosh's.

  47 Alan Dummer, a relative of Dillwyn Dummer.

  48 Presumably should be ‘Council schools’.

  49 This is the first reference to Philip Burton (1904–95), teacher of English at Richard's school, who was to have a profound influence over Richard during the next few years, becoming his legal guardian in December 1943.

  50 ‘Blues’ and ‘Reds’ refer to blocks of streets in Monopoly. ‘Pall Mall’ is another street (coloured purple).

  51 A précis-writing exercise.

  52 Tonyrefail was a mixed industrial and market centre 16 miles due east of Taibach.

  53 Dr John Caerau Rees DD, minister of Noddfa Chapel.

  54 Richard's sister Hilda Jenkins (1918–95), who by this time was married and known as Hilda Owen. Neath is a town (1931 population 33,340) six miles to the north-west of Port Talbot.

  55 W. H. Mayne was a local ironmonger, located on Station Road. Mr Owens was the woodwork teacher.

  56 ‘Dad James’ – Ben and Elfed's father. He was a deacon at Noddfa Chapel and also on the committee of the Taibach Co-operative Wholesale Society. Allan here but usually Alan.

  57 ‘County School’ – Port Talbot County School, the other grammar school in the town. Mr Smith was PE master at Port Talbot Secondary School.

  58 The Co-op's savings scheme.

  59 Mr Wyndham Wellington.

  60 Richard's cousin Rhianon James, Elfed and Cis's second child (1931—).

  61 Mr Rossiter's son was Bernard Rossiter. Peggy Davies was daughter of Ben and Win James.

  62 Miss M. E. Best taught geography at Port Talbot Secondary School.

  63 ‘Footer’ would seem to suggest association football, as distinct from ‘rugger’ (rugby football).

  64 ‘Pop’ the headmaster (1935–43) of Port Talbot Secondary School, Mr Christopher T. Reynolds.

  65 The scoreline suggests this was a rugby match.

  66 ‘Cwm’ meaning Cwmafan.

  67 Richard's brother Ivor Jenkins (1906–72), a coal miner. Swansea (1931 population 164,797), then the largest town in Wales (Cardiff, the largest urban settlement, having acquired city status in 1905), is eight miles north-west of Taibach.

  68 Leslie Charteris (1907–93) wrote a series of books featuring ‘The Saint’, later adapted for radio, film and television.

  69 Gerry A. Mahoney, a fellow pupil, lived at 44, Brynheulog.

  70 Brinley Phillips, a fellow pupil. Later played rugby football for Aberavon as a centre three-quarter.

  71 At this time a try was worth three points, a conversion two, and a penalty goal three.

  72 The front row consists of two props and a hooker.

  73 Iestyn and Morgan were the names of school houses. Leisan was the name of Richard's house, Caradog the name of another. All were named after medieval Lords of Glamorgan.

  74 The Plaza cinema was located at Station Road, Port Talbot.

  75 Come on George (1939), directed by Anthony Kimmins (1901–64), starring George Formby (1904–61).

  76 Prince was a dog.

  77 Herbert George Jenkins (1876–1923) wrote a series of books featuring the character ‘Bindle’.

  78 ‘Sideman to the hooker’ – what is usually termed a prop forward.

  79 Cliff W. Owen or Owens, a fellow pupil.

  80 Eric Lambourne, a fellow pupil who later became a teacher and a headmaster.

  81 Ronald Butt, a fellow pupil, lived in Cwmafan. Freddie Williams (1926—) was to enjoy a highly successful career as a speedway rider with the Wembley Lions team in London, becoming world champion twice, in 1950 and 1953.

  82 A special wartime rugby international was arranged to raise money for various charities. Wales played England at Cardiff Arms Park, losing by 9 points to 18. A return match at Gloucester in April saw another English victory, this time by 17 points to 3.

  83 Talbot Athletic Ground, home of Aberavon Rugby Football Club, which was shortly to be converted into a site for barrage balloons.

  84 Walter Vickery (1909–2000) was capped four times (as a Number 8) by Wales in 1938 and 1939, and captained Aberavon in the 1936–7 and 1945–6 seasons. Father George Vickery (1879–1970) had played for Aberavon and England.

  85 Miss E. E. Griffiths (not Griffith) taught Welsh at Port Talbot Secondary School.

  86 Stanley and Livingstone (1939), directed by Henry King (1886�
��1982), starring Spencer Tracy (1900–67).

  87 The Majestic cinema in Bethany Square in the centre of Port Talbot had opened in 1938. It may be what is today the Job Centre building.

  88 ‘T.H.’ – Thomas Henry, Richard's brother.

  89 ‘Cymanfa’ is a reference to a Gymanfa Ganu, a Welsh singing festival.

  90 Possibly Nettie Phipps. There were tennis courts in the Talbot Memorial Park.

  91 This was Easter Sunday.

  92 There is no record of this film or anything resembling it showing in Port Talbot at this time.

  93 The Plaza cinema had undergone refurbishment and was reopened (as Port Talbot's ‘new luxury super-cinema’) on Easter Monday. The building still stands in Station Road, although now derelict.

  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.