Carrying on with our ancestry trail, on the Longest Day 2023, a final memorial for Brenda and me to visit was when we crossed the valley from Aberdare / Hirwaun to the little hamlet of Llanwonno (Llanwynno in Welsh). After visiting Cardiff Thornhill, then Aberdare cemeteries, Llanwonno was our last port of call for the day.  Brenda had bad pains in her legs, so even walking short distances, especially up hill and over bumpy terrain, was difficult and limited for her. Conversely, there was no stopping me! On arriving at Llanwonno, we went immediately to the famous pub, the Brynffynon Hotel. We followed in the same steps that my great uncle, Trevor John Edwards and his new fiancé Elsie Cook took, on that fateful evening of 16 June 1928.

The pub is famous for lots of reasons, including being on this site, originally as a “working man’s pub” since the 17th century. One of its previous customers was a celebrated son of Wales, the world renowned runner Griffith Morgan (better known as Guto Nyth Brân, 1700 – 1737), who is buried across the road in St Gwynno‘s grave yard.

The reason we were here, especially so near to the 95th anniversary of Elsie’s death, was that this is where ‘it‘ all happened! This is where my great uncle Trevor took pregnant Elsie for a drink, on the evening of the 16th June 1928, and then he took her – via St Gwynno’s church graveyard (the place of the last sighting of them both, at about 8.30pm) – to a nearby road, and brutally killed her. Will I ever get a book written and published on these ‘Edwardsian‘ (so to speak) family events?

A time-line of Edwardsian tragedies: Trevor’s adverse childhood events

There are so many tragic and horrific stories to recount, especially of multiples bereavements and sadness befalling the Edwards family of that generation, that I consider it important not to let the stories be lost in time. Equally important to me, writing up these stories, is the nagging question in my mind, as to whether I will ever be able to gather evidence to apply for a Royal Pardon for Trevor. Crucially, of course, that depends on whether he actually meets the criteria to warrant such a Royal Pardon. Was he “temporarily insane”? Was his crime an “unlawful act manslaughter“, or a twisted crime of passion with “diminished responsibility“? There is even published evidence he considered suicide for himself, often enough, in the months preceding this fateful night in June! Goodness knows there were enough Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), as we call them today, impacting on young people 0 – 17, that he experienced in his short life!

Here are a few examples of some of the ACEs Trevor experienced as an infant and child. He was born in 1907. When he was aged 2, Henrietta, his 19 year old sister, died by suicide in 1909. He was 3 when a his one-year-old baby brother, Clifford Haydn, died in 1910. His father had severe, long-term and recurring mental illnesses, necessitating numerous periods in psychiatric hospitals over the years, until his death, at the age of 50, in 1912. Trevor was 5 by then. Yet another sister, Emily Jane, died in 1918, aged 34, when Trevor was 11. Of course, the story could also be, as Trevor’s letter read out in court said: Elsie’s killing was truly premeditated and brutal; a murder of ultimate violence against a young woman, by a young man, simply because he felt trapped, and wanted to end it all for himself, too!

Back to the future: 2023

The experience of being at the pub, during this particular week, felt surreal, indeed. To start with, Brenda accidentally locked herself in the toilet, and this hunk of a man pretended he would break the door down! Then she managed to unlock it. As we were having a meal inside, a nearby garage had an outdoor fire, with a pile of rubber tyres. Whether the fire was by accident or design we do not know, but it was a disgusting thing to happen, given the state of global warming and the pollution to the local air, especially for all us nearby customers eating and drinking! Then – and I regret this – I told some of the bar staff about Trevor and Elsie’s story, i.e. that the couple visited the pub, on the evening of Saturday 16th June, 1928, and the events that followed. On hindsight, of course I should have given the staff a ‘trigger warning’ of the gruesome story I was about to tell!

The pub, itself, was lovely; a typical oldie-worldly place, with lots of memorabilia and photos. The modern day menu of homemade food was exquisite, too!

The staff and all of the customers, both those (presumably) local to the vicinity, and a large contingency from the USA, were all so chatty, friendly and totally welcoming. It was truly a lovely experience being there, despite my wandering mind, pondering whether Trevor and Elsie went inside or sat outside? Women didn’t usually go in to pubs or bars in those days. Where did they sit? Who else was there that evening, and what did they chat about? All the while, Trevor was building up to committing this most heinous act of barbarity.

When Trevor killed Elsie

Sadly, that ‘when Trevor killed Elsie’ strap-line sounds a bit like the name of a Hollywood film, not the love-gone-wrong of a real life-and-death tragedy in early 20th century Wales. Even before Trevor and Elsie’s time at this pub, the particular non-conformist (and conformist!) religiosity of Wales meant that most, or much, of the Principality was ‘dry’ on a Sunday. In fact, it was only when I was a child that the lifting of certain pub and alcohol laws were finally enacted for Sunday drinking. So, to find a pub open in Wales on a Sunday in the 1900s the 1920s would have been rather strange. Couple this phenomenon with the idea of a woman drinking in a public bar, and I find that even more strange! Pubs were almost exclusively male-only environments, especially those designated as “working-men’s” pubs! But Trevor and Elsie drank here, as I have detailed elsewhere. Then they crossed the road into St Gwynno’s church graveyard opposite, and that’s where Trevor started the final journey towards killing Elsie, and trying his very best to take his own life.

St Gwynno’s current Anglican priest, who covers a number of churches in a wide parish area, was really kind to me over the time I was making enquiries about Llanwonno, and planning a visit in 2023. She gave me permission to get the church keys from the pub staff, to visit inside the ancient building. Brenda and I drove around to the church car park from the pub, but she wanted to wait inside the car due to the pain in her legs. This afforded me time to walk around the graveyard and into the church, alone; the church is a truly wonderful building possibly originated from the 6th century CE.

As I unlocked the great padlock on the gate, successfully dodging a bird ‘dropping’ all over me, I entered the vestibule of the church and paused to read the notice boards.

When Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, of happy memory, appointed me as an OBE, it was the present-day King, as former Prince of Wales, who presided at the investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, on 7th December 2017. His Royal Highness laughed and joked when I told him that it was being a Catholic priest that first got me into sexual health teaching! Imagine if I told him, now, “you visited the church where my great uncle set out to kill his fiancé”. Probably a bit of a conversation stopper!

As I was about to unlock the door I noticed dozens of graffiti all over it. I actually videoed the door, from top to bottom, to check out all the initials and names, later. Imagine how spooky indeed to see something like “TJE ❤ EC, 1928”. Or maybe it would have been “TJE” and the real ‘love of his life’, Annie Protheroe, aged 16. That would have been poignant, especially with the hindsight of now, i.e. knowing the events that unfolded over the next minutes and hours of 21st June 1928.

Trevor’s letter to Annie Protheroe, read out in court: He told Annie that he had “got Elsie Cook into trouble” and that he was “in a fine mess”. He threatened to do away with himself.  She advised him not to do so, but to “think of your mother”. 

I went inside the church, took my time looking around, taking lots of photos and some videos. It was only afterwards that I realised I had been whispering, whilst making the videos, as though not to disturb anyone else in there, yet I was alone!

On my way out I signed the visitors guest book.

Ex-sacerdos SRE simplex, Cardiffensis

It was truly a very moving experience to be at Llanwonno and St Gwynno’s, especially as the date was 95 years and five days since the dreadful event happened, and just two days before the 95th anniversary of Elsie’s burial at Aberdare, at the grave site I had visited only a couple of hours earlier.

Elsie and Trevor were both 21 years old when they died. I will tell the story of Elsie’s funeral on another page, as soon as time allows.

Psalm 130: De profundis at Te DOMINE ….

“But with You is found mercy, in Him is copious redemption”.