Home Front Museum

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Home Front Museum Experience the sights and sounds of civilian life during WWII at this unique indoor attraction.

Eighty five years ago this week a Spitfire made a forced landing on the beach at Prestatyn after running out of fuel. Th...
18/10/2026

Eighty five years ago this week a Spitfire made a forced landing on the beach at Prestatyn after running out of fuel. The Belgian pilot, Flight Lieutenant Henri Gonay, escaped his homeland after the German invasion of 1940 to come to Britain where he joined the Royal Air Force. By October 1941, he was part of the all Belgian 350 Squadron that was based at RAF Valley. Gonay was killed in June 1944 when his Typhoon was hit by flak off Jersey, he tried to do an emergency landing on the Channel island, but crashed into a property.

This week 1939, news came through of Conwy’s first casualty of the Second World War. But he wasn’t a soldier, sailor or ...
17/10/2026

This week 1939, news came through of Conwy’s first casualty of the Second World War. But he wasn’t a soldier, sailor or airman, so who was he? He was William Roberts, a 75-year-old pensioner from Plas Iolyn Park who was killed by a Llandudno bound Crosville bus near Henryd Lane in the blackout. It was raining heavily, street lamps had been turned off and the bus only had sidelights and masked headlights which pointed down onto the road. Furthermore, William Roberts was wearing dark clothing and the experienced bus driver did not see the septuagenarian and the poor chap was killed instantly as he walked to his home. In five years of war 1,039 people were killed in air raids on Wales – however in the same period 1,955 people were killed on the roads.

Remembering Sergeant Philip Jones of Bryniau Road, Llandudno, who died today 1942.Philip attended Lloyd Street and John ...
16/10/2026

Remembering Sergeant Philip Jones of Bryniau Road, Llandudno, who died today 1942.
Philip attended Lloyd Street and John Bright Schools before enlisting in the Royal Air Force. After training he was attached to Coastal Command and 51 Squadron based at RAF Chivenor, Devon. Flying Whitley bombers, they regularly patrolled the Bay of Biscay on anti-submarine forays. On the 16th October 1942, Philip’s plane came under attack from German aircraft and nothing was heard from them again.
Philip has no known grave and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
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For years I was looking for a Ratcliffe Engineering pin badge to add to the museum collection and then lo and behold one...
15/10/2026

For years I was looking for a Ratcliffe Engineering pin badge to add to the museum collection and then lo and behold one turned up on Ebay 😊
In 1940 a large factory was built on fields at Pensarn, Llandudno Junction, to build parts for military aircraft. The plant, Ratcliffe Engineering, was initially concerned with the fabrication of spars for Beaufighter aircraft, the RAF’s principal night-fighter and later in the war this expanded to include the manufacture of Halifax aircraft spars, bomb carriers and bomb release gear. At its peak Ratcliffes’ employed around 1000 people including many women who will all have had a badge like this. From the factory’s canteen, the BBC broadcast episodes of ‘Worker’s Playtime’, a morale-boosting radio programme specifically for industrial workers.
Externally the factory was painted in a green and brown disruptive camouflage pattern while an anti-aircraft gun and searchlight installation was positioned in the grounds of the Marl Hotel – now the heavyside yard of Richard Williams (MKM) Builders Merchants – to protect the works from the air.
Post war there were a couple of years of uncertainty regarding the future of the works however in April 1947 International Refrigerator Company acquired the site. Thus, the manufacturing of white goods began, assuring employment for the next 45 years and continued until the close of the Hotpoint factory in 1992.

Remembering John Rhydwen Jones of Llandudno who was killed in action today 1944.The only son of Walter Rhydwen Jones, an...
14/10/2026

Remembering John Rhydwen Jones of Llandudno who was killed in action today 1944.
The only son of Walter Rhydwen Jones, and his wife Millicent. Walter owned the furniture store, Rhydwen Jones & Davies which opened in 1851 and was a well-known Llandudno landmark for many years. They also had stores in Colwyn Bay and Rhyl.
John was educated at Rhos-on-Sea College, Ratcliffe College, Leicestershire, and La Maison de Melle, a finishing school in Belgium. He served his apprenticeship in the furniture trade with Heals of Tottenham Court Road, London, playing rugby for London Welsh at this time. He became a junior salesman with Ray & Miles of Liverpool.
He joined the Territorials and was mobilised on August 1939. After officer training, he left Britain for North Africa in December 1942. He was awarded France's ‘Croix de Guerre avec Palme’ in 1943.
He moved on to Italy, where he saved the lives of two of his men by digging them an air hole in a building, while under German shelling. In the advance from Rome to Florence, he was acting as Forward Observation Officer with a company of Indian infantry when his quick mind and enduring courage were displayed. Despite splinter injuries, he remained at his post. He was killed during a counter-attack on 14 October 1944 near company headquarters.
In April 1945 John was posthumously awarded the Military Cross, which his father collected from Buckingham Palace.
Walter eventually sold the business, having nobody in the family to take it over. It continued to trade as Rhydwen Jones & Davies until acquired by UK furniture chain Courts in the early 1990s.
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Remembering Hugh Griffiths of Wyddfyd Road, Great Orme who died today 1942. Hugh was one of four brothers who served in ...
13/10/2026

Remembering Hugh Griffiths of Wyddfyd Road, Great Orme who died today 1942. Hugh was one of four brothers who served in the armed forces during the Second World War.
Before enlisting in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, Hugh was a painter. He later transferred into the Royal Artillery and was posted to the Far East where he was captured by the Japanese and incarcerated at the notorious Changi camp. Conditions in the overcrowded former British barracks were terrible; men starved and disease was rife. Like the rest of the internees Hughie received just 9 ounces of rice per. To put that into perspective, that is just one microwavable rice pouch as sustenance to last 24 hours. To supplement this meagre ration, the prisoners caught snakes, lizards and frogs to try and add vital vitamins and nutrients to his food. Alas, the Llandudno lad was struck down by diphtheria and admitted to the camp hospital where he succumbed to the disease. He is buried at Kranji War Cemetery, Singapore.
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Remembering Corporal Nathan Moss of Pleasant Street who died today 1918.At Britain’s largest municipal burial ground, Ma...
13/10/2026

Remembering Corporal Nathan Moss of Pleasant Street who died today 1918.
At Britain’s largest municipal burial ground, Manchester Southern Cemetery, there are some 1264 war graves scattered amongst the tens of thousands of civilian burials in this forty-hectare site. Amongst them is Corporal Nathan Moss. Nathan joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers aged just 16 in 1904 and served with the regiment in India. Just nine days after the outbreak of the First world War in August 1914, Nathan was disembarking with the rest of the 2nd battalion RWF in France. Little is known about his wartime service except that he entered a military hospital in Manchester suffering from the effects of gas poisoning and died there in October 1918. During the First World War, Manchester contained between thirty and forty war hospitals and so many of those buried in the cemetery died in these hospitals.
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Remembering Private Robert Sidebotham of King’s Road, Llandudno who was killed in action today 1916. Robert attended St ...
12/10/2026

Remembering Private Robert Sidebotham of King’s Road, Llandudno who was killed in action today 1916. Robert attended St George’s School on Church Walks and was later employed on the Llandudno to Colwyn Bay tramway. In 1915, Robert enlisted into the King’s (Liverpool) Regiment. He was killed in action during the Battle of the Somme and has no known grave. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
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Remembering Private Albert Poole of Llandudno who died today 1919.Albert Poole lived with his wife, Ethel, and daughter ...
11/10/2026

Remembering Private Albert Poole of Llandudno who died today 1919.
Albert Poole lived with his wife, Ethel, and daughter at Vardre Lane, Llandudno. He tried to join the army and do 'his bit' several times but was rejected each time on account of his height - he was just 4' 11" tall. Eventually he was admitted and joined the South Lancashire Regiment. However, his diminutive size did not stop him from being a brave and gallant soldier for he was awarded the Military Medal for repeatedly carrying messages between trenches while under intense German artillery fire. In 1918 he was admitted to a Casualty Clearing Station with appendicitis and while there the medics diagnosed him with as having aortic stenosis and he stated that as a youth he “had not been able to run as the other boys did” and ultimately, he died of endocarditis in October 1919. He is buried on the Great Orme.
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Remembering Serjeant James Edmond of Penrhyn Bay, Llandudno who died today 1944. James was a butcher, trading from his o...
11/10/2026

Remembering Serjeant James Edmond of Penrhyn Bay, Llandudno who died today 1944. James was a butcher, trading from his own shop at Broadway, Penrhyn Bay. In 1940 he joined the local Home Guard and was later a Special Constable before enlisting in the army in early 1944, joining the Intelligence Corps. He was involved in a motorcycle accident in Nottinghamshire in September that year and died of his wounds a fortnight later. He is buried on the Great Orme.
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New Street
Llandudno
LL302YF

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