Rhyl Naval Sports & Social Club, 98 Wellington Road, tel: (01745) 337439, presents a wide range of activities and entertainment from auctions to standup comedy. The building dates back to Victorian times; initially it was a private residence named ‘Gorphwysfa’ which is the Welsh equivalent of the English phrase ‘resting place’. One of its earliest occupiers was a Major Frederick Penn.According to the book ‘The Commissioners Of Rhyl – the men who made the town’ by Marjorie Howe, Major Penn was a Midlands lad who moved with his family to Canada. Following a military career and civic work there, he retired to Rhyl and became a commissioner (forerunner of councillor). He had a special interest in education.
Bill Ellis says that ‘Gorphwysfa’ was where Rhyl’s first grammar school began, and in the 1940s and early ‘50s it was the home and surgery of Dr. Kelly GP whose wife was a teacher at the Convent School in Russell Road.
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