5 Lads on a mountain
When Chris asked me to write a few words about this photograph I was quite excited about revealing a little of our family history. I have known this photo for many years and it came as something of a shock to realise how little I knew of the true facts surrounding this little group. In accepting that I was going to carry out some research, where to start? What was startlingly obvious from very early on was that any meaningful research should have been carried out some 40 or 50 years years ago.
Firstly what do we know about the group? On the far left as we look at the photo graph is, I believe, my grandfather, William John Clemett (1894-1975) known to everyone by his middle name John. On the far right of the photograph I believe is one of John’s brothers Thomas Henry (1896-1988) known as Tom. I don’t know the three lads in the centre although two of them seem to have similar facial features and my well be related on my grandmother’s side.
John and Tom were born 3rd and 4th in a line of 11 children consisting of 2 girls and 9 boys. Their parents, Frederick James and Bessie were born in Devon as was their eldest son Alfred James but their “Welshness” was very soon adopted. There is little doubt that the emergence and growth of the mining industry in South Wales was an attraction to many, particularly those involved in mining industries in Devon and Cornwall and the family settled in the valley of Ogmore Vale shortly before 1894.
In the 1911 Census John was 16 and Tom 14 and they were both coal miners and this begins to help us put an age at least to the two “Clemetts”. I think we ca safely assume that all five lads were coal miners. John married Margaret Ellen Jones in 1919 at the age of 24 which suggests he was probably in his late teens when the “5 lads” photograph was taken. Tom was married to Jane Lewis in 1924 aged 28. From the details given in the census my “guestimate” was that the photograph was taken in the early to mid 1900s. With this in mind I started to research the lapel badges that each of them were wearing in the photograph. I must have looked at dozens if not hundreds of badges that were related to the coal mining industry but could find none that looked as though they could match the one that the lads were wearing.
What did strike me was the similarity of the shape of their lapel badge and the daffodil, which of course is the national flower of Wales. I discovered that the daffodil only became the national flower of Wales in the late 19th to mid 20th Century which ties in with the likely ages of the two Clemetts. The daffodil is of course worn on 1st March each year to celebrate St David the patron saint of Wales. In addition in July 1911 the investiture of Edward, the Prince of Wales took place in Wales which had previously always been conducted in England. The driving force behind this change was David Lloyd George, who was to become Prime Minister, the first and only time the post was held by a Welshman. He was a noted supporter of the daffodil and encouraged its wear for all celebratory occasions including the investure and , of course St David’s Day.
So my vote goes to the Daffodil!!
Written by Eric Clark - 22 January 2026