Author: Rheolwr Gwefan
Leaflets 1970 – 1979
Leaflets 1980 – 1989
Membership Cards
Glanmor Bowen-Knight 1945 – 2019: a Tribute
We were sad to hear of the recent death of one of Plaid Cymru’s leading members in the Gwent valleys, Glanmor Bowen-Knight, Tredegar. The Plaid Cymru History Society extends its deepest sympathy to his sister Rae and the family. A tribute to Glanmor by his friend Hywel Davies may be read here.
GLANMOR BOWEN-KNIGHT: A TRIBUTE
The passing of Plaid Cymru activist and former councillor Glanmor Bowen-Knight of Tredegar was fittingly observed at Llwydcoed Crematorium on Wednesday, 9 October, 2019 in a humanist service attended by a large gathering of family and friends.
Among them were Dafydd Williams, former General Secretary of Plaid Cymru, Jocelyn Davies, former Plaid Assembly Member for South Wales East, and Alun Davies, former Plaid party member and current Labour Assembly Member for Blaenau Gwent.
Though physically challenged from early childhood, and obliged to walk with the aid of sticks, Glanmor was proud to proclaim that in better circumstances he would have been ‘a 6-footer’. Politically, his life of huge dedication to the national movement of Wales confirmed his claim.
A member of Plaid Cymru since the 1960s, Glanmor served in various capacities as an officer of the Tredegar Branch and Ebbw Vale / Blaenau Gwent Constituency committee. He was also a Plaid member of Tredegar Town Council for many years until shortly before his final ill health. By profession, Glanmor was an horologist, having been trained as a young man at St Loye’s college in Exeter. He was well known in Tredegar as the watchmaker and jeweller fastidiously at work for several decades in his corner of the Gus Jones Jewellers shop.
As in his work, so too in politics, Glan used his precise and well organised brain to great effect in helping to build an effective Plaid Cymru party machine in the unpromising birthplace of Nye Bevan. He delighted in seeing the fruits of his labour, along with that of others, through the emergence from Tredegar of Plaid AM Steffan Lewis – though lost so tragically young – and the near-victory of Plaid in the 2016 National Assembly election in Blaenau Gwent constituency.
Very justifiably, Glanmor was a recipient of a Plaid Cymru Special Contribution Award.
He leaves a sister, Rae, and her husband Charles, and a wide extended family, all of whom were so proud of him and so devoted to his care.
D. Hywel Davies
Memorial Plaque for Glyn James
A Blue Plaque in memory of leading nationalist Glyn James will be unveiled at 2:00pm Saturday 19th October at 9 Darran Terrace, Glyn Rhedynog / Ferndale, Rhondda CF43 4LG. The plaque will be unveiled by Councillor Geraint Davies and the event has been organised by the Maerdy Archive. Refreshments will be served at Ferndale Business and Professional Men’s Club at 65-66 Dyffryn Street, Ferndale CF43 4EW, thanks to the Maerdy Archive.
Who Was Dafydd Iwan’s Grandfather?
The Reverend Fred Jones (1877-1948) was one of the six founding fathers of Plaid Cymru who launched the party at a historic meeting at Pwllheli in 1925 and one of the famous Cilie family of poets from Ceredigion. He worked as a minister in Rhymni, Treorci and Tal-y-bont Ceredigion and was a lifelong nationalist.
Dafydd Iwan has agreed to speak about his grandfather’s history in a special meeting of the Plaid Cymru History Society in the Annual Conference in Swansea at 4.40pm in the Grand Circle Bar on Friday 4 October 2019.
He will speak in Welsh with simultaneous translation into English.
(Cymraeg) Sefydlu Plaid Cymru – Olrhain y Cefndir
How Plaid Cymru Was Founded – Tracing The Background
This year’s National Eisteddfod in Llanrwst will include a session focussing on the turbulent period that led up to the foundation of Plaid Cymru in 1925.
The celebrated author T Robin Chapman will trace the history of the events preceding the launch of the party in a lecture promoted by the Plaid Cymru History Society.
The Society’s chairman Dr Dafydd Williams says that the events of the early 1920s are highly relevant for contemporary Wales.
Robin Chapman is a noted author and historian, whose work includes biographies of both Islwyn Ffowc Elis, published in 2005 and Saunders Lewis (2007).
The lecture will be delivered in Welsh in Pabell y Cymdeithasau 2, on Thursday 8 August at 12:30pm.
Eurig Wyn 1945 – 2019
Tributes were paid to former MEP and Gwynedd councillor Eurig Wyn, who has died aged 74 on 26 June 2019.
Eurig Wyn with Jill Evans, fellow Plaid Cymru Member of the European Parliament.
Mr Wyn was elected as a member of the European Parliament representing Wales in 1999, and served until 2004. He was later elected as councillor for the Waunfawr ward on Gwynedd council in 2012, standing down in 2016. He also served as a community councillor in Waunfawr for a number of years.
During his time in the European Parliament, Mr Wyn was a member of the parliament’s culture and petitions committees. He was also a member of the delegation for relations with South Africa and the delegation to the EU-Czech Republic Joint Parliamentary Committee.
Most notably, he was a prominent advocate of Welsh farmers and the agriculture industry during the foot and mouth crisis, and served as a member of the parliament’s temporary committee set up to respond to the foot and mouth crisis.
Organisation
Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (Established 1925)
Plaid Cymru Main Offices
1930 – 1946 Swyddfa’r Blaid Genedlaethol, Heol Bangor, Caernarfon
1950 – 1968 89 High Street, Bangor
1944 – 1947 48 Charles Street, Caerdydd
1947 – 1977 8 Queen Street, Caerdydd
1977 – 1997 51 Cathedral Road, Caerdydd
1997 – 2007 18 Park Grove, Caerdydd
2007 – TÅ· Gwynfor, Anson Court, Atlantic Wharf, Caerdydd
Llywyddion Presidents
1925 – 1926 Lewis Valentine
1926 – 1939 Saunders Lewis
1939 – 1943 J E Daniel
1943 – 1945 Abi Williams
1945 – 1981 Gwynfor Evans
1981 – 1984 Dafydd Wigley
1984 – 1991 Dafydd Elis Thomas
1991 – 2000 Dafydd Wigley
2000 – 2003 Ieuan Wyn Jones
2003 – 2010 Dafydd Iwan
2010 – 2013 Jill Evans
Plaid Cymru Secretaries
1925 – 1930 H R Jones Trefnydd ac Ysgrifennydd
1930 – 1962 J E Jones Ysgrifennydd
1962 – 1964 Emrys Roberts Ysgrifennydd
1964 – 1971 Elwyn Roberts Ysgrifennydd
1971 – 1993 Dafydd Williams Ysgrifennydd
1994 – 2002 Karl Davies Ysgrifennydd
2003 – 2012 Gwenllian Lansdown. Prif Weithredwr
2011 – 2016 Rhuanedd Richards. Prif Weithredwr
2016 – 2020 Gareth Clubb. Prif Weithredwr