‘Poppy Cards’ are being displayed on Bangor’s Garth Pier to remember men from Bangor who lost their lives during the wars.
Sixteen of those remembered are from the Railway Institute Boys’ Corps war memorial and other Bangor men who appear on Anglesey war memorials.
The Railway Institute was a centre for rail workers to socialise, exercise and read. Its building on Euston Road, Bangor, was opened by in 1898 by Lord Stalbridge, chairman of the London & North Western Railway. The building re-used materials from the original station buildings at Llandudno Junction. It included a reading room, gymnasium, baths and a refreshment room. The LNWR donated hundreds of books for the institute’s library.
The institute’s Boys’ Corps provided basic military training for sons or nephews of railway workers. Many of them joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers’ 6th Battalion soon after the outbreak of war and departed from Bangor railway station in November 1914 for further training before deployment.
The institute building was demolished in 2016.
The war memorial was created in March 1919 and displayed at St David’s Church, known as the ‘Railway church’. The church closed for services in 2014. Network Rail placed the memorial on display at Bangor station in 2019, after a request from former churchwarden Sheila Owen, historian Bridget Geoghegan and the North Wales Railway Circle.
The war memorial at Bangor railway station was originally at St David’s Church, Glanadda. It commemorates members of the institute’s Boys’ Corps who died in the First World War.
The book ‘Remember Me! Cofiwch Fi!’ will shortly be published, telling the stories of the Railway Institute men.
The cards will be displayed on the pier from 14 October – 14 November.
