Fy mis fel Bachgen Bevin Yng Nghanada y ceso i fy ngeni; roedd ’nhad wedi cael niwed cas ar ei gefn yng Nglofa Nant-y-glo ac roedd e am dengid o’r pwll glo. Fe ymfudodd e yn 1920 a geso i fy ngeni yna yn 1926. Daeth Mam â ni’r plant nôl i Gymru ar ein gwyliau yn 1930 a gwrthod mynd nôl, felly gorffodd nhad ddod nôl hefyd. Ond osgoi’r pyllau glo wnaeth e eto, drwy fynd yn ffiter moduron. Ar ôl i fi adael yr ysgol, fe hyfforddes innau i fod yn saer cerrig bedd. Rhoies i’n enw lawr i ymuno â’r lluoedd ym mis Mawrth 1944, gan obeithio cael mynd i’r RAF. Yn lle hynny, dyma alwad yn dod i fynd i Ganolfan Hyfforddi Oakdale i gael gwaith rhyfel yn y pwll. WILLIAM OWEN BEVAN, BACHGEN BEVIN, GLOFA OAKDALE, 1944
Dechreues i weithio dan ddaear fel cynorthwyydd glöwr ar hen hedin digon caled. Roedd yr hedin yma wedi torri mewn i hen weithfeydd llawn llygod mowr ac, ar ôl mis dan yr amgylchiadau yna yn cymysgu clai i lanw’r tyllau ar ôl i’r ffrwydron fynd i mewn, fe ddalies i glefyd Weil. Geso i’n hala i Ysbyty’r Eglwys Newydd yng Nghaerdydd oedd yn ysbyty milwrol bryd hynny. Achos bod fy nghyflwr i mor ddifrifol, buo i ar foddion tawelu am dair wythnos ac fe wedson nhw mod i’n lwcus i ddod drwyddi. Erbyn i fi gael fy rhyddhau o’r ysbyty, roedd y rhyfel ar ben a gorffes i ddim mynd nôl dan ddaear, ond mynd nôl i’r grefft oedd gyda fi cyn y rhyfel, fel saer cerrig bedd.
WILLIAM OWEN BEVAN YN YMWELD Â PHWLL GLO LLEOL CYN Y RHYFEL (BLAEN CHWITH) WILLIAM OWEN BEVAN VISITING A LOCAL COLLIERY BEFORE THE WAR (FRONT LEFT)
My month as a Bevin Boy I was born in Canada; my father had badly injured his back in a Nantyglo Colliery and wanted to get out of the pits. He emigrated in 1920 and I was born there in 1926. My mother brought us children back to Wales for a holiday in 1930 and refused to go back again, so my father had to come back as well but still avoided the coal mines by becoming a motor fitter. After I left school I trained to become a monumental mason. I registered for the forces in March 1944; I was hoping to join the RAF. Instead I was called up to Oakdale Training Centre for war work in the coal mines. I startWILLIAM OWEN BEVAN, BEVIN BOY, OAKDALE COLLIERY, 1944
24
ed underground working as a collier’s assistant in a hard heading. The heading had tapped into old, rat infested workings and, after a month in these conditions mixing and handling clay stemming for ramming explosives, I contracted Weil’s disease. I was sent to Whitchurch Hospital near Cardiff which was then a military hospital. Because of the seriousness of my condition, I had to undergo sedation for three weeks and was told that I was lucky to survive. By the time I was discharged from hospital the war was over and never had to go back underground but continued my pre-war trade as a monumental mason.