The Mametz Wood Memorial commemorates an engagement of the 38th (Welsh) Division of the British Army during the First Battle of the Somme in France in 1916.
31-550: The memorial, erected in 1987 by Welsh sculptor David Petersen , is a Welsh red dragon on top of a three-metre stone plinth, facing the wood and tearing at barbed wire . It was commissioned by the South Wales Branch of the Western Front Association following a public fund-raising appeal. The memorial is located near the site of the engagement in northern France. It can be reached from the village of Mametz on
62-530: A Lambourne find. The Welsh poet Owen Sheers commemorated the battle with his poem Mametz Wood (2000), including the words: This morning, twenty men buried in one long grave, a broken mosaic of bone linked arm in arm, their skeletons paused mid dance-macabre In 2014, National Theatre Wales performed Mametz , a recreation of the battle in a wood in rural Monmouthshire , scripted by Owen Sheers. In 2016, In Parenthesis , an opera by Iain Bell based on
93-741: A play based on the experiences of wounded soldiers, many of whom also made up the cast of the production, directed by Stephen Rayne and performed at the Theatre Royal Haymarket . The play has toured the UK and Canada and won the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award at the Edinburgh Festival . In 2014 his site-specific World War I play Mametz was produced by the National Theatre of Wales. His verse drama Pink Mist
124-632: A play for BBC Radio 4 about the World War II poet Alun Lewis : If I Should Go Away . In 2011, Sheers wrote the script and novelisation ( The Gospel of Us ) of The Passion for National Theatre Wales and WildWorks . The Gospel of Us has been re-published by Seren Press . Sheers worked with Michael Sheen co-creating the three-day passion play which unfolded over the Easter weekend of 2011 in Sheen's hometown of Port Talbot . "In Sheers's Neath -flavoured take on
155-577: A shopping centre in Merthyr Tydfil . Petersen is also known as a television presenter on historical and cultural topics. His work includes Stop, Look, Listen: Tales from Wales ( Channel 4 , 2002) and When the Romans Came to Wales (Channel 4, 2003). Petersen was a Plaid Cymru candidate in the 1999 National Assembly election for the Brecon and Radnorshire constituency. He gained 2,356 votes, 8.1% of
186-616: A single tree in the wood remained unbroken. The poet and visual artist David Jones , who took part in the battle, wrote a vivid description of the fighting in Mametz Wood in his long poem In Parenthesis (1937), including And here and there and huddled over, death-halsed to these, a Picton-five-feet-four paragon of the Line, from Newcastle Emlyn or Talgarth in Brycheiniog, lying disordered like discarded garments or crumpled chin to shin-bone like
217-625: The Nazis . While working as a tiler in the South Wales valleys one summer, Sheers had heard about the Auxiliary Units -secret civilian networks that, in the event of an invasion, would have formed a British resistance, but the novel focuses not on fighting "but on the uneasy means of survival open to the women who are left behind". The film of the novel , which Sheers co-wrote, was released in autumn 2011 and starred Andrea Riseborough . Sheers insisted that
248-654: The University of East Anglia , at which point he completed an MA in Creative Writing. During his time at New College, Sheers captained the Oxford University Modern Pentathlon team. In 1999, Sheers received an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors . His first collection of poetry, The Blue Book , was published by Seren in 2000. A collection of poems about family, first love and farming life, it
279-830: The Bible, The Last Supper became pork pies and beer at the Social Club (with music from the Manic Street Preachers ), while the Garden of Gethsemane was a scrubby patch of grass on a council estate. " He participated in the Bush Theatre 's 2011 project Sixty Six Books where he wrote a short play The Fair & Tender based upon the Book of Ezekiel in the King James Bible . In January 2012, Sheers wrote The Two Worlds of Charlie F ,
310-738: The D64 road. On 12 July 2013, the Welsh Government announced that it was helping to fund refurbishment of the memorial in time for the 100th anniversary of the Battle in 2016. Mametz Wood was the objective of the 38th (Welsh) Division during the First Battle of the Somme . The attack was made in a northerly direction over a ridge, focusing on the German positions in the wood, between 7 July and 12 July 1916. On 7 July
341-522: The David Jones poem, was produced by Welsh National Opera . 50°00′50″N 2°45′23″E / 50.0138°N 2.7564°E / 50.0138; 2.7564 David Petersen (sculptor) David Petersen (born 1944) is a Welsh sculptor , cultural commentator and television presenter based in St. Clears , Carmarthenshire . He is particularly known for his metal sculptures of dragons . Petersen
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#1733093124057372-561: The HQ of the Welsh Division to make their displeasure known. Major General Ivor Philipps , officer commanding the Welsh Division, was relieved of his command. Haig passed control of the Division to Major General Herbert Watts , commander of the 7th Division and told him to use it "as he saw fit". Watts planned a full-scale attack for 9 July but organising the attacking formations took some time and
403-573: The National Millennium Beacon for the millennium celebrations. The large stainless steel sculpture was erected on the porch of Cardiff City Hall . Petersen designed the definitive issue of the Welsh second class postage stamp , which features a leek carved from wood. Petersen's sons Toby and Gideon designed the first class stamp which features a dragon. A bronze statue of the world champion boxer Howard Winstone (1939–2000), located in
434-408: The Somme in 1916. The memorial, located on the site of the action in northern France, is of a large red dragon holding barbed wire , mounted on a stone plinth. A steel sculpture mounted on polished granite located in the foyer of County Hall, Cardiff . Commissioned by Allied Steel and Wire as a gift to South Glamorgan County Council . Together with his sons, Petersen won a competition to make
465-683: The Wales Book of the Year in 2005, and was also shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature 's Ondaatje Prize . In 2004, Sheers was Writer in Residence at The Wordsworth Trust and was selected as one of the Poetry Book Society 's 20 Next Generation Poets . His second collection of poetry, Skirrid Hill (Seren, 2005), won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award . Unicorns, almost , his one-man play based on
496-584: The Welsh delegation to the Festival Interceltique de Lorient in Brittany . He resigned from the festival committee in 2008 in protest at the content of the Welsh pavilion. Petersen's sons Aaron, Toby and Gideon are sculptors who sometimes work collaboratively with their father. The Mametz Wood memorial commemorates an action of the 38th (Welsh) Division of the British Army during the First Battle of
527-437: The attack was postponed until 10 July 1916. The operational order was blunt, stating that the Division would attack the wood with the aim of "capturing the whole of it". The 10 July attack was on a larger scale than had been attempted earlier. Despite heavy casualties the fringe of the wood was soon reached and some bayonet fighting took place before the wood was entered and a number of German machine guns silenced. Fighting in
558-575: The engagement. It would not be used in a massed attack again until 31 July 1917. The wood still stands today, surrounded by farmland. Overgrown shell craters and trenches can still be made out. The war poet Siegfried Sassoon , of the Royal Welch Fusiliers , recorded in his memoirs that he had made a single handed attack on the enemy trenches in Mametz on 4 July 1916. The Welsh artist Christopher Williams painted The Welsh at Mametz Wood at
589-641: The film be shot in and around the Black Mountains . In 2007, he collaborated with composer Rachel Portman on The Water Diviner’s Tale , an oratorio for children, which was premièred at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms . In 2007/8 Sheers was a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library . In 2009, he published the novella White Ravens , a contemporary response to
620-620: The first writer-in-residence at the Welsh Rugby Union . Sheers played rugby union , representing Gwent County at scrum half. Sheers has played Wilfred Owen on stage and has presented arts programmes for BBC Wales . In 2009, he wrote and presented the BBC 4 series about poetry and the British landscape, A Poet's Guide to Britain . He has also presented The Art of the Sea for BBC 4 and documentaries on
651-678: The life and poetry of the WWII poet Keith Douglas , was developed by the Old Vic , New Voices, and performed by Joseph Fiennes . Sheers' first novel, Resistance , has been translated into ten languages and was short listed for the Writer's Guild of Great Britain Best Book Award 2008 and won a 2008 Hospital Club Creative Award. The novel imagines that the D-day landings have failed and Wales has been occupied by
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#1733093124057682-399: The men formed the first wave intending to take the wood in a matter of hours. However, strong fortification, machineguns and shelling killed and injured over 400 soldiers before they reached the wood. Further attacks by the 17th Division on 8 July failed to improve the position. Infuriated by what he saw as a distinct lack of "push" Sir Douglas Haig with Lt-General Henry Rawlinson visited
713-488: The myth of Branwen Daughter of Llyr , written as part of Seren's series of New Stories from the Mabinogion . He published an anthology of British landscape poetry to accompany his TV series of the same title, A Poet's Guide to Britain . Sheers has also written journalism and reportage for a variety of publications including Granta , The Guardian , Esquire , GQ , The Times and The Financial Times . He wrote
744-599: The overall vote. Owen Sheers Owen Sheers FRSL (born 20 September 1974) is a Welsh poet, author, playwright and television presenter. He was the first writer-in-residence to be appointed by any national rugby union team. Owen Sheers was born in Suva, Fiji , and was brought up in Abergavenny , south Wales. He went to school at King Henry VIII School in Abergavenny, before studying at New College, Oxford , and
775-511: The request of David Lloyd George , Secretary of State for War . Williams visited the scene in November 1916 and later made studies from a soldier supplied for the purpose. The painting is in the collection of National Museum Wales . The poet Robert Graves fought in the battle and described the wood immediately after the battle: It was full of dead Prussian Guards, big men, and dead Royal Welch Fusiliers and South Wales Borderers, little men. Not
806-543: The wood was fierce with the Germans giving ground stubbornly. The 14th ( Swansea ) (Service) Battalion, the Welsh Regiment , went into the attack with 676 men and after a day of hard fighting had lost almost 400 men killed or wounded before being relieved. Other battalions suffered similar losses. However, by 12 July the wood was effectively cleared of the enemy. The Welsh Division had lost about 4,000 men killed or wounded in
837-724: Was born in Cardiff in 1944, the son of Jack Petersen (1911–1990), a boxer who held the British Heavyweight title on two occasions. Petersen worked in the GKN steelworks in Cardiff before studying fine art at Newport College of Art (1961–1965). He is an elected member of the Royal Cambrian Academy , and has served as chairman of the British Artist Blacksmiths Association. For several years Petersen led
868-643: Was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and presents an elegy about camaraderie and loss in modern warfare as seen through the stories of serving soldiers in Afghanistan and their families. Pink Mist won the 2014 Welsh Book of the Year and was produced as a stage play by the Bristol Old Vic theatre in 2015, winning mentions as a top-ten pick of the year in The Guardian and The Observer . In April 2015, Sheers' libretto for Mark Bowden's oratorio A Violence of Gifts
899-459: Was premiered at St David's Hall, Cardiff. The oratorio was devised as a contemporary response to Haydn 's Creation oratorio , and was informed by three days research at CERN. In 2014, Sheers presented a one-hour BBC documentary about the poetry of Dylan Kyte , for which he was shortlisted for a BAFTA Cymru for Best Presenter. His novel I Saw A Man was published in 2015 in the UK, US and several countries across Europe. The French translation
930-592: Was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year and the Forward Prize for "Best First Collection". Following this first publication, Sheers worked on the light entertainment television show The Big Breakfast as a researcher. His debut prose work, The Dust Diaries , was published by Faber in 2004. A non-fiction narrative set in Zimbabwe following the travels of Sheers' great-great-uncle, Arthur Shearly Cripps , it won
961-598: Was shortlisted for the Prix Femina Etranger. His play Pink Mist was first staged at the Bristol Old Vic in 2015. It tells the story of three young Bristolians deployed to Afghanistan. It is their return home to the women in their lives that presents them with their bigger challenges as they all learn to cope with the physical and psychological after effects of war. Owen is currently Professor of Creativity at Swansea University . In December 2011, Sheers became