At the end of the First World War, communities across Wales established ‘welcome home’ committees to raise funds to honour local men returning from the front. Village halls and workmen’s institutes became focal points for armistice and peace celebrations. A victory ball was held at the Oakdale Workmen’s Institute in early 1919.

To mark the centenary of the dance, and the culmination of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales’ Wales Remembers programme, we worked in partnership with Re-Live, an award-winning charity that creates professional life story theatre productions with veterans, to re-imagine the ball.

Y Dychweliad – The Return was an unforgettable performance by ex-service personnel, their families, community members and professional actors. The production weaved reimagined scenes from the First World War and victory ball with personal and emotional experiences of 21st century men and women returning to their communities from war.

The project was funded by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund.

Collections Online: Nurse's Apron

Collections Online: Certificate

Collections Online: Certificate

The current health crisis has prompted a call for volunteers to support the NHS and plans are underway to convert large venues into field hospitals.

Over a century ago, similar preparations were taking place all over Britain in anticipation of the outbreak of the First World War. In 1909 the British Red Cross Society had joined forces with the Order of St John to form the Voluntary Aid Detachment scheme. Detachments (known as VADs) were to provide support and services to military hospitals. They were organized at county level and members included men and women who carried out a range of voluntary positions.

The first VAD in Wales was formed at St Fagans, Cardiff in November 1909. At that time, Countess Plymouth from St Fagans Castle was the President of the Glamorgan branch of the British Red Cross Society. Soon after, detachments were formed across Wales, bringing the total to 32 by September 1910. From thereon the work started in earnest, recruting and training members and converting buildings into hospitals.

On 24 September 1910, over 200 men and women from the newly formed VADs in Glamorgan gathered at St Fagans Castle grounds. The main purpose of the day was to recruit more volunteers, particularly amongst young women. Demonstrations were also carried out on the day, such as how to treat patients in the field using first aid and only limited basic equipment. Such events became a regular occurance at St Fagans Castle in the years leading up to the war.

Detachments would meet at least once a month and members (also known as VADs) would gain experience by volunteering in hospitals. Women VADs were taught first aid, home nursing, hygiene and cooking while men were trained in first aid in-the-field and stretcher bearing. VADs had to pass exams to receive their first aid and home nursing certificates.

Some of the VADs were dispatched to hospitals across Britain but most would volunteer within their own communities, such as at St Fagans. Due to a lack of hospitals, all sorts of buildings were offered for use to the Red Cross – from village halls to mansions. These were converted into auxiliary hospitals of about 30 beds that would support a nearby military hospital. In 1916 Earl and Countess Plymouth of St Fagans Castle offered their large Banqueting Hall in the grounds of the Castle to be converted into an auxiliary hospital.

By the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the work of the VADs had ensured preparations were in place to deal with the first casualties returning from war. From thereon many more volunteers were recruited and trained. In all, 90,000 volunteers worked at home and abroad during the war, playing a crucial part in caring for the sick and wounded.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be posting more about some of the volunteers who worked at the St Fagans VAD Red Cross hospital.

Wrexham Tailor’s Quilt, 1842–52

Collections Online: Patchwork Bedcover

Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales is home to over two hundred examples of quilting and patchwork. This vast collection includes a wide variety of styles and techniques, ranging in date from the early 1700s to the present day.

The Wrexham Tailor’s Quilt is probably one of the most well-known patchworks produced in Wales. Made by James Williams – a military master tailor from 8 College Street, Wrexham – its design is unlike any other in the Museum’s collection. The quilt’s background is a pieced composition of diamond patches, chevrons, squares and rhomboids. Biblical scenes dominate the centre – Adam naming the animals, Jonah and the Whale, Noah’s Ark with a dove bearing an olive branch, and Cain and Abel. Other figurative motifs include Thomas Telford’s Menai Suspension Bridge (opened in 1826), a Chinese pagoda, and Cefn Viaduct, complete with a crossing steam train. Details are picked out through embroidery in silk thread.

Meticulously pieced, James Williams made his quilt by recycling a variety of felted woollen cloths, possibly off-cuts of broadcloth from military uniforms. In total, it consists of 4,525 separate pieces of cloth, butt-joined with overcast stitches worked from the reverse. Examples of this type of inlaid (‘intarsia’) patchwork found in museum collections are usually the work of professional tailors. The technique requires a high degree of skill and the use of thick cloth that does not fray to accommodate the oversewing required.

According to family history, James Williams spent a decade completing the piece, the work being done in his leisure hours between 1842 and 1852. The quilt soon became an exhibition piece; it was displayed at the Art Treasures Exhibition in Wrexham in 1876, at the Palace of Arts in Wembley in 1925, and to much public acclaim at the Wrexham National Eisteddfod of 1933.

Census returns for the Wrexham area suggest that James Williams was born in 1818. His tailoring establishment appears in numerous trade directories from the 1850s onwards. He died in 1895, leaving his son to inherit the family business. Forty years after his death, the economic depression of the 1930s prompted Williams’s grandson to sell the quilt to the Museum, stating that “it has always been my wish that the quilt should be sent to [the] National Museum of Wales so as my fellow countrymen should have the opportunity to admire a work of art that today could not be done if you were to pay the most skilful craftsman £1 a minute to do”.