The winner of our Women’s History Month competition, Part 2 student Amelia Robinson, here explores the life of Irene Davies, her great-grandmother.

I am Irene Davies’ (28th January 1924 – 7th August 1995) great-granddaughter on my mother’s side of the family. She was the daughter of Jennet May of Taibach, Port Talbot, and John (known as Jack) of Barnstaple, Ilfracombe, Devon. She died aged 71. 

 I have chosen Irene for this project due to the stories told by my mother and the photos decorating our house, pieces of her jewellery that I now own and frequently wear. Moreover, reading her love letters from during the war, her memory is still alive, handed down through the generations. 

Irene (known as Rene) was born in Scutari Row in a small village called Taibach, Port Talbot. Irene attended the local Eastern Girl’s School. She grew up with her grandparents after she lost her father at a young age – he simply cycled to work one day and never came back. He died of a heart attack at just 41 years old and Jennet May, his wife, never moved on from his death. 

Leaving school at the age of 14, Irene began her apprenticeship as a seamstress in the local boutique with Velma Map in a small back room of the shop. Irene made many dresses for herself, children & grandchildren. It was known she could see an outfit on a film star in a magazine or a shop window and replicate a drafted pattern, then cut and make it. Her dairies noted that she would make dresses for the local dances. 

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, many young women in the village went to work in the Royal Ordnance Factory, Bridgend. Irene was one of those women. They would catch the train which ran through the village towards the factory. This is where she met her future husband at the train station! Kenneth was a mechanical stoker, shovelling the coal onto the burning fire of the steam engine, a labour-intensive job. 

My mother often shares the family story of how Irene once had an ammunition shell fall on her foot! Thankfully, it didn’t have any gunpowder in it, but it must have hurt! Her job during the war highlights the dangers of working in an environment filled with gunpowder and working amongst highly flammable substances. It makes me very proud to have a great-grandmother who did her part in keeping us safe. 

On 15^th September 1945, Irene married Kenneth Graham Davies in the Gibeon Welsh Chapel, Taibach, Port Talbot. Her parents had also been married there. A year later they honeymooned on the Isle of Wight. Irene and Kenneth had two children, Marilyn my grandmother and her brother Kelvin.  

The newly married couple set up home in the small village of Margam in Pendryn Avenue. Although Margam was just four miles from her birthplace, it remained within the Borough of Port Talbot. In 1959, Irene returned to Taibach, settling in Brook Street with her own family. 

I can vaguely remember my Great-Grandfather Kenneth, as he passed away when I was 5 years old though I never met Irene; she passed away 10 years before I was born. I do know that she had an older brother, Sydney John, who passed away from tuberculosis at a young age, and then there was Kenneth, known as Ken, younger than Irene by 4 years. Irene was the middle child and only daughter. When Irene married her boyfriend Kenneth Davies, then, she added another ‘Kenneth’ to her family! Irene’s son Kelvin, my great-uncle, went on to marry his girlfriend who then also became ‘Irene Davies’ just like his mother. My grandmother Irene was buried on her son’s birthday in 1995, and so too her son, my great-uncle Kelvin, passed away on Irene’s birthday in 2023… Coincidently! 

My great-grandmother was a strong and resilient woman who lived through the hardships of World War II, enduring the challenges of rationing and facing uncertainty with hope. Despite the struggles of wartime, she remained resourceful and compassionate, always finding ways to provide for her family and support those around her. Her perseverance and kindness left a lasting impact on my mother, shaping her into the strong, caring, and hardworking person she is today. Through her example, my Great-Grandmother instilled values of resilience, gratitude, and generosity that continue to inspire our family. 

Irene played a major role in my mother’s life, greatly influencing her while she was growing up. She took on both a motherly and grandmotherly role, raising my mum while her own mother was a single working parent. To this day, my mother still talks about her, and our home is filled with photos and memories that I often look at and imagine her kindness the way my mum describes her.