David Prichard Roberts (1899 – 1966)

David ROBERTS …….b.1899…..known in the family as Dafydd, to me he was ‘Uncle Dai’. Another wanderer, a lovable rogue, nothing was too hot or too heavy for Dai. My grandfather remembered, as a teenager Dai would disappear, spending days poaching, groping trout (catching them with your hands) in the Taf Fechan river, sleeping ‘rough’ in the woods, and then reappear again. This became his way life, for a number of years at least, in his later teens/early twenties his friend(s) would call for him and off Dai would go, disappearing for perhaps a day – a week – a month, then reappearing again as if he’d only been away a few hours, he would always tell them where he’d been……perhaps logging in a forest in mid Wales or working in a quarry in West Wales etc. A friend called for him one day and off they went, a month passed, then two….three….when about six months later they received a letter off Dai telling them he had joined the army! He and his friend had gone to Brecon, signed up with the South Wales Borderers, did their basic training, and been posted to India! they didn’t see him again for five years!! My grandfather always suspected that Dai and his mate had gone to Brecon, got themselves into some sort of minor trouble, nipped into the barracks – Brecon being a garrison town – and signed up to evade the police. When he left the army he came back to Cefn for a short while, then moved to North Wales to live with his sister Mary Jane, and his two uncles Mog and Dan. Although he always remained close to my grandfather. While there he had varied employment, at one time being part owner of a small quarry, until something went wrong and Dai had to lie low and bide his time until it had all blown over. In later life, fifty three to be exact, Dai married for the first time, Sarah Ann BLAIR – ‘Sally’, it was her second marriage. We visited them often as I was growing up, sometimes staying with them at Bryn Awelon in Waunfawr, and they would often visit us. When he died in August 1966 my father, grandfather and I went up to his funeral, I was learning to drive at the time…..I drove all the way to Waunfawr, it was the longest practice session I had, it must have served me well I passed in October. We stood in that chapel graveyard in Bettws Garmon on that grey, misty day in a fine drizzle of rain, paying our last respects and saying farewell to one of the characters of the family…..⁶