Your Farewell from Crynant
Farewell dear comrade, farewell
As you depart for native land
Where you’ll entertain your friends with many tales
Of the time you spent way down in Wales
You came here to help in the battle for coal
Changed from a city boy to a human mole
But I think you never did regret
The changes, because of the friends you met
Friends that will miss you for years to come
For their friendship and confidence you had won
In work, and on the sporting field
Your absence, all brynawell will miss
And most of all we’ll miss you on the corner
Where we all spent many a happy hour
You are leaving now the hardship of the colliery
To your old job in the refrigerator factory
And when you are snug and warm in your new abode
Think of your comrades down in Cefn Coed
Tell the cockneys as they sit around the fire
Of the courage and sacrifices of the miner
So, as I hope that you succeed to reach the top
Let your memory go back to the nights in shanty shop
And if you meet a Welshman, shake him by the hand
In friendship for your stay in that little land.
Skid Bace (November 1947)
(Thanks to John Breeden for this poem which was given to him from a friend when he was demobbed in 1947)