Welsh Journals

for Butcher's 1875/76 Directory advertised that 'David Davies & co. (late Gregor & Davies), being Timber, Deal and Slate merchants', were trading from the new dock timber yard.3 Press reports after the death of Joseph Gregor in April 1914 stated that he had started work in the late firm of Gregor and Davies of Swansea, and his com- mercial capabilities were such that he was sent to Aberdare in 1857 to open a branch, and two years later bought that section of the business. In this new venture he was joined by his elder brother Edwin, and together they had started the firm of Gregor Brothers.4 By the end of the 1860's they had moved to premises in Bathurst Street, Swansea (where the Marriott Hotel now stands), with their timber yard at the western end of the newly opened South Dock. The business prospered, and the firm became recognised as one of the main dealers in timber in South Wales. Joseph, who lived at Richmond Villas, was a churchwarden at St James's church, a member of the Royal Institution of South Wales, and is listed among contributors to such charitable causes as the Cwmdonkin Women's Shelter (for which Gregor Bros. donated firewood).5 His nephew Sydney, Edwin's elder son, was born in 1868 and became a mining engineer with Graigola Merthyr Company Ltd, manufacturers of coal and patent fuel, and a member of the Swansea Chamber of Commerce.6 He joined the R.I.S.W. in 1904/05 when living at 4 St James's Crescent in the Uplands.' By the end of the First World War he had moved to 'Brynhyfryd' in West Cross, where he lived for twenty years. His entries in 'Who's Who in Wales' state that he was born in Aberdare, the son of Edwin and Mary Gregor, educated at Reading Grammar School, married Florence Hann in 1897, that his political affiliation was Conservative, he was a member of the Church of England, belonged to the Swansea County Club, the R.A.C. and the Bristol Channel Yacht Club, and was a Justice of the Peace.8 There is no mention of his membership of the R.I.S.W, which spanned over forty years until his death in 1949, a few years after he had moved to 'The Hollies' in Llanishen, Cardiff. The 1927/28 R.I.S.W. annual report records his donation to the library of 'Scott's Last Expedition: Vol i, being the Journals of Capt. R. F. Scott, R.N.; Vol ii, Reports of the Journeys & c., of Dr Wilson and other survivors'.9 These volumes, published in 1913, were subsequently of considerable interest to the donor's grand-nephew, author of this article, when researching the life of Petty Officer Evans of Rhossili.10 As Sydney was not involved in the timber firm, when Edwin died at Aberdare in 1909 it was his younger son Arthur who took over managing that branch of the business. Similarly on Joseph's death in 1914 it was his younger son G.T. (Trevor) who took over at Swansea, and was a member of the Swansea Chamber of Commerce," until killed in action in France in July 1917. Three generations of Gregors served as churchwardens at St James's church in Walter Road, where there is a credence table in memory of Lt. Col. G. T. Gregor, and a choir screen in memory of his widow Katherin Fanny, who died in 1952, and grandson Geoffrey Stuart, who died in 1953. 12 Following Trevor's death Arthur took charge of the Swansea timber yard in addition Arthur Gregor of 'HavergaV.