North Africa, October, 1943

Nothing can matter now; the ageing year,

Nor the eternal desert of the sea,

Nor things to come, unknown, nor enmity;

I can still live on dead things I hold dear.

We who have spun our dreams from ecstasy

Have nothing more to fear, not even dying.

A thousand things are with me;

l'm not trying To hope for better till eternity.

• John David Gwyn

This is the work of John David Gwyn. He was educated at Cowbridge Grammar School from 1932-1939.

His mother was Elise Isabel Gwyn. His father, Arthur William Gwyn had been a lieutenant in the Welsh Regiment in the First World War, later becoming a solicitor and Cowbridge's town clerk.

John won a scholarship to study law at St John's College, Cambridge, where he gained a first-class degree in 1942.

In the same year he was awarded a postgraduate McMahon Law Scholarship but put his studies and career to help the war effort.

He joined the Welsh Regiment (then still known as the Welch Regiment). By 1943 he was fighting in Italy as a lieutenant, attached to the 2/5th Leicestershire Regiment.

The Allies made quick progress northwards after landing on the Italian mainland in September 1943, help by the recent Italian armistice.

However, as winter set in they faced concerted opposition at the German's Gustav Line, which stretched across Italy south-east or Rome.

It took the Allies until 18 May to capture the key town of Cassino.

John was killed in action at San Clemente on 2 December 1943, aged 21. He is buried at Cassino War Cemetery.

Two months before his death he penned a poem titled North Africa .

In November 1943, while at Sessa Aununca (about 30km south of Cassino) he wrote a longer poem entitled Cambridge, recording his nostalgia for the city where he studied.

Both poems were printed in a leaflet, a copy of which is now kept in the University of Bristol Library.

In 1983 the John David Gwyn and Reid Memorial Prize was established.

Each year until the fund ran out in 2004, the prize was awarded at Cowbridge School for academic achievement in English Literature.

- via Cowbridge History Society Archive in the People's Collection Wales.