All Saints (Church of England),
Penarth, Cardiff, Wales
The Aged Simeon holding the Infant Christ (1928) in the baptistery St. Michael and the Giving of the Laws to Moses, with St. Gabriel and the Annunciation (1930) (2 lights). NOTE: Church bombed in World War Two. Both windows were destroyed.
The two windows for Penarth in Wales were commissioned in August 1928. The aged Simeon holding the infant Jesus was erected by a Cardiff firm under Harry’s instructions on November 1st, 1928. The St. Michael and the Giving of the Laws to Moses, with St. Gabriel and the Annunciation window was erected in commemoration of Harry’s admirer, the Rev, A. W. Flux Dundas (Bowe: 1994, p. 222). Harry did the sketches and colour schemes for the St. Michael window while he was in the sanatorium at Davos. It was erected in Penarth in February 1930 (Bowe: 1994, p. 222). In 1943 during World War Two, All Saints` Church was hit during a German air raid and was totally gutted by fire with only the outer walls left standing. Harry’s windows were sadly destroyed. The church was rebuilt after the war and reopened in 1955. No photo of the windows appears to have survived.
Photos by © Michael Cullen (for prints/sales www.irishimages.org) - Text © by Lucy Costigan
Bowe, N. Gordon, The Life and Work of Harry Clarke, Irish Academic Press, 1994