Griffith was born and raised in Dolgellau, Merionethshire. He was the elder son of the late Mr David Griffith and Mrs Elizabeth Griffiths, Glan Wnion, Dolgellau. His brother Dafydd Griffith was killed in action on 26 September 1917 in the Third Battle of Ypres.

Griffith initially enlisted in Dolgellau's local 7th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers at the outbreak of the war. By the spring of 1918, he had been promoted to Corporal and was on the Belgian/French border with the 2nd Battalion South Lancashire Regiment.

It was in spring 1918 that the Germans launched their Spring offensive along parts of the Western Front in an effort to change the course of the war.  In April 1918 there were a series of defensive actions by the 25th, 34th and 40th Divisions in the Kemmel, Ploegsteert and Neuve Eglise. Between the 10th and the 14th April they beat back the Germans with fierce counterattacks during days of severe fighting.  Griffith's 2nd South Lancashires was heavily involved in these actions particularly in Neuve Eglise and Ploegsteert. The remnants of the Battalion were relieved on the night of the 14th but by that time Griffith had been killed, along with 661 other soldiers from the Battalion.  

Very little is recorded in Y Dydd, Dolgellau's local newspaper of Griffith's death, other than a small article on 7 June 1918 reporting he had been listed as missing in action. This would seem unusual given the amount of family material, some of it very moving, following the death of his younger brother Dafydd seven months earlier.

Griffith has no known grave. He is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing. He is also commemorated, alongside Dafydd, on the War Memorial in Dolgellau.

We will remember him. 

 

Emrys Tippett