Category: Activities

Mallt Williams – The Lady Who Saved Plaid Cymru

Translation of an address given by Arwel Vittle at the National Eisteddfod on 6 August 2026

Introduction  

When Gwen Angharad Gruffudd and I set out to write a book on the establishment of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru a year or two ago, we were both aware that there were previously untold stories about the contributions of some key individuals in the history of Plaid Cymru that had not received due attention. And – as is painfully common – many of these individuals were women.

As we delved into the history it became clear that various women had not been given due credit for their part in the founding of the Party. One of the most important – if not the most important – certainly in terms of Plaid Cymru’s survival as a viable party was Mallt Williams, the self-styled Lady of Llandudoch.

I am a big believer in acknowledging sources of research so before starting this talk today, I need to acknowledge and thank a number of people who helped me indirectly and directly in preparing the material.

Firstly, Marion Löffler, who led the way with her article ‘Mallt Williams – A Romantic Nationalist‘[1] and in her subsequent studies of early twentieth century Welsh cultural and political movements. I am also grateful to the local historian of this area, Hedd Ladd Lewis, for sharing his knowledge and research on Mallt and also his family connections with her through his grandmother. A word of thanks also to E. Wyn James, who prompted me to think more deeply about the contributions of women in the early history of Plaid Cymru and other stories that I will refer to in the course of this lecture. Finally – thanks to my co-author of Dros Gymru’n Gwlad, Gwen Angharad Gruffudd, who spent hours researching the archives and found treasures among Mallt Williams’ correspondence and her flamboyant writing!

Background

Alice Matilda Langland Williams, to give her baptismal name, was born in 1867, the daughter of a Breconshire doctor.

Looking at the archive it becomes clear that she had several names – and pseudonyms – there was Alice Matilda Williams, Alice Langland Williams, and Mallt Williams, and Lady Williams not to mention Mallt Merch Brychan. But she was most commonly known as Mallt, and we will refer to her as Mallt today.

Mallt grew up in a non-Welsh speaking household at Aberclydach House near Talybont-on-Usk. The family had a good reputation in the area and were reportedly of high-born descent, which according to Marion Löffler “certainly influenced Mallt’s perception of her role in Welsh society”. Her eldest brother, Howell Price Williams, rose to fame in 1910 as one of the first white men to travel across the African continent, and her second brother, William Retlaw Jefferson, was an editor of antiquarian magazines. It was however with her younger brother and sister, Frederick George and Cate ‘Gwenffreda’, that Mallt developed the closest relationship. As a young girl, through local family connections, she came under the influence of the cultural and social circle of Lady Llanofer, known as Gwenynen Gwent.

She was quite a character, photographed dressed as a thirteenth-century Welsh princess and was the author of historical novels set in romantic Celtic Wales. Mallt and her sister Gwenffreda were probably ‘Y Dau Wynne’, authors of two novels One of the Royal Celts, published in 1889, A Maid of Cymru: A Patriotic Romance, published in 1901.

Marion Löffler suggests that Mallt was the actual author of the second of these, A Maid of Cymru. The content of this novel is worth noting because it gives us a picture of the ideology and idealism of the young Mallt Williams.

The novel tells the story of Tangwystl Hywel, the heroine  of A Maid of Cymru, who is a descendant of Brychan Brycheiniog and the daughter of the last “old house” in south-east Breconshire. She revives an eisteddfod in the area (presided over by the archdruid Hwfa Môn) and sponsors local poets. She refuses to marry the man she loves because he is part of the English industrial establishment that is destroying her area. Instead, she agrees to marry Hoel Cadwgan, who comes from an old Welsh lineage, on condition that he adopts the cause of Wales and the Welsh language. Under her guidance, Hoel relearns Welsh and comes to understand his part in the valley as a nobleman who treats his land according to the traditions of his country. Hoel Cadwgan’s wedding gift to Tangwystl is a building and a financial gift for a school harpists, but she dies before she can realise her dream. Her final message is to Hoel: “Gwasanaetha Gymru!” (“Serve Wales!”)

Myriad movements

The failure of Cymru Fydd, the movement within the British Liberal Party to win home rule for Wales, in 1896 was a heavy blow to the supporters of Wales and the Welsh language, and Welsh self-government receded as a political issue in the early twentieth century.

If Welsh identity was in retreat, one might think that the reverse was true when looking at the myriad movements established in the first decades of the twentieth century. Those years saw the creation of numerous Welsh cultural societies, guilds and groups.

Urdd y Delyn (Order of the Harp) was founded by O.M. Edwards in 1896. This was an early attempt to create a youth movement, which was eventually achieved by his son, Ifan ab Owen Edwards, when he founded Urdd Gobaith Cymru in 1922. Members of Urdd y Delyn would speak Welsh, learn about Welsh history, play the harp and sing Welsh folk songs and adhere to Welsh Christian ideals.

Among these movements was also Urdd y Ddraig Goch (Order of the Red Dragon)  formed in 1902, with the aim of promoting the Welsh language, and trying to get parents among all strata of society to speak and nurture the language in their households; another group was Cymdeithas y Ddraig Goch (1902), which wanted to ‘support the wearing of clothes of Welsh material, and purchase of items made in Wales.

One common name among the founders of all these movements was lady Mallt Williams. Mallt was involved in most of these movements and societies in some way or another. O.M. Edwards, for example, said that Mallt was mainly responsible for the establishment of Urdd y Delyn.

Mallt’s main concern was the survival of the Welsh language, and she wanted to realise her dream of seeing a Welsh speaking Wales, and placed a great responsibility for that on the mothers of Wales. But the nobility had also turned their backs on the language and a new generation of nobles was needed to make up for those failures.

She expressed this in an article entitled ‘Welsh Women’s Mission in the Twentieth Century’.

The mothers of the Boneddigion, with their great social advantages,
should lead the way with nurseries where the nurses would be Welshspeaking, where Welsh toys and picture books would find an honoured place, and national emblems, mottoes arid flags adorn the walls and school-rooms…

Long before Urdd y Delyn ended, Mallt and Gwyneth Vaughan, the Anglo-Welsh novelist, had founded another society, Undeb y Ddraig Goch (Union of the Red Dragon). The aim of this association was to help in the work of making Wales ‘more Celtic and consequently more beautiful’.  This Union had a constitution ‘designed with a view to enable Boneddigion and Gwerin alike to join in.’ Between 1901 and 1914, Undeb y Ddraig Goch held public meetings and established branches in Cardiff, Swansea, Aberystwyth and Bangor. Mallt became secretary to the Union in 1903, and was relentless in her efforts to attract patrons and supporters, among them Principal John Rhŷs of Jesus College, Oxford, Owen Rhoscomyl and the Howells of Nanteos.

Another young people’s organisation created by Mallt was the Byddin Cymru (Army of Wales), and on the pages of Cymru’r Plant from 1911 onwards she ran a group called the Ysbiwyr y Frenhines (The Queen’s Spies) in the Army, a group of young people who pledged to serve Wales with their hearts, minds, tongues and hands. Despite the sinister name, the Queen in question in the melodramatic title was the Welsh language. Her ‘spies’ organised ceremonies and romantic rallies, where new members would receive red dragon flags, with a recommendation that they wear a green shirt and a red scarf at the events.

Supporting the Union of Welsh Societies

Ultimately, Mallt Williams’s greatest contribution to Welsh cultural and political nationalism may have been financial. From the turn of the century onward, he gave generously to societies and organizations throughout the country. One of these was Undeb y Cymdeithasau Cymraeg (Union of Welsh Societies), the most important of the cultural nationalism movements in this period. It came into existence in 1913 when it was seen that the numerous cultural groups needed a united voice.

There was a general feeling that Welsh language and culture was losing ground. Welsh chapels were turning to using English, and complaints were  heard that Welsh children no longer understood the language of their parents, t sales of Welsh books and periodicals had fallen sharply since the 1890s and many felt that Welsh was no longer the language of public life. To a large extent, therefore, the formation of the various societies was a response to the growth in Englishness.

The result of all this was the formal establishment of Undeb y Cymdeithasau Cymraeg in November 1913. OM Edwards was elected president and Arthen Evans general secretary. OM was later succeeded as president by ET John, the politician and industrialist who was very supportive of efforts to spread Welsh and Celtic identity and movements to resurrect the idea of self-government for Wales.

According to the constitution of the Union of Welsh Societies, its objectives were:

1. To be a medium for consultation and co-operation between Welsh Societies.
2. To sponsor the Welsh language and its culture, and to ensure that they have their due place in all circles of Welsh life.
3. To cultivate the national spirit, and to resist all movements that oppose that.

Mallt supported the Union of Welsh Societies both practically and materially and was a vice president of the Union. But Mallt for all her support probably agreed with various other younger nationalists such as HR Jones, Lewis Valentine and DJ Williams that the Union was lacking in political engagement.

DJ Williams expressed his frustration with the Union’s lack of political nous in a letter to Ambrose Bebb in 1924 referring to it as the ‘Royal Standbacks of the Union of Welsh Societies’.

Celtic Links

Mallt and her brother and sister were also very interested in relations with other Celtic countries.

From the 1890s onwards up to the Great War, Mallt and her brother and sister attended the Pan-Celtic Congress, and then after the war when the Celtic Congress was re-established in 1917 they were among its preeminent enthusiasts and supporters. All three travelled to Scotland, Brittany and Ireland attending the Mod in the Scottish Highlands and the Gaelic League’s Oireachtas.

She also got to know the Breton patriot and poet Taldir.

François Jaffrennou’s bardic name was Taldir ab Hernin. He was an editor and Breton nationalist and active in the Pan-Celtic movement. He wrote mainly in Breton and published several volumes of poetry. Taldir founded the Gorsedd of Brittany and translated ‘Hen Wlad fy Nhadau’ into Breton – ‘Bro Gozh ma Zadoú’, which became the national anthem of Brittany.

Mallt and her sister Gwenffreda are referred to in the poem ‘An Diou Vag’ composed by Taldir after his visit to the Cardiff National Eisteddfod in 1899, and published in Gwerziou gant Abherve ha Taldir in the same year.

Over the next few years the Celtic Congress would meet annually in Edinburgh, Bangor, the Isle of Man, Brittany and Dublin. A prominent figure in the Congress was Agnes O’Farrelly of the Gaelic League. She was president of the first meeting of the Irish Volunteers’ women’s section, Cumann na mBan, and was a close friend of Roger Casement who was executed by Britain on a charge of treason for his part in the Easter Rising in 1916. Moreover, a number of prominent Irish language supporters and activists supported the Congress, including Douglas Hyde, the first President of the Irish Free State and one of the pioneers of the Irish renaissance at the turn of the century. And in the midst of all this, with her financial support for the Congress and her great enthusiasm, Mallt Williams was full of encouragement to any movement that wanted to promote the cause of Wales and the Welsh language.

So she was very interested in making connections with all the Celtic countries. But Ireland was the biggest influence by far.

Significance of Ireland

In 1904 she wrote to Padraig Pearse, the nationalist and campaigner for the Irish language, congratulating him on the establishment of the Irish School on Isle of Tawin in County Galway, adding that she hoped that more Irish sons would not need to emigrate to earn a living, ‘Ireland never needed her Gaelic speaking children more than she does today’.

The history of Tawin School is interesting in terms of the link between the Irish language movement and the wider political republican movement.

Roger Casement was an Irish human rights activist and nationalist and a great supporter of the Celtic Congress, and as mentioned previously, he was hanged by the British Government in 1916 for his part in the Easter Rising.  Casement visited Tawin in 1904 to support parents on the island who had withdrawn their children from the island’s national school in protest that they were not being taught Irish.  The islanders raised enough money for to build their own Irish-medium school. Padraig Pearse, another of Ireland’s most prominent nationalists, was also extremely supportive of their cause through the Gaelic League, and the school building was also used during the summer holidays as a Gaelic college. This was not the only link between the Tawin school and the national movement in Ireland, as Eamon de Valera spent three summers on Tawin as Director of the Gaelic League Summer School from 1911-13. He later took part in the Easter Rising, and was a political leader in the War of Independence and subsequently became Taoiseach of the Irish Republic.

Mallt was a regular visitor to Ireland and many of her letters are written on the paper of the grandest hotels in Dublin. She travelled over the Irish Sea even during turbulent times such as the months after the Easter rising in 1916. When negotiations were held on an agreement to end the Irish War of Independence in 1921 Mallt expressed her utter disdain for David Lloyd George, the erstwhile hero of Cymru Fydd, but who was now British prime minister and leading negotiations with Sinn Féin and the leaders of the IRA.

Mallt stated that she was familiar with some of the leaders of the republican movement in Ireland and that they were also of the same opinion:

I know some of the Leaders. All the Patriots (I think) can’t trust L.G. He’s never been a friend of Ireland.

The history of the Tawin school struggle shows the clear link between the language movement in Ireland and the political movement for independence. And, like many other Welsh nationalists at the time, this had a strong influence on Mallt Williams’ political thinking. She now thought that the way to preserve the Welsh language was by gaining political power and freedom for Wales. And her views would find expression in writing – and more importantly – materially through her financial contributions to political nationalism that would continue for the rest of her life.

Death of Gwenffreda and move to Pantsaeson

In 1914, Mallt’s sister, Gwenffreda, died. OM Edwards’s comments in Cymru’r Plant show how much of a personal blow it was for Mallt to lose someone who was on the same wavelength as her in so many ways.

Some years prior Mallt had moved from Brecon to the Llanarthne area of Carmarthenshire, but shortly after her sister’s death her brother Frederick bought Plas Pantsaeson between Moylgrove and St Dogmaels in Pembrokeshire, and Mallt was invited to live there with him and his wife.

From then on, Mallt along with Frederick and his wife and children lived their dream as a distinctive Welsh gentry in their mansion in north Pembrokeshire.

Mallt lived a very frugal life and was an extremely disciplined vegetarian and follower of the Christian Scientists, who believe that healing comes through prayer and spiritual understanding rather than medicine.

Supporting the new Welsh Nationalist Party

In 1925 the aspirations of a new generation of nationalists led by individuals such as Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valentine and HR Jones came to fruition and the emergence of national movements north and south were united to form a Welsh Nationalist Party – Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru.

From the outset, Mallt was unwavering in her support for the new Party.

HR Jones, the new party’s organiser, had also been an organiser of Undeb y Cymdeithasau Cymraeg, and probably knew Mallt through this connection. It was no surprise then that one of his first steps, was to contact Mallt and invite her to become one of the vice-presidents along with Saunders Lewis and Meuryn, editor of Yr Herald Gymraeg. 

It is interesting to see her name on the list of officials as the Vice President of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru. As we have seen, Mallt had been involved in  countless Welsh societies since the beginning of the century, and would have been enthused by any organisation that campaigned for a measure of political autonomy for Wales. It was therefore natural for her to be extremely supportive of any attempt to establish an independent national party, and as one of the few people who had the financial means to support these efforts, her support would be key to securing the future of the new party.

She was pleased to accept HR’s invitation and considered it a great honour. Her response reveals the emphasis she placed on Wales turning its back on England and strengthening links with the other Celtic nations, and also her emphasis on giving the Welsh language a central place:

 Wales is indeed standing at the crossroads.

• We must turn our eyes away from London.

2) We must make Welsh compulsory  in all schools, from Holyhead to Cardiff (as the English language is now)

3) We must follow the national movements in the other countries, and exchange ideas with the Irish and the Bretons and the Scots.

She was pleased to hear of the new party’s intention to distribute thousands of pamphlets and send speakers across Wales to spread the message. To that end, she offered to pay for the printing of leaflets similar to those published by the Scottish National League, urging HR not to publish long and lengthy leaflets – ‘they should be short and to the point’, she asserted. (Indispensable comms advice for political parties in every age!).

In another letter to the organiser, Mallt appealed to HR’s desire to see the names of towns and villages changed to Welsh versions, this was sure to receive a warm welcome from the party organiser, particularly given HR’s role in changing the name of his home village from Ebenezer to Deiniolen. Mallt urged the Blaid Genedlaethol to encourage Holyhead Council to follow the example of Kingstown Council in Ireland that had recently changed the name of the port town to Dun Laoghaire.

Through the Celtic Congress, Mallt facilitated links with the national movement in Ireland. In addition, she urged HR, who had drawn great inspiration from the struggle of the Irish, to visit the Emerald Isle, offering to pay part of his travel expenses there. Nevertheless, she considered the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which meant dividing the island into North and South and keeping an oath of allegiance to the king, as a betrayal of the republican cause:

You should go to Ireland, in 1926, to study the Republican idea there. I shall be content to give a present of five pounds, towards your expenses there, and to give you a letter of introduction. I cannot write about the latest betrayal. It’s too terrible. Poor Ireland!

Indispensable Support

A quick glance at the names of the party’s financial contributors in its first year shows that. Mallt Williams is the most generous contributor of all, giving £50, which today amounts to £4,000. In comparison, Lewis Valentine contributed £1 – although that was a generous contribution for someone on a Baptist minister’s salary in the 1920s!

Second on the list in terms of generosity is Lord Ashbourne, a supporter of the Irish language society, Conradh na Gailege, and patron of one of Ireland’s premier jewels in camogie, a version of the Irish sport of hurling for girls. By virtue of the various connections, therefore, a trip was arranged for HR Jones and a number of other Welsh nationalists to visit the country and to meet various leading figures of the republican movement there.

There is no doubt, however, that Y Ddraig Goch, the party’r journal, would not have seen the light of day, and that the Party would not have survived the early years without financial support. The key sponsor in this again was Mallt Williams. She contributed £40 to the newspaper’s production costs, a significant amount in the period equivalent to £3,000 today.

She boosted Plaid Cymru’s finances by donating hundreds of pounds over a number of years, and promoted the circulation of Y Ddraig Goch by buying between 20 and 400 copies a month for her own distribution. It would not be an exaggeration to say that if it were not for her financial support, Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru would not have continued. Indeed, Saunders Lewis believed that her donations saved the movement.

Campaigning advice

She declined, however, an invitation to chair a session at Plaid’s first summer school at Machynlleth in 1926, because she felt her spoken Welsh was not good enough.

And despite being subsequently invited on several occasions to speak at  the party’s Summer Schools she declined. Notwithstanding her unflinching support for the national party, living in isolation coincided with Mallt’s growing desire to withdraw from the public stage. Evidence of this is that she published her articles and letters in Y Ddraig Goch and the Welsh Nationalist, often under pseudonyms such as Tangwystl, Merch Brychan or Gwyliwr.

But regardless of her public shyness she offered a flurry of advice to the movement in regular correspondence.

The working class had to be won, in her opinion – ‘No hope for the future, if you (Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru) can’t change the minds of the People.’ She wanted Plaid Cymru to prioritise gaining ground in Glamorganshire:

We must win this county (the largest, and the most populous in Wales)… To strive there, the Plaid must practise the language of the alien (woe to me! and with a lot of Welsh, too) as the Gaelic League, does in the English parts of Ireland. Win them over to nationalism first, and it will be easier to win them over to the Welsh language.

Mallt was also keen for Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru to broaden its appeal by setting up an English-language magazine to ‘awaken the Anglo-Welsh’.

The content of her letters – brief and in dramatic handwriting – reveal a colourful character, espousing anti-imperialist nationalism. She was sympathetic to the national movement that was beginning to gain strength in India under the leadership of Mohandas Gandhi, and was a regular visitor to Ireland, and had forged close ties there with the language movement and prominent republicans. As a result, she pressed the leadership of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru to liaise with organisations in both Ireland and Scotland. They needed to be enlightened, says Mallt, about the struggle in Wales: ‘People in the other countries don’t know anything about Plaid.’

She also lamented the role of women in the national struggle. She wrote to HR in November 1925 regretting the apolitical nature of Welsh women:

I saw that there was a Women’s Meeting of the Labour Movement (in Caernarfon) the day before. How can PGC win Welsh women to the language? At present they are on their knees before the English, much worse than Welsh men. In Ireland the women are more political than the men.

Support for local causes and WC Elvet Thomas’ visit to Plas Pantsaeson

Despite her generous donations and frequent correspondence, Mallt was unknown to many of the party’s grassroots leaders and members. JE Jones says

… although I corresponded with her hundreds of times, I only saw her once – at Cardiff station an elderly but lively lady in old-fashioned clothes.

More memorable is another description of her that appeared in Baner ac Amserau Cymru, where WC Elvet Thomas is quoted as accompanying a group of Urdd boys on a pilgrimage to St Davids but who decided to drop by Pantsaeson to meet the famous Lady.

Before mentioning the visit, it’s worth saying a quick word in passing about WC Elvet Thomas.

He was born in Fishguard but the family moved to Cardiff when he was a child. He later became an inspirational Welsh teacher at Cathays High School for Boys for forty years and instilled a love of the Welsh language and its culture among various pupils at Cathays School, including Bobi Jones, Edward Millward and Geraint Jarman.[2]

There is a reference to a pivotal event in Elvet Thomas’ life in one of Geraint Jarman’s songs, ‘Strydoedd Cul Pontcanna’ (‘Narrow Streets of Pontcanna’), where he speaks of ‘the slap of growing up a Welshman’.

The background to this is an incident that happened to the young Elvet Thomas when he was an eight-year-old boy playing in the street in Canton with his younger brother. A woman came up to the boys and asked: ‘Were you two talking Welsh?’ ‘Yes’, he answered. ‘Well, take that!’ she said; and gave him a hard slap across his cheek, and walked away. But the slap had a contrary effect to that intended, because as Thomas says in his autobiography, “indeed she had taught me a lesson. From that day forth, I knew that the Welsh language had enemies.” Elvet Thomas grew up to be a committed Welsh patriot and champion of the Welsh language in Cardiff.

But to return to Mallt Williams, here is the story of the visit to Plas Pantsaeson by the young nationalists, in the words of Elvet Thomas himself:

When I and some of the Urdd boys were on a pilgrimage to St Davids in 1940 we stayed one night in the village of St Dogmaels. The next day, on the road from St Dogmaels to Fishguard, it was decided to call at Plas Pant y Saeson to pay tribute to Lady Mallt. Having arrived at the mansion and conveyed our message to the maid, the Lady’s sister-in-law came to the door. We were told that there was a possibility that we could see the Lady.

We were invited in.

We were very surprised to see how strange and cold the place was. On a table near the front door was an old harp similar to the Scottish ‘clarsagh’, and a card tied to the harp saying that the harp was the property of some Irish king. We were put to sit in  a spacious room to await the arrival of the Lady.

We felt that we were waiting for the arrival of a queen.

At last she entered – a comparatively small and thin woman, very frail in appearance.   

It seemed to me that she was very aware of her appearance.

She was extremely shy. She rushed towards us to greet us with the words ‘Henffych well, croesaw i’r unig blas Cymraeg yn sir Penfro.’ (‘Welcome to the only Welsh mansion in Pembrokeshire’)       

Her dress was very odd. She wore a long white dress down to her feet, the robe fringed with green and red (Welsh colours). On her head she wore a red felt hat tied with a green ribbon under her chin and a green feather in the hat… She was of ‘noble blood’. Wales and the Celtic nations were her main interest. She felt it was her “privilege and duty as one of high status to elevate Wales.”

Her Welsh was very fragmented but would on no account turn to English. It was sometimes difficult to understand her Welsh, but she stuck resolutely to Welsh, and she cared that everyone around her spoke the language. She loved Wales and the Welsh language passionately. And was very generous in spirit, but expected respect in return, as was proper for a lady. Her last words to us when we were leaving were ‘Yn iach y boch’.

The maid in this story was probably Louvain Ladd – grandmother of

Hedd Ladd Lewis, local historian of this area. Louvain was employed by Mallt

in Pantsaeson and thought highly of the lady.[3]

Mallt was a source of constant advice to her maid. One notable piece of advice can be found in a note Louvain received from Mallt on the occasion of her marriage to Charles Ladd, in which Mallt wishes the married couple ‘health and long life and goodness’ in their new life, and for them to “fear God and to love Wales and the Welsh language”. She concludes with a piece of health and nutritional advice saying that Charles should remember that there is not a single young woman in St Dogmaels who can bake vegetables as well as Louvain, “in their own juices, with their vitamins preserved and not thrown away”. 

It is also said that at the time of the Second World War Mallt, as she was a vegetarian, had no use for the meat coupons she received, and so distributed her coupons among some of the most needy families in the area, especially those with relatives fighting in the war.

She generously supported local events, sponsored local eisteddfodau and was a generous and considerate employer.

Her support to the Party and its members also extended to the personal. She gave HR Jones health advice in the face of his physical weakness, recommending that he should drink lemon juice in hot or cold water every night. There was a remarkable power in a lemon that makes a weak body healthy, she claimed. But when this did nothing to improve HR’s health, she paid for a voyage for him to the Mediterranean area in 1927 in another generous effort to improve the Party organiser’s health.

The Eagle Tower, the Bombing School and Protecting the Preseli

Throughout the years, until her death in 1950, Mallt continued to support the Party financially and in private and public correspondence.

A more unusual contribution to the party was her donation in the spring of 1932.

The cause of the donation was the Blaid Genedlaethol’s first act of direct action, which in several respects preceded the more serious action at Penyberth four years later. The background is that the  British Government’s Ministry of Works refused permission to fly the Red Dragon flag alongside the Union Jack on St David’s Day. It was decided to organise a symbolic act of protest by Party members to draw attention to the injustice. It was arranged for four Plaid members – JE Jones, WRP George, EV Stanley Jones and Wil Roberts – to climb the steps of the Eagle Tower at Caernarfon Castle and take down the Union Jack flag and raise the Red Dragon in its place, stapling the ropes at the pole.

The giant Red Dragon which replaced the Union Jack at Caernarfon Castle was a gift from Mallt Williams, who supported the action wholeheartedly.

Indeed, she was responsible for coining the term ‘Bombing School’ to describe the proposed Air Force camp at Penyberth – the cause of the Blaid Genedlaethol’s most notable direct action campaign in 1936, when the huts on the site were burned down and Lewis Valentine, Saunders Lewis and DJ Williams were imprisoned for nine months as a result.

JE Jones, Plaid Cymru’s Secretary at the time, said:

one day I received a postcard from Lady Mallt Williams expressing her support ‘for your campaign against the establishment of a Bombing School in Llŷn’.

And that, says JE, was how the term was adopted to describe the War Office’s plan at Penyberth.

That is not Mallt’s only contribution to opposing the establishment of army camps on Welsh soil and in Welsh speaking communities.

Many of you will be familiar with the history of the Battle of the Preseli after World War II.

At that time in 1947, 200 families in the Welsh communities of north Pembrokeshire were at risk of being evicted from their homes in the Preseli mountains to make way for a military training ground after the Second World War under Clement Atlee’s Labour government. The campaigners of north Pembrokeshire, led by radical and resolute non-conformist ministers such as Joseph James and Parri Roberts were able to win that battle and protect the Welsh language community there.

But a fact that is perhaps not so well known is that the War Office had been eyeing the Preseli as a tank training ground for nearly a decade. Because Mallt Williams published an open appeal in Y Ddraig Goch in 1938 asking for support to stop the intention to turn the mountains into a tank depot. Her appeal is worth quoting in full:

Preselau Urgency

        Preselau stands to the imagination of man over all that is most desirable in West Wales – a lonely, sacred and religious land from the Stone Age to the Age of Christ. The bluestones of the inner circle of Stonehenge were carved from the rocks of Preselau.

The moorland of Preselau is dotted with the ruins of former civilisations. Here is the burial place of Carn Ingli, where St Brynach had a cell, and here is the cemetery of Nanhwyfar, where she was buried. It was while riding over these mountains that Pantycelyn composed the famous hymn “Dros y bryniau tywyll niwlog.”  

But for us today, the main value of this area is that it is the wellspring of the Welsh language in Pembrokeshire.

Lord Merthyr and Pembrokeshire County Council are defending South Pembrokeshire against the War Office’s intention to occupy 6,000 acres to establish a Tank Depot and destroy all the relics of the past there.

BUT WHO WILL DEFEND THE PRESELAU, THE WELLSPRING OF THE WELSH LANGUAGE, AND THE HOME OF ALL WILD ELEGANCE?       

Death in October 1950

Her beloved brother Fredrick died in 1945, and just 5 years later Mallt herself died in October 1950, at the age of 83. Her body was cremated in Pontypridd, and her ashes scattered in Llansantffraid cemetery, Breconshire.

In his tribute after her death, Plaid Cymru’s president at the time, Gwynfor Evans, was extremely appreciative of her contribution:

One cannot think of her without remembering, and remembering with deep gratitude, her generous and consistent support of the movement throughout the years.

Saunders Lewis also believed that the movement would not have survived the early years without her donations. It would not be an exaggeration to say, to concur with his view, that she saved the party.

Back in 1936, JE Jones wrote to her expressing gratitude for the generosity of her contribution to the party’s St David’s Day Fund, and his words sum up the extent of Plaid Cymru’s debt to Mallt Williams:

…we as a Party owe you more than words can express; as does Wales. I cannot but hope that our work here in the Blaid is worthy of as generous a support as yours, and that Wales will soon be a free nation, a nation with self-respect, a happy and successful nation. When that day comes, your support in the early days of the Nationalist Party will have made that possible.

Mallt was, in the words of Marion Löffler, a romantic nationalist, but she was also through her political advice and crucial financial donations a practical nationalist who turned her words into action. And as Plaid Cymru takes up the reins of government for the first time in Wales it is very appropriate for us to remember, at the National Eisteddfod in her adopted county, the indispensable contribution of Mallt Williams, Lady of Llandudoch to the cause of Wales and the Welsh language.

[1] See Marion Löffler’s indispensable article, ‘A Romantic Nationalist: The Life of Mallt Williams’, Planet, 121 (February/March 1997), 58–66

[2] W. C. Elvet Thomas, Tyfu’n Gymro (Gwasg Gomer, 1972). The story of ‘The Slap’ along with the contribution of WC Elvet Thomas to Welsh life in Cardiff can also be found in E Wyn James’ inormative article in Y Dinesydd, June 2020, available at https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/132371/1/%27Canlyniad%20y%20Slap%27%2C%20Colofn%20%27Llys%20a%20Llan%27%2C%20Y%20Dinesydd%2C%20Mehefin%202020.pdf

[3] I am very indebted to Hedd Ladd Lewis for sharing details of his family connections with Plas Pantsaeson, along with his extensive knowledge of Mallt’s life and ideas locally and beyond, as well as the photograph of Plas Pantsaeson included in this presentation.

At the Parish Hall, Llandaf, Friday 21 November 2025, an evening was organised by Plaid Cymru History Society to hear Aled Eirug  discussing his new book about Dafydd Elis-Thomas with Vaughan Roderick.

Here is a recording of the simultaneous translation of the evening by Steffan William.  

PLAID CYMRU HISTORY SOCIETY

WREXHAM NATIONAL EISTEDDFOD – SOCIETIES TENT

12.30pm, THURSDAY 7 AUGUST 2025

Translation of Lecture by Ieuan Wyn Jones

‘From Cymru Fydd to Plaid Cymru – The Journey’

‘Tom Ellis was the greatest, truest patriot amongst the Members of Parliament during the “Cymru Fydd” period, at the end of the [nineteenth] century. Unfortunately, he accepted a position in his English party, and died shortly afterwards, a year before the turn of that century. He remained a hero in the county though, in our area at least, and his old house was not far from Felin-y-Wig. A large picture of him stood above our fireside mantelpiece at home in the Foty Fawr, and beneath it his words: “Self-government is the inspiration and aim of a nation”. His stance on behalf of Wales remained in our area’s memory and was passed on to us children.’

Excerpt from ‘Tros Gymru’ (1970), p. 21, by J.E. Jones (Plaid Cymru’s General Secretary, 1930-1962).

I begin this lecture with a quote from J.E. Jones’s book because it summarises the thoughts and feelings of some of the early leaders of Plaid Cymru, in the way that it considers the establishment of the Cymru Fydd movement in 1886 as the precursor to the party’s creation, and in their learning the obvious lessons from the failure of that movement. By far the most important lesson was that the principal failing of the nationalists of the Cymru Fydd movement – its attachment to the English and British Liberal Party – was to try to act from within that Liberal party. By 1925 the establishment of a Welsh National Party, that was completely independent of any other party, was a must. Griffith John Williams said in 1935: ‘It was essential to establish a Welsh Political Party’. Indeed, all its members had to sign a pledge to sever any links with other political parties in England and Wales.

But I’m running a little ahead of myself now. The story does not begin in 1886. We must go back to 1847. In many ways it is a critical year in our history as a nation, as that year a Report on the State of Education in Wales was published which soon became known as ‘The Betrayal of the Blue Books’. The intention of the British establishment in setting up the Commission which led to the Report was to try to make the Welsh more loyal to the state. The fact that the majority of Welsh people spoke Welsh and went to chapel led them to be a rebellious nation, with their protesting during the Chartist period and the Rebecca riots clear evidence of that. It was necessary to teach English to their children, to attract them back to the Established (Anglican) Church and thereby ensure a certain submission to their masters.

Reading parts of the Commissioners’ Report today clearly shows not only their lack of understanding of the Welsh nation, but also their arrogant, patronising attitudes towards Welsh speakers and their attachment to Nonconformity. The state of education in Wales was extremely poor, and the lack of teachers’ qualifications was to account for that. The standard of education for the common people in England was not much better, but of course the narrative that the Commissioners insisted upon meant that things were so bad in Wales due to a lack of English language skills. One example among many that populate the Report is the description of the teacher at Llandderfel British School. He understood English fairly well they said, but he spoke ‘with a Welsh idiom and not always grammatically!’.

The desire to teach English to the Welsh, and that at the expense of Welsh, ran side by side with the desire to bring them all back to the Anglican Church’s fold. But the way the Commissioners went about disparaging Nonconformity represented a stain on Welsh morals. Their position can be summed up by saying that for them the chapels were a den of immorality, and their ‘seiat’ meetings a place for women and men to court one another! The response of religious leaders, the only leaders the Welsh had at that time, was unanimous and vehement against the attack on their chapels. However, the response of many of them to the attack on the Welsh language was mixed and sometimes lukewarm.

We must remember the strength of the nonconformist chapels’ influence on the Welsh population. In the first half of the 19th century the leaders of the religious denominations were the natural leaders of the nation. Very few of the noble families, the big landowners and the like had any attachment to Welshness, the Welsh language or to Welsh identity. And up to 1840 relatively few of the religious leaders either were willing to dabble in politics – they were Tories and royalists. And then came the Betrayal of the Blue Books; and Lewis Edwards, Principal of the Calvinistic Methodist College in Bala, saying in 1848 that it was necessary to send ‘Principled Nonconformists to Parliament in every county and every borough throughout Wales.’

Many of the nonconformist political radicals came from among the Independent (i.e. Congregationalist) denomination, rather than from the Methodists. Gwilym Hiraethog for example left the Methodists and joined the Independents and his political radicalism can be seen at its most raw in Yr Amserau, the Welsh newspaper founded in Liverpool in 1846. The foundations of Yr Amserau were quite shaky at the outset, like many Welsh papers of the time. But when Hiraethog began to publish articles in a colloquial style under the title ‘Letters from the Old Farmer’ an audience of new readers was attracted. In these articles and in editorials he railed against the oppression meted out by landlords and began to support patriotic movements abroad. The two main figures who attracted his attention and support were Lajos Kossouth from Hungary and Giuseppe Mazzini from Italy.

Following the Hungarian Revolution in 1848 Kossouth was the country’s President for a short period, but the revolution was ultimately a failure and from then on he was a refugee who spent some time in Britain. Hiraethog praised him for his courage and his understanding of ‘the principles of true national freedom…’. Hungarians visited Hiraethog to thank him for his support. Kossouth came to Liverpool in 1851 and addressed a public meeting. Although there is no direct evidence that Hiraethog and Kossouth ever met, it is highly likely that it did happen during that visit.

And then we come to Hiraethog’s support for Mazzini, the nationalist who fought for the unification of Italy as a state. Mazzini also came to England as an exile and refugee on occasion, seeking the support of political radicals for his cause. One issue that attracted Hiraethog to Mazzini was his attack on Catholicism, something that pleased the radical Nonconformist no end! In correspondence between Hiraethog and Mazzini in 1861, Mazzini thanked the Welsh for their support and encouraged them to petition Parliament in order to put pressure on France to recall its troops from Italy. Hiraethog supported the fight of the Italians for their rights and independence, and there is concrete evidence that Hiraethog and Mazzini met a number of times in Liverpool.

Considering Hiraethog’s strong support for Kossouth and Mazzini in their efforts to secure independence for their countries, you would expect him to be equally as enthusiastic about similar rights for Wales. We can say with certainty that his support for the Welsh language was extremely strong, and he argued in favour of appointing judges who could speak Welsh to the courts in Wales. But there is no record whatsoever that he supported political freedom. And indeed he had little sympathy with the struggle of the Irish for self-government. Their attachment to Catholicism was an obstacle for him: in this respect he showed significant inconsistency though, as Kossouth was a Catholic!

Moving on from Hiraethog, it can be argued that the first person to support political rights for Wales in this period was Thomas Davis the Irishman of Welsh descent, in his book ‘Literary and Historical Essays’ published in 1846. He argued in favour of ‘a local senate’ in a federal form, as found in the American states. We have to wait for Michael D. Jones, Emrys ap Iwan, and later Tom Ellis, to raise the flag and emphasise political freedom alongside the fight for the Welsh language.

There was quite a debate between Michael D. Jones and Emrys ap Iwan about which of them was the first to advocate political rights. In a letter published in Y Genhinen in April 1892, at the time of that year’s general election, Emrys is adamant that it was he who first coined the term ‘ymreolaeth’ – autonomy – and furthermore he ‘was the first in Wales to argue for what the word means’. He can claim ownership of the word ‘ymreolaeth’, but what about his claim that he was the first to argue the case?

In his article on Religion, Nationalism and the State in Wales between 1840 and 1890, R. Tudur Jones says that Michael D. Jones was the father of modern political nationalism in Wales. Michael D. saw that there was a connection between national identity and political power. Although most of the nation’s religious leaders were quite happy that Wales was part of Britain, Michael D. argued that Wales was a minority cultural group in Britain, and English as the language of the majority a dominant language. In order for it to survive, the Welsh language would have to secure official status in the spheres of politics, education and the law. Once that happened, the result would be self-government rather than independence. Indeed there is very little, if any, reference to independence as the main goal of Welsh nationalists in the 19th century. The culmination of Michael D.’s argument was that Wales, like Ireland and India, should be considered colonies. He was the first in his time to see the need for Wales to manage its natural resources, water and minerals and use them for the nation’s benefit. That would create work and slow down the increasing migration of people from Wales to England and abroad. 19th century transport patterns tied Wales increasingly to England and through that was seen, in the words of Prys Morgan, ‘a system of economic inequality, emphasising to the Welsh that their economy was an inferior one, and mainly serving the needs of English Capitalism.’

By the 1870s a growth in Imperialist sentiment was seen in Wales, which coincided with rapid expansion in the number of British colonies and the state’s supposed prestige on the international stage. In this regard, Michael D. was rowing against the tide. He did not see any connection between imperialism and recognition of the rights of nations. He had a deep distrust of the British political establishment, stating that its intention was to eliminate the Welsh nation completely. Nevertheless he was aware of the meekness of many Welsh people as the relationship between Wales and England was so unequal, which in turn led to examples of quasi-paying homage.

The only other prominent figure who agreed with Michael D.’s minority position was Emrys ap Iwan. Emrys was a member of the Calvinistic Methodists, rather than an Independent like Hiraethog and Michael D. And when Emrys claimed that he was the first to campaign for self-government, Michael D. sent him a letter suggesting very subtly that he had influenced – possibly without his knowledge – his nationalistic beliefs!

Defence of the Welsh language was at the heart of Michael D. and Emrys’s nationalism. The easiest way for the state to assimilate the Welsh into one British nation was to eliminate the Welsh language. That, after all, was at the heart of the Betrayal of the Blue Books and the basis of the education laws that required English to be the only medium of education in schools. Aberystwyth University was founded in 1872, yet the Welsh language was not on the curriculum in its early years, and the Principal T. Charles Edwards was a member of Aberystwyth’s English chapel. This underlined the attitude of many of the leading members of religious denominations at the time, some of whom believed the Welsh language was likely to die out eventually. In this period therefore Emrys and Michael D. were very rare examples of people arguing in favour of fighting to keep the Welsh language, teaching it in schools, and making it the official language in courts. When Emrys appeared as a witness in a court case in 1889, he refused to give his evidence in English and insisted on speaking Welsh. There was turmoil in the court, and although the magistrates demanded that he give his evidence in English, he refused to do so. The case was adjourned and when the court reconvened there was a translator there. But since the defendant had admitted his guilt, Emrys’s testimony was not needed after all. Despite this, his stance received considerable attention in the Welsh press and Y Faner in particular was supportive of him.

Until 1886 then, these two voices were pretty much alone in their stance. And no elected politician was arguing in favour of national rights, either. Despite all that Henry Richard, the Apostle of Peace, did for Wales after being elected to represent Merthyr in 1868, he did not espouse self-government. And while a new set of Welsh Members of Parliament was elected in 1886, only one of them set out self-government as one of the main objectives in his leaflets. That was Tom Ellis, who was elected at the age of 27 to represent Meirionnydd. In his electoral address, he identified 5 areas that he would campaign for:

• Autonomy for Ireland
• Disestablishment of the Anglican Church
• A better education system
• Amending land laws
• Autonomy for Wales

Throughout his time as a Member of Parliament he saw three subjects – disestablishment, improving the education system, and land reform – not as individual measures, but as part of the fight for Welsh identity. Where did all this come from? He was at Aberystwyth University between 1875 and 1879. Not from there for sure, as the Principal persuaded him to join the English chapel in the town, and the main matters covered at the University’s debating society were British ones. He went to Oxford in 1879, and in his early days there he had little sympathy with the nationalist cause in Ireland. But little by little, over a period of four years, his attitudes became more radical and nationalistic.

There are many reasons for this, but let us concentrate on the fact that the ideas of Thomas Davis the Irishman and Mazzini came to his attention. As we saw earlier, Thomas Davis argued in favour of autonomy for Wales in 1846, despite being a voice in the wilderness at that time. Tom Ellis said in 1890, ‘Thomas Davis and Mazzini were my two political and nationalist teachers’.

So who was Thomas Davis? He was not one of the leading figures among the Irish national movement. Davis was rather a writer and poet, and one of the first editors of ‘The Nation’, paper of the ‘Young Ireland’ movement. ‘Young Italy’ was founded by Mazzini and his friends for Italian nationalists, and similar movements were established all over Europe. The English name for Cymru Fydd was in fact ‘Young Wales’. Davis wrote nationalist poetry, such as ‘A Nation Once Again’. He was a Protestant arguing that Protestants and Catholics should be taught together, and was in favour of Irish as the national language. His father was a Welsh doctor. He was known as a cultural nationalist, campaigning for self-government and arguing for a devolved Parliament in Dublin. It is easy to see how Davis would appeal to the young Tom Ellis, as there are romantic and cultural as well as intellectual elements to his nationalism.

Another person the young Tom Ellis encountered was the Irishman Michael Davitt. Davitt was a radical campaigner particularly on the subject of land, and was one of the founders of the Irish Land League. He was imprisoned in 1870 after being found guilty of illegal gun running. After his release he became a popular public speaker, arguing in favour of nationalising land in Ireland. Although he was a controversial figure at the time, a series of public meetings were organised for him in north Wales during the first half of 1886. Their organiser was Michael D. Jones, and a meeting was held in Blaenau Ffestiniog on 12 February. Tom Ellis welcomed the meeting in Blaenau Ffestiniog in an article in the South Wales Daily News. 3,000 listened to Davitt speak in Blaenau, where he declared that the Welsh should elect MPs who intended working together with the Irish nationalists led by Parnell, in order to reform land laws in Wales.

Davitt and Tom Ellis corresponded, both supporting greater co-operation between nationalists in Ireland and Wales. This is when Tom Ellis published a further article in the South Wales Daily News arguing in favour of self-government. ‘If Ireland secures self-government, isn’t it about time that Wales got the power to manage its own affairs?’ He supported the methods of the nationalists led by Parnell to secure their rights.

And as we have seen, Tom Ellis was the first candidate in a parliamentary election to include self-government as part of his electoral address, in 1886. But he was a very lonely voice when he was elected to Westminster that year. It was necessary to try to spread support more widely and as a result the Cymru Fydd movement was also established in 1886, and that in London. Its founders were Tom Ellis, the historian John Edward Lloyd, O.M. Edwards, Llewelyn Williams and others.

Its main aim was making the case for self-government. But there were also cultural aspects to the movement, and that was O.M. Edwards’s main interest in reality. It was a movement based outside Wales during those early years: its first branch was in London, and the second one was established in Liverpool. It was only in 1891, in Barry, that the first branch in Wales was set up, and more were then established in other parts of Wales, especially in areas where the Liberals’ party machinery was strong and where the secessionists amongst them were supportive. The first edition of the organisation’s magazine, also called Cymru Fydd, was published in 1888. Its editor was Thomas John Hughes or ‘Adfyfyr’, and he wrote the first editorial in January 1888, describing the magazine as ‘nationalist’. Initially it contained articles on the Welsh Liberals’ programme, land issues, disestablishment of the church, and improving the education system in Wales. The movement tended to stick closely to cultural and educational objectives until Tom Ellis and Lloyd George, who was elected following a Parliamentary by-election in 1890, gave it a political spin.

Between 1886 and September 1890, Tom Ellis was the main leader, arguing in favour of self-government, writing articles, delivering speeches and trying to pressurise his fellow Liberal members to follow his lead. But he faced very stony ground and was a lone voice amongst Welsh MPs. The older radical Welsh Members of Parliament, people like Henry Richard and G. Osborne Morgan, were quite content to argue the case for Disestablishment and land law reform, but were not happy to plead the case for self-government.

Tom Ellis decided he had to raise the tempo and try to prick the consciences of his fellow MPs. He went on a trip to Egypt in early 1890 where he succumbed to a period of serious illness. He was there for several months in an attempt to restore his health. In Luxor on St. David’s Day he set out in his diary the clearest sign yet of his political manifesto. Yes, it would be necessary to fight for disestablishment, a better education system and land reform. But in order to secure the nation’s unity, Wales would need its own Parliament, University and Temple.

At the end of the diary entry, at the age of 31 and aware that his health was precarious, he stated:

This is my vow today – to work until death to win Unity for Wales in the fullest sense of the word. May God give me strength to be faithful to this vow.

His quote from two stanzas of a poem by the romantic poet Shelley is an interesting one. ‘The Masque of Anarchy’ is considered to be the best political poem in the English language and was written in response to the Peterloo massacre in 1819. Two themes in Tom Ellis’ vision were ‘freedom’ and ‘unity’, and these can be seen weaving throughout Shelley’s work. When he refers to ‘Let the laws of your own land’ he recognises the right of every nation to have its own legal system, based on national sovereignty.

After Tom Ellis arrived home, and his friends in Meirionnydd realised how fragile his health was and that he was probably short of money, a testimonial was launched for him. A substantial sum of money, £1,075 (worth around £150,000 today) was raised and presented to him at a special meeting in Bala in September 1890.

In response to the presentation he delivered what his son T.I. Ellis called a ‘confession of faith’ (Cofiant II, p. 108). This was the most important and significant speech of his career as a politician. He realised that establishing a group of the Welsh Parliamentary Party in 1888 among some Members from Wales, under Henry Richard’s chairmanship, was unlikely to achieve much as there was no unity of opinion amongst them on the national question. The main themes of his speech were:

• Referring to the History of Wales, and the nation’s decision to stand up for its freedom and independence;
• Talking about the national awakening in the previous quarter of a century that had been strengthened since 1886;
• That the life of a nation depends on political action;
• That our main duty was to Wales;
• The need for national institutions such as a University of Wales, a National Museum, a National Library;
• Working for legislation supported by the men and women of Wales;
• Legislation would be a symbol of our union as a nation, it would be a voice for our nationality and fill our hopes as people.

No-one else among the Members of Parliament from Wales during the 19th century had defined so clearly what were the nationalist aspirations of this new set of leaders. Indeed, neither Michael D. nor Emrys ap Iwan had described nationalist aims so succinctly.

Tom Ellis therefore set out his stall, challenging others to follow him. ‘This is where I stand, who will come with me?’.

He wasn’t expecting cheers of approval for his call, though. He said at the end of his speech: ‘This is not the ambition of all of us’.

However, a few were willing to respond to the call. One of them was Alfred Thomas, Member of Parliament for East Glamorganshire. In this period he was close to Tom Ellis and had responded enthusiastically to the speech in Bala. He proceeded, with the support of Tom Ellis, to introduce a bill in the House of Commons on 15 June 1891, the National Institutions (Wales) Bill, with the intention of establishing a Wales Office, a University of Wales, a National Museum and a National Council (Parliament). It was tabled for a first reading but got no further. It was presented a second time in February 1892 and suffered the same fate.

There were more attempts between 1892 and 1896 to rekindle the enthusiasm of Cymru Fydd, this time under the leadership of Lloyd George: the years 1894 to 1896 are the most important in this. By that time, several branches of Cymru Fydd had been established in Wales. In that period numerous efforts were made to unite the Cymru Fydd alliance with the North Wales Liberal Federation in order to obtain commonality in the debate in favour of self-government. Lloyd George and Thomas Gee drove that bid for unity, as Tom Ellis had taken a job in Gladstone’s government. The next step was to try to unite the Federation in the south and the north of Wales. There were several attempts, and a decision was made to merge them in January 1895. But not everyone was happy about the merger, and its main opponent was David Alfred Thomas, MP for Merthyr. He oscillated between supporting the aims of Cymru Fydd and opposing them, but in the end he cast his lot with the hostile faction. Although some individuals were therefore willing to join in the call for a Parliament for Wales such as Alfred Thomas, David Randell MP for Gower, Herbert Lewis MP for Flint Boroughs, and David Lloyd George, they were actually quite isolated voices.

An attempt was made to re-organise the campaign in mid-1895 by appointing Alfred Thomas MP as Chairman of the Welsh (National) Liberal Federation and Beriah Gwynfe Evans as its Secretary. However, the attachment of many south Wales representatives to the idea of a united Federation was fragile and it all ended at a meeting held in Newport in January 1896, where the representatives rejected all attempts by Lloyd George to ensure the unity of the National Federation. Robert Bird, president of the Cardiff Liberals – and the owner of a coal tar distilling company – said that south Wales Liberals would not give in to Welsh ideas!

Some historians, perhaps a little superficially, come to the simple conclusion that a rift between Welsh-speaking rural Liberals and English-speaking urban and civic Liberals was the main reason for Cymru Fydd’s failure. But as John Davies argues in A History of Wales, there is more to it than that. Yes, there was a conflict between the rural and urban, but also between the radicalism, bordering on socialism, of Tom Ellis and the young Lloyd George and the conservatism of the Liberal leaders in the cities of south Wales. Assimilation between the northern radicals and budding socialists in south Wales would have been a much easier dovetailing exercise. In the end, the attachment of Lloyd George and others to the Liberal Party was strong, and the roots of Cymru Fydd’s ideas were neither deep enough nor broad enough to attract the Liberal Party to that fold en masse. Although Cymru Fydd dragged on for a year or two following the Newport fiasco, to all intents and purposes it was all over.

Although the efforts of Cymru Fydd’s leaders failed, it must be acknowledged that until 1886 nobody at a parliamentary level had been brave enough to raise the cause of Wales in this way. Tom Ellis was seen as the intellectual leader of the movement, and Lloyd George later as its campaign leader. It must also be remembered that the Liberal Party was in opposition when Tom Ellis was first elected, and indeed it was so for the greater part of his parliamentary career. Some historians argue that that party reached its peak early in 1886, and after it lost the election that year things were never quite the same. The party got a form of second wind at the beginning of the twentieth century, but after Lloyd George stepped down from being Prime Minister in 1922 it was thereafter in the political wilderness.

To what extent, however, was the Cymru Fydd movement a bridge that led to the establishment of Plaid Cymru in 1925 – and which led to securing an Assembly in 1997 and a Senedd in 2011? And why was there such a gap between 1896 and 1925?

Looking hastily at the 30 years, more or less, between the last fiery meeting of Cymru Fydd and the founding of Plaid Cymru, a few points deserve attention. One thing that is worth noting is the Act to disestablish the Anglican Church and create the Church in Wales in 1920. It took over 70 years for that campaign to reach its climax, which shows how difficult it was to secure any substantive change through Parliament in Westminster. Of all the campaigns of Cymru Fydd’s generation, disestablishing the church and creating the University of Wales are the only two that succeeded, though certain improvements in the education system were achieved, as well as the establishment of a Welsh Department within the Board of Education in 1907 and the Welsh Health Board in 1919. O.M. Edwards was appointed Chief Inspector of Schools in Wales where he fought to ensure the teaching of Welsh language in schools. However, English was the medium of education in those schools, especially secondary schools. In this period, some national institutions were also established, such as the National Library and the National Museum.

Two names worth noting in that 30-year period are E.T. John, MP for East Denbighshire between 1910 and 1918, and J. Arthur Price. John was a keen nationalist who introduced a self-government bill in Parliament in March 1914, a bill which did not go very far. John refused to join Plaid Cymru in 1925, remaining loyal to the Labour Party after having left the Liberal Party in 1918. Despite this, J. E. Jones claims that he turned to Plaid ‘in his later years’.

1. Arthur Price was a barrister and became a keen nationalist, writing a number of articles on Wales for the journals Y Genedl Gymreig, Welsh Outlook and Y Ddraig Goch. He wrote a very critical article on Tom Ellis, accusing him of selling his principles once he took up a Whip’s position in Gladstone’s 1892 Government. Although a High Churchman, he was very supportive of Welsh causes and corresponded with Saunders Lewis.

It should be noted that three conferences on autonomy were held in 1918, 1919 and 1922 but little came of them. A Speaker’s Conference was held on devolution in 1919 but there was little agreement on the way forward, with the Speaker supporting the establishment of Higher Councils only for Wales, Scotland and England. In 1922, a bill was introduced to establish a Legislative Parliament for Wales by Robert Thomas, MP for Wrexham, but his efforts were unsuccessful. By the way, Robert Thomas was later the MP for Anglesey.

And that brings us to the founding of the National Party of Wales in August 1925, one hundred years ago to this very month. Since the successes of Cymru Fydd were relatively small, though not completely insignificant, and the attempts to argue in favour of Welsh causes in the Westminster Parliament were generally a failure, the new party rejected engaging with British politics. Although some, including J.E Jones, saw Cymru Fydd as a preparatory movement, others saw the need to distance themselves from the failures of that movement.

Saunders Lewis intended to show such distance by arguing that all links with British political parties should be severed. In Saunders’s opinion, nothing would come to Wales through the English Parliament. Lewis Valentine said ‘Some insist that the new party is synonymous with the old Liberal Party in a new form. But it cannot be denied more strongly than to say that there is absolutely no connection between it and the old parties’. D. J. Williams believed the new party should not express views on discussions in Westminster, saying ‘I am of the opinion that the Party should not interfere at all in the affairs of the English Parliament’. And as I have already mentioned, Griffith John Williams said ‘It was essential to establish a Welsh Political Party’. The early ‘Sinn Fein-ist’ position of the new Party therefore was that a seat in Westminster should not be taken, should they win an election.

However, as elements of realpolitik penetrated the Party’s consciousness after the 1929 election – when Lewis Valentine’s candidacy attracted 609 votes – the policy of isolation began to loosen its grip and party members insisted that it would be necessary to go to Westminster and accept that Parliament as a platform to debate the Welsh cause. And more mixed feelings towards Cymru Fydd’s efforts started to appear. Lewis Valentine originally dismissed the efforts of people like Tom Ellis in the early days of Plaid Cymru, and that quite deliberately. A real distance had to be created in order to justify the argument in favour of establishing a new political party, and that’s what we would have done too I feel sure. But as things settled, the views of some of the early members changed. Lewis Valentine reviewed a booklet published by Plaid Cymru in 1956, namely Triwyr Penllyn. The booklet contained three chapters on the contributions of Michael D. Jones, O. M. Edwards and Tom Ellis to Welsh life. The authors were Gwenallt, Saunders Lewis and Gwenan Jones. Gwenan Jones by the way was the first woman to stand in a general election on behalf of Plaid Cymru. Lewis Valentine says about the book that it is one ‘to put a bit of iron in the blood and a bit of steel in our spine’ in the fight against the drowning of Capel Celyn.

When Gwynfor Evans was chosen as Plaid Cymru’s candidate in Meirionnydd at the 1945 election, he saw himself in the lineage of Michael D Jones, R.J. Derfel and Tom Ellis. Y Dydd, a weekly paper in the Dolgellau area, made a comparison between Tom Ellis and Gwynfor, describing them as ‘Two young men with a gentle and loving spirit but nevertheless strong.’ Llwyd o’r Bryn compared Gwynfor’s stance on Capel Celyn as being like Tom Ellis’s for the ‘martyrs’ of the Tithe War. But to give a measured view of Gwynfor’s own opinion about Tom Ellis, he says in ‘Aros Mae’:

This (his decision to take up a post in Gladstone’s government) was the single act that did most to stop the development of an independent Welsh party, and therefore hinder the movement for self-government.

He then said:

It is easy to blame Tom Ellis now, but we must remember that Welsh nationalism was only young at the time, and that it was reasonable for him to believe that great gains could be made for Wales through working within the system.

So what do we now claim was the connection between the Cymru Fydd movement and the founding of Plaid Cymru at that meeting in Pwllheli on 5 August 1925, a hundred years ago this week? Considering the words of those who were at Pwllheli in 1925, very little. Their intention, at that time, was to create as much of a gap as possible between themselves and the leaders of Cymru Fydd. Otherwise, how could they justify establishing an independent Welsh party and the original policy of refusing to do anything with the Westminster Parliament? As far as I can see, Saunders Lewis did not change his opinion about Cymru Fydd at all in his lifetime.

But as things developed, and Plaid Cymru became a constitutional political party, the position began to change. If we take the words of J. E Jones, Lewis Valentine in 1956 and Gwynfor himself, they accepted that the establishment of Cymru Fydd in 1886, the first movement in centuries to argue for self-government for Wales, for creating Welsh institutions and increasing national awareness among the Welsh, had created the circumstances in which a Welsh party could then be established in the twentieth century. Given that Cymru Fydd’s hold on the nation was a fragile one, and that a relatively small number of Liberal Members of Parliament actually supported it – no more than about 5 at most – it was no wonder it failed.

But at least the discussion had started, and learning the lessons of Cymru Fydd’s failure was one of Plaid Cymru’s main objectives. It was a party with its loyalty to Wales and no connection to British parties. Although its growth was gradual, what is remarkable about it is that it has maintained its existence for a century and is now, according to some opinion polls, within reach of heading the Welsh Government for the first time.

Would Plaid Cymru have been established in 1925 if Cymru Fydd had not started the discussion? An impossible question to answer of course. All I wish to say is that the ideology and influence of Cymru Fydd helped crystallise the early philosophy of Plaid Cymru, and created the space for a new party to develop. And the failure of Cymru Fydd gave it the proof that the only way forward was establishing a fully independent party.

A new book by John Osmond was launched at a fringe meeting of Plaid Cymru Annual Conference in Cardiff on 12 October 2024.

Sound archive of the launch meeting –

The Politics of Co-Opposition reveals how a completely new form of political engagement in the British Isles – the 2021-24 Co-operation Agreement between Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour – created history and provided the major part of the Welsh Government’s policy programme for over three years.

John Osmond, who was involved in negotiating the Agreement as Special Adviser to Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price, provides an insider’s account of the political background to the Agreement – including a fascinating week-by-week diary of Price’s first 100 days – how it was finalised and the compromises that were made to achieve it.

Essential reading for politicians, political journalists, students and political scientists globally, the Co-operation Agreement, termed by academics as ‘Contract Parliamentarianism’, drew on non-coalition precedents in Sweden, New Zealand and Malaysia. It resulted in significant measures being introduced across 46 policy areas such as: free school meals for all primary school pupils, expanding free childcare to all two-year-olds, action on the second homes crisis blighting rural Wales, and reforming the Senedd (the Welsh Parliament) including a 60% increase in Senedd Members – from 60 to 96 – and a fully proportional electoral system from 2026.

Brought to a premature end in May 2024 by Plaid Cymru as the result of the controversial internal election of the new Labour leader which resulted in the implosion of his short-lived government, The Politics of Co-Opposition is a fascinating and candid account of how innovative politicians co-operated on key mutually-agreed policies while maintaining their positions as government and opposition.