Wales Feed

More than just St David's Day

2013-03-01T08:30:39+00:00

The first day of March is, of course, St David's Day, when the Welsh don their red and white rugby shirts or pin a daffodil to their breast to celebrate the land of their fathers.

But 1 March is not the solitary preserve of the patron saint of Wales. Either by tradition, design or political whim the day is celebrated across the world for a variety of other reasons.

1 March: St David's Day, Beer Day or National Pig Day?

1 March: St David's Day, Beer Day or National Pig Day?

In south-eastern Europe they also wear red and white on 1 March for the festival of Baba Marta, an ancient pagan rite which greets the oncoming spring.

The custom takes its name from the Bulgarian for grandmother ('Baba') and the month of March ('Mart'). In the nation's folklore Baba Marta is depicted as a bad-tempered old woman with mercurial mood swings, much like the changeable March weather.

The day is celebrated with the gift of Martenitsi - red and white woollen, silken or cotton tassels or dolls, which are said to bring health, happiness and luck.

The white is said to represent strength and purity, with the red referring to blood and fertility.

Tradition has it that a Martenitsa should be worn on the clothes or around the wrist or neck until the wearer sees a sign of spring, such as a fruit tree in blossom, when it is taken off and tied to a branch.

The festival, under similar names, is also observed in Romania, Macedonia, Albania and northern Greece.

White blossom on a tree

In nearby Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1 March is celebrated for political rather than pagan reasons. In 1992 its citizens voted for independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and it is now an annual public holiday.

But the good people of Sarajevo will have to go some way to be as happy on 1 March as the denizens of Reykjavík.

On 1 March 1989, 74 years of prohibition of the sale of beer in Iceland's pubs and clubs came to an end and ever since the date has been designated annual Beer Day. Across the island nation the pubs and clubs will stay open until 4am as Icelanders slake their thirst.

Across the United States of America it is pigs rather than beer that are feted on 1 March. Although still an unofficial holiday yet to be ratified by Congress, National Pig Day has been observed by many since 1972.

The custom is said to have been started by sisters Ellen Stanley and Mary Lynne Rave. Ms Rave is quoted as saying the purpose of the day is "to accord the pig its rightful, though generally unrecognised, place as one of man's most intellectual and domesticated animals."

If you want to buy and send a National Pig Day greetings card to your loved ones it is possible, somewhat inevitably, on the internet.

Going further back in history, in the Roman religion 1 March was observed as Matronalia, a festival celebrating childbirth and motherhood.

On this day married women would make offerings to the birth goddess Juno, receive gifts from their husbands and lay on a feast for their female slaves.

Otherwise in the Roman Catholic Church, 1 March is also the feast day of St Albinus in Brittany, St Monan in Scotland, and St Suitbert in Germany.

Welsh Victoria Cross winners

2012-01-09T12:25:00+00:00

The Victoria Cross is the highest decoration available for men and women who have performed acts of great valour in the face of the enemy. Since it was introduced during the Crimean War, the medal has been awarded to just under 1,400 people but, surprisingly perhaps, only 39 of those individuals have been Welsh or have had Welsh connections.

Victoria Cross medal

Robert Shields from Cardiff was the first Welsh recipient, six months after the medal was introduced, for an act of valour during the Crimean War. However, the one action that everyone considers to be a uniquely "Welsh affair" - the defence of Rorkes Drift during the Zulu War of 1879 - saw only three Welsh VCs.

In total, 11 VCs were won during that battle, the most ever awarded for a single action, but with the South Wales Borderers recruiting in all parts of the country most of the soldiers actually came from England and Ireland, not Wales - as is popularly supposed. Purely on the basis of numbers it was inevitable that Welsh VC winners from the defence of Rorkes Drift, men like Robert Jones and John Williams, were always going to be in the minority.

World War One saw 14 Welshmen win the coveted award. The first of these was William Charles Fuller who came from the tiny village of Laugharne in Carmarthenshire. He had joined the army in 1901 and served in South Africa during the final days of the Boer War.

Leaving the service when the campaign in South Africa finished, William Charles Fuller was still classified as a Reservist when war with Germany broke out in 1914. Like many other Reservists at that time he was duly recalled to the colours.

Serving as a Lance Corporal with the Welsh Regiment, on 14 September that year he went out from the relative safety of his own lines in an attempt to save the life of a wounded officer. Despite being subjected to heavy fire, Fuller managed to bring the officer to safety but the man - Mark Haggard, the nephew of the novelist Rider Haggard - later died of his wounds.

After the war Charles Fuller left the army again and retired back to Laugharne. He had served with great courage throughout the war and been wounded but he had managed to survive. And during the World War Two this man of amazing energy and verve still continued to "do his bit" when he promptly enlisted and served in the town's Home Guard Unit.

William Williams of Amlwch on Ynys Mon sailed as a seaman on the Q Ship HMS Pargust. Q Ships were old merchant vessels, heavily armed with hidden guns and other weapons. The aim was to trap German U Boats into thinking the old vessels were too defenceless and dilapidated to warrant a torpedo.

The lengths that the crews went to in order to disguise the true intent of the Q Ships were amazing. Sometimes sailors even dressed up as women passengers - usually only from the waist up - in order to bamboozle German submariners as they watched through their periscopes.

If the subterfuge was successful the German commander would order his vessel to surface. However, when the U Boats rose to the surface to sink the merchant ships by gun fire, the hidden guns would open fire and, with the tables now well and truly turned, destroy the submarine.

It was a remarkably dangerous job as there was no guarantee that U Boats would actually attempt to destroy the Q Ships by gun fire. And that is exactly what happened to the Pargust. The first the crew knew about the presence of the German submarine was when a torpedo smashed into her side. The ship heeled over, badly damaged, but did not sink.

However, the metal covers that hid the Q Ship's guns were loosened by the explosion and threatened to fall to the deck - thus inviting another torpedo from the watching U Boat. But William Williams and several other sailors, quickly seeing the danger and using all their strength, managed to hold them in place.

When the submarine duly surfaced to finish off its victim, the covers were dropped and the British guns promptly sank the U Boat. It was a courageous action by all concerned but, having been told that only one medal was available, the crew drew lots to see who would take the award. The lucky man was William Williams.

World War Two saw several more Welshmen awarded the Victoria Cross. Perhaps the best known is Tasker Watkins who later became a renowned QC. He was the man who took charge of the Abervan Enquiry in the 1960s and was also, for several years, President of the Welsh Rugby Union.

Born in Nelson, Tasker Watkins enlisted as soon as he was able and was given a commission in the Welsh regiment. He won his VC when, in the days following the D Day landings in 1944, with many of his platoon killed or injured, he led a bayonet charge against 50 enemy troops and then, single handedly, charged a German machine gun post.

Someone who is often forgotten - not because his deed was minor or ineffectual - but simply because he is not considered Welsh, is Captain Warburton Lee of the Royal Navy.

Lee was 44 years old and in command of the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla when during the Norway campaign of 1940, he led his ships into Narvik Fjord. Faced by a superior squadron of German destroyers Lee forced home his attack and destroyed five enemy vessels and supply ships before a shell burst on the bridge of his destroyer, HMS Hardy, killing him instantly. For his bravery Warburton Lee was awarded the VC, the first Victoria Cross of the war.

There are many other stories of bravery and courage during times of conflict. Not every soldier or civilian can be awarded the Victoria Cross but that should not, in any way, diminish the enormity of their actions.

Museum celebrates 100th anniversary of Captain Scott's arrival at South Pole

2012-01-04T14:15:00+00:00

A new exhibition at National Museum in Cardiff is set to open this month to mark the centenary of the arrival of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's expedition party at the South Pole on 17 January 1912.

Inside Scott's hut, Cape Evans, Ross Island, Antarctica (Photo:Tom Sharpe)

Scott's hut, Cape Evans, Ross Island, Antarctica (Photo:Tom Sharpe)

Scott's expedition is best remembered for the tragedy which befell Scott and his four companions on the return journey but this new exhibition shows that there was much more to Captain Scott's 1910-13 British Antarctic Expedition than an attempt on the South Pole.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott 1905 (National Museum Wales)

In this exhibition called 'Scott: South for Science', visitors can see a selection of specimens collected during the expedition as well as some of the iconic images of Antarctic exploration through the watercolours of Edward Wilson (1872-1912) and the photographs of Herbert Ponting (1870-1935).

Some of the specimens on display from the museum's own collections include a Welsh flag flown on Scott's expedition ship, the Terra Nova, as well as displaying the ship's figurehead.

The Scott Polar Research Institute, the British Antarctic Survey, and the Natural History Museum have also lent specimens to form part of the exhibition. Poignantly, these exhibits include some of the rock samples collected by Scott on his way back from the South Pole and discovered with their frozen bodies in November 1912.

Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales geology curator Tom Sharpe, who has himself just returned from a visit to Captain Scott's expedition base hut in Antarctica, said about the forthcoming exhibition:

"In 2010 we put on a successful exhibition here to mark the centenary of the departure of Scott's expedition from Cardiff. In 2012 we return to Scott's expedition, commemorating its achievements by focusing on its scientific work.

"The expedition really laid the foundations of modern Antarctic science and we're delighted to be able to show some wonderful specimens and images from this famous expedition".

Scott's ship Terra Nova leaves Cardiff for Antarctica 15 June 1910 (National Museum Wales)

Captain Scott: South For Science opens on Saturday 14 January 2012 and runs until Sunday 13 May 2012 at the National Museum Cardiff. It is supported by the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust. Find out more about the exhibition on the National Museum Cardiff website.

The museum's geology curator, Tom Sharpe has written an Antarctica diary about his visit to the continent and to Scott's hut. You can read Tom's diary on the museum's website.

Phil Carradice has written a blog 'Captain Scott and the Cardiff connection'. Read his blog on the Wales History website.

The death of Dylan Thomas

2011-11-08T15:10:38+00:00

Most people are aware of Dylan Thomas, the boozy "enfant terrible" of the 1940s and 50s literary scene. Like a blazing meteor the Welsh poet, story writer and broadcaster burned briefly and then left the stage, leaving only memories and a body of about ninety poems as his memorial.

Dylan Thomas at the BBC in November 1948

The incidents of his life are too well known to recount again, at least in any great detail, but his death in a New York hospital on 9 November 1953 has always been clouded in mystery. It is almost 60 years since that death and opinions remain divided about what exactly caused it.

Dylan Marlais Thomas was born in Cwmdonkin Drive in Swansea on 27 October 1914, barely one month after the family had moved into their new house. His schooling at Swansea Grammar School, where his father was English master, was undistinguished and he left at the age of 16 to become a reporter on the South Wales Daily Post. This job he also left quickly, dedicating the rest of his life to poetry and to the simple act of becoming a poet.

There are those who say becoming a poet, acting the part so to speak, was more important to Dylan than writing poetry. However that may be when, in 1950, John Malcolm Brinnin invited him to give a series of talks, readings and lectures in America, Dylan jumped at the opportunity. America meant big money, superb hospitality - at a time when Britain was still suffering the effects of wartime austerity - and plenty of idolisation from college students, usually girls.

Over the next three years, Dylan Thomas made four trips to the USA, arriving for his final tour - and the first readings of his verse play "Under Milk Wood" - on 19 October 1953.

Dylan was, by this time, already ill but the cause of that illness remains unclear. Yes, he drank but, despite popular opinion he did not drink excessively. When a post mortem was carried out after his death it showed little damage to the liver or signs of cirrhosis - something you would expect to find with a heavy drinker.

Already the victim of blackouts or fainting spells, when he arrived in New York to take part in a performance of "Under Milk Wood" he was forced to use an inhaler to help him with his breathing. The air pollution that year was particularly bad and by the end of the month over 200 New Yorkers had died from the effects of the smog. Dylan, with his congenitally weak constitution and chest, was an obvious victim to that smog.

What happened next is all part of the Dylan Thomas legend. And what a legend it was! Attending one of his readings was, to the Americans, as much a matter of expectation as it was listening to the great man's voice. Would he swear or fall off the stage in a drunken stupor? Would he collapse or maybe even die in front of their eyes? It was all part of the experience.

Coming back into what is now JFK airport after some time out of New York, Dylan was met by Liz Reitell, Brinnin's assistant and Dylan's lover. And, to her, it was instantly clear he was seriously unwell. The following day, on 29th October he decided to stay in bed, remaining all day in his room at the Chelsea Hotel. It required two injections from the mercurial Dr Feltenstein, brought in by his supporters, before he announced that he felt better.

On 3 November Dylan was again confined to bed for the day but he did rouse himself to venture out that night. When he returned to the hotel room he supposedly told Liz Reitell his famous line - "I've had eighteen straight whiskeys, I think that's the record." It's highly unlikely that he consumed anything close to this quantity. If Dylan had drunk eighteen straight whiskeys, American measures, it would probably have killed him then and there.

On 5 November, Dr Feltenstein was again called in and administered more injections - seemingly his main course of treatment. Just after midnight, however, Dylan experienced serious breathing difficulties. His face turned blue and Reitell, now seriously concerned, called for an ambulance. Dylan Thomas, already in a coma, was admitted to St Vincent's Hospital.

He never recovered consciousness, dying at noon on 9 November. The American writer John Berryman was in the room as the Welsh poet breathed his last and Dylan's wife Caitlin - who had arrived, apparently, shouting "Is that bloody man dead yet?" - had to be restrained and admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

In the wake of his death all sorts of rumours and speculation began to spread - Dylan had died from a drinks or drugs overdose, he had been mugged, he had diabetes. And so on. The official prognosis was that he died from a swelling of the brain caused by pneumonia and poor oxygen supply. The part played by Dr Feltenstein and his "winking needle" was not mentioned.

Dylan's body was brought back to Wales and he was buried in the churchyard at Laugharne on 29 November 1953. The day of the funeral was one of hysteria and heavy drinking, as Thomas would probably have wanted.

The final message from the day, however, is one of dark humour that Dylan would certainly have appreciated. The funeral directors had dressed up his body, even down to equipping him with a gaudy bow tie. As one of Dylan's friends remarked "Dylan wouldn't have been seen dead in that tie."

Read more on the remarkable life of Dylan Thomas on the BBC Wales Arts website and explore their Dylan Thomas random poem generator.

Welsh technology helps save Egypt's oldest pyramid

2011-07-13T13:22:00+00:00

Airbag technology developed by a Welsh company has helped to save Egypt's oldest pyramid.

Giant airbags have stabilised Djoser pyramid, a 4,700 year old structure that was damaged by an earthquake in 1982, and was in danger of collapsing from the inside. The step pyramid was built as burial place for the mummified body of Pharaoh Djoser who reigned for 19 years.

Speaking about the specialist structural engineering needed to stabilise the roof, Peter James boss of the Newport based company called Cintec said: "It was like a lethal and massive game of Ker-Plunk - trying to hold everything up, without dislodging anything further."

The airbag technology was originally created by Mr James to help in the safer disposal of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan.

Read more about this story on Wales Online.

Sir George Everest

2011-06-13T15:57:58+00:00

Have you ever thought where Mount Everest got its name from? It was actually named after the Surveyor General of India who, incidentally was a Welshman.

The highest mountain in the world was named after a Welshman

George Everest was born at Gwernvale, Crickhowel in Powis on 4 July 1790. Early on in his life he decided on a career in the military and, once schooling was over, he joined the Royal Artillery

In 1806 he went to the Military Academy at Woolwich where he excelled at maths and, in particular, at trigonometry. Studies complete, Everest took ship for India, which was then the most valuable possession in the British Empire.

Sir Stamford Raffles, the creator of Singapore, selected Everest to take part in the reconnaissance of Java. This lasted from 1814 until 1816 and the young officer then took up the most important and influential post of his life.

He became assistant to Colonel William Lambton who was about to begin the great Trigonometric Survey of India. It was a mammoth task that, with the primitive theodolites (a precision instrument for measuring angles in the horizontal and vertical planes) and other equipment then available, was expected to last many years. In the event it took 25 years and Lambton died long before the survey was complete.

When Lambton died in 1825 George Everest succeeded to the post of Superintendent. Five years later, with the survey still underway, he was made Surveyor General of India.

Everest was always an innovator and during his time on the survey as Surveyor General of India he made many modifications and alterations to the equipment used. He also engaged a man called Henry Barrow and had him appointed to the post of instrument maker for the Sub Continent - a highly important role as now, for the first time, theodolites could be repaired in situ, without having to be sent back to Britain.

For years the survey ground on with Everest and his colleagues tramping over miles and miles of desert and jungle. The terrain caused huge difficulties and the climate exacted a terrible toll on them. At one point Everest himself fell ill and the survey had to be suspended for a while but with dogged determination, he was soon back on the job.

Finally the task was completed, the longest trigonometrical survey ever attempted. In 1843 George Everest gave up his post as Surveyor General and came home to a well-earned retirement. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1861, in recognition of his invaluable service, he received a knighthood.

In 1862 he was elected Vice President of the Royal Geographical Society but a few years later, on 1 December 1866, he died peacefully in his bed and was buried at Hove, near Brighton.

One of the most interesting facts about George Everest is that, in all probability, he never once laid eyes on the mountain that was named after him.

When he retired, Everest was succeeded as Surveyor General of India by Andrew Waugh. Exploration of the Himalayas was still in its infancy and within a few years the huge bulk of what was soon to become Mount Everest was discovered.

Waugh and others believed that it had never been seen before and was certainly not named - not by the British, perhaps, but the Tibetan and Nepalese porters in the region all had their name for it.

It hardly mattered to the members of the Raj. A British name was required and, in honour of the man who had completed the Great Trigonometric Survey of the Sub Continent, Waugh suggested that the name Everest should be used.

Sir George Everest protested. He had never been one to court fame. But his objections were over-ruled and it became Mount Everest. Attempts to climb this, the highest mountain in the world, began shortly afterwards.

Interestingly, the first Welshman to climb Mount Everest, like Sir George, also came from mid Wales. He was Caradog Jones, a renowned figure in the climbing world, who Sir George Everest would have been proud of.

Phil Carradice will be on the Roy Noble Show on Tuesday 14 June, from 2pm on BBC Radio Wales to chat with Roy about Sir George Everest.

Joseph Parry: a rags to riches story

2011-05-19T11:09:58+00:00

Joseph Parry was arguably Wales' greatest composer. When he died in 1903 his funeral procession was so long that the hearse carrying his body was only just arriving at the church door as the last members of the procession were leaving his house, a distance of over a mile.

Parry's composition Myfanwy features in the repertoire of many Welsh male voice choirs

In a lifetime devoted to music Parry composed six operas, three oratorios and dozens of songs and anthems. Yet this man of immense talent and ability was born into poverty and spent several of his formative years working in coal mines and ironworks. His was a true case of rags to riches.

Joseph Parry was born on 21 May 1854 at 4 Chapel Row, Merthyr Tydfil. He loved music, excelling at performing and composing from an early age, but the family - seven children in all - was often in dire straits.

Joseph had to leave school to help support them, starting work down the mines at the age of nine. In due course he moved onto work in Cyfarthfa Ironworks, all the while continuing to play and compose music in the evenings and at every spare moment he could find.

Then, in 1854, when Joseph Parry was 13 years old, his father decided to move to America. It was a chance for a better standard of living, better working conditions, and although Joseph was at first reluctant to leave Merthyr, he eventually decided to accompany the family on what was then a wild and dangerous crossing of the Atlantic.

For the children - and their parents - it must have seemed like they were moving to a different galaxy. They settled in Pennsylvania where there was a large Welsh community and Joseph and other members of the family began working in one of the areas many iron foundries.

He soon became well known in local American-Welsh circles, regularly performing at the eisteddfodau and other musical gatherings. His fame grew steadily as he began to win music competitions both in America and in Britain.

After a while Parry's desire to study music overwhelmed everything else in his life and he returned to Britain where a public subscription gathered together enough money to enable him to go to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. From this point on music - and the study of music - became almost the only thing that mattered in his life.

Joseph Parry won major prizes at the National Eisteddfod in 1863 at Swansea and in 1864 at Llandudno. A few years later he was elected to the Gorsedd at the National, taking the bardic name of Pencerdd America.

In 1873 he became Professor of Music at the University College, Aberystwyth, an amazing achievement for a man who had begun life in such unpromising conditions.

Joseph Parry remained at Aberystwyth until 1880. Then he moved back south, first setting up a private college in Swansea, then lecturer in music at the newly created university in Cardiff.

In 1888 Parry settled in the small seaside town of Penarth, moving into a house in Victoria Road that he bought with the aid of a Testimonial Fund. It cost £630. He became organist at Christchurch in Penarth, playing on Sundays to a packed congregation, and taking the train into Cardiff to work at the University every week day.

His best known works, now, are the haunting tune Myfanwy and what has been called the greatest hymn tune ever written, Aberystwyth. Both of them have, for many years, been staple elements in the repertoire of all Welsh male voice choirs.

According to legend there was a real Myfanwy in Parry's life, a girl by the name of Myfanwy Llwyellyn. Like Parry himself, she moved to America where she became successful as a singer. The story says that when they met, 30 years later, Myfanwy Llwyellyn snubbed the Welsh composer and he wrote his famous tune, full of pathos and yearning, as a result.

During his lifetime, however, his opera Blodwen was perhaps his most successful composition, being performed no fewer than 500 times between its début in Aberystwyth in 1878 and the end of the century. The opera Saul, commissioned for the 1892 National Eisteddfod at Rhyl, was almost as popular.

The writer Jack Jones immortalized Parry in his novel Off To Philadelphia In The Morning, the story of his struggle for artistic achievement and recognition. It has been made into a film, a suitable tribute to a remarkable man. The greatest tribute the composer could ever have been given, however, lies in the fact that his music is still recognised and still played. He would have wanted nothing more.

Joseph Parry was buried in the churchyard of St Augustine's Church in Penarth. His grave, surmounted by a pedestal and a carved harp, dominates the graveyard, a fitting reminder of a man who grew from abject poverty to become the greatest composer Wales has yet seen.

WH Davies: the Welsh Super Tramp

2011-05-13T09:47:03+00:00

Many people - in Wales, England, all over the world - are familiar with the lines:

"What is this life if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare."

Some may even be able to quote the whole poem. Yet probably very few realise that the man who wrote the poem (Leisure, to give it it's proper title) was someone who spent several years as a tramp or hobo, riding the freight trains of America.

Often he would be forced to beg for a crust, just to survive, and sometimes he would deliberately get himself caught for minor crimes, knowing that a warm prison cell was far more preferable than freezing to death on the barren prairies of the American Midwest. He was also a Welshman.

WH (William Henry) Davies was born in Newport on 3 July 1871, and was brought up by his grandparents in the Church House Inn in the Pill area of the town.

He was a wild, ungovernable adolescent whose school life came to a rather abrupt end when he was 15 years old. Caught shoplifting, he was sentenced to 12 strokes of the birch. Thereafter his grandmother decided it was high time William left school and the young tearaway was apprenticed to a frame maker in Newport.

Davies found the job boring and had a hankering to try life in America. He quit his job and worked his passage across the Atlantic on a cattle boat. This was in 1893 and for the next six years he wandered across America, jumping the freight cars on the American railroads and scratching a living how and when he could.

His descriptions of these adventures, later published as The Autobiography Of A Super Tramp, make fascinating reading and, even if they are only a quarter true, give an insiders view of life on the road in the final years of the 19th century.

Needing to earn a little money, WH Davies crossed and re-crossed the Atlantic several times, working on cattle boats and once with a cargo of sheep. It was an experience he vowed never to repeat, and commemorated the trip in a poem called simply Sheep. He wrote:

"They sniffed, poor things, for their green fields,
They cried so loud I could not sleep:
For fifty thousand shillings down
I would not sail again with sheep."

In 1899 disaster struck. Heading for the gold fields of the Klondike, Davies slipped while trying to jump a train at Penfrew, Ontario. His leg was crushed by the carriage wheels and later had to be amputated below the knee. For the rest of his life he wore a wooden leg. It was a useful begging tool but sometimes it caused more than a little confusion.

Soon after he achieved fame as a writer he somehow managed to break the leg. Fellow poet (and fellow Welshman) Edward Thomas drew a sketch or diagram and asked the local carpenter to make a new one. Decorum prohibited him saying what the contraption actually was and when Thomas received the bill it was made out for "a curiosity cricket bat."

After his accident WH Davies returned to Britain where he lived rough in doss houses and hostels for several years. He had always been an avid reader and now took to composing poems in his head, only putting them down on paper later, when his fellow inmates had gone to bed.

They had to be simple in style and format, otherwise he would never have remembered them, and it is by this simplicity or straightforward style that he is now remembered.

He borrowed money and typed up his poems, hawking them from door to door in the style of old ballad makers. When the enterprise failed he burned the sheets in a fit of temper. Within a short period of time, however, Davies had managed to borrow a lump sum from his allowance - a pension given to him by his grandmother, something he kept well hidden from the other tramps - and paid for a book to be published.

This book, The Soul's Destroyer, was well received, Davies taking the unusual step of sending copies to well-known people and asking them, if they liked it, to send him half a crown in return. Among those who sent money were the journalist Arthur Adcock and the famous playwright George Bernard Shaw.

Within months WH Davies was being lionized by the literary elite of Britain, his poems praised for their simplicity and refreshing beauty. A tramp-poet was certainly unusual but people were also quick to see that there was real talent and skill in Davies' deceptively simple creations. Soon his poems were appearing in the influential anthologies of the Georgian Poets, most of them, like Leisure, praising the wonders of nature.

Among his friends were people such as Rupert Brooke, Edward Thomas and Joseph Conrad. Thomas even rented a cottage for Davies, close to his own home in Sevenoaks, Kent - no more doss houses for WH Davies.

World War One destroyed the pastoral idyll of the Georgian poets and cut away many of Davies' friends, men like Brooke and Thomas. By 1918 he was rather a lonely and forlorn figure but in 1923, to the amazement of everyone, he met and married Helen Payne. Davies wrote a book about their relationship, Young Emma, revealing - amongst other things - that she was actually pregnant when they met. The book was not published until after the deaths of both Davies and his wife.

WH Davies never returned to Wales to live, but he did move close. He and Helen rented a number of houses in various parts of the country before finally settling at Nailsworth on the English-Welsh border.

In 1938 he went back to Newport for the unveiling of a plaque on the wall of Church House Inn but by then he was already ill. It was virtually his last public appearance and in September 1940 he died, aged just 69 years. He would undoubtedly have said that it was a life well spent.

Welsh pirates

2010-11-22T09:57:31+00:00

Our image or impression of pirates has, in the main, been shaped by our reading or film watching. Say "pirate" and you immediately think of Long John Silver from Treasure Island or one of Errol Flynn's dramatic film creations.

Pirate flag

Reality, however, is far removed from these idealized versions of piracy. Real pirates were vicious and deadly - and a large number of them were Welsh.

Perhaps the most famous of these men was Sir Henry Morgan who was not so much a pirate as a licensed adventurer for the British government.

Born in about 1635, his origins remain unclear. What is known is that he came from the county of Monmouthshire and before he was 30 he had sailed off to the Caribbean. There he quickly made a name for himself as a bold and ruthless sailor who was as likely to be working for the good of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth as he was for himself.

When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Morgan simply switched his allegiance to Charles II and continued his piratical career.

Fighting against the Spaniards, he plundered the Mexican coast and the Caribbean islands on a regular basis. One of his most famous escapades involved him capturing, looting and putting to the sword the supposedly impregnable town of Camaguey on Cuba in 1667.

In 1671 he burned and sacked Panama, the richest of all Spanish colonies. Unfortunately, a treaty had recently been signed between Spain and Britain and Morgan was brought back to England in disgrace to answer for "his crimes."

Morgan was able to prove that he had no knowledge of the treaty and, instead of being punished, he was knighted and sent back to the Caribbean as Governor of Jamaica.

Old Panama City

Other Welsh pirates were not so fortunate. John Evans was originally an honest enough seaman, sailing out of the Caribbean island of Nevis. In 1722, when he lost his job, he and some colleagues decided to try piracy. They started out by raiding rich houses on the north shore of Jamaica, operating out of a small dug out canoe.

After capturing several Spanish ships, Evans' career as a pirate was short but decidedly successful.

Operating out of Grand Cayman he found himself embroiled in a dispute with his bosun and was challenged to a duel. When they reached port Evans reminded the bosun about the challenge.

The bosun refused to fight, whereupon Evans beat him with a cane. He turned away just as the bosun drew his pistol and shot him in the head. In retaliation the crew promptly killed the bosun and decided to disband. To their amazement they found that they had a total of £10,000 to share between them.

John Callis operated not like so many pirates in the Caribbean but along the Welsh coast. He was hugely successful for many years, terrorising the shipping lanes around the Severn estuary and the Bristol Channel.

He used several houses and inns as his base but most notably the Point House at Angle in Pembrokeshire. When he was finally captured in 1576 he was an old man and tried to buy his freedom by informing on other pirates. It was no use. He was tried and hanged at Newport that same year.

Howell Davis came from Milford Haven and in a piratical career of just one year was hugely successful.

His end came when he attempted to seize the governor of the Portuguese island of Principe with the aim of holding him to ransom. The Portuguese had recognised Davis and his men, however, and ambushed them as they came ashore. In the skirmish Howell Davis was shot and killed.

When Howell Davis was killed his crew promptly elected the best navigator on board their ship to the position of captain - pirates were nothing if not democratic, at least among themselves.

This man was Bartholomew Roberts, Black Bart as he is known, and he was undoubtedly the greatest of all Welsh pirates - if you can use a word like "greatest" when talking about such abject villains.

Like Davis, Black Bart had a short career as a pirate.

Originally an honest sailor who had been captured by Howell Davis, he quickly turned to piracy and in his two short years of terrorising the Atlantic sea lanes he captured nearly 500 ships.

He knew what his eventual fate would be and declared that what he wanted was "a short life and a merry one." He got his wish.

A teetotaller who wore flamboyant red coats during battle and tried to stop his crew swearing, Black Bart was killed when the Royal Navy sloop Swallow ran him to ground on 10 February 1727.

He was killed by grapeshot to the throat and, before the Navy sailors could get aboard the pirate ship his crew had weighted his body, wrapped it in sail cloth and dumped it over board.

With the death of Black Bart Roberts the great age of piracy came to an end. There are still occasional outbreaks, particularly in the Far East, but these days - hopefully at least - Welsh involvement remains minimal.

Welsh cowboys

2010-10-27T11:32:52+00:00

When we think of America most of us will immediately conjure up an image of the Wild West, of cowboys and gunfighters and the US 7th Cavalry. What most people don't realise is that Wales and the USA are more intimately connected than might be supposed, particularly where soldiers and gunfighters are concerned.

Over 250,000 people left Wales for the USA during the 19th century, a small enough figure when compared to the four million who emigrated from Ireland, but it was still a significant number.

The majority of these Welsh immigrants, about 20% of them, settled around the Pennsylvania area. Others spread along the eastern seaboard. The more adventurous ones headed west, joining the wagon trains across the plains in search of new territory to farm.

One of these, John Rees of Merthyr Tydfil, took part in the war against Mexico in the late 1830s, the same war that saw the death of Davy Crockett and the fall of the Alamo.

Rees was one of only 28 survivors when the Mexicans massacred the Texicans - as they were known - at Goliad. He was taken prisoner but was released at the end of the war and returned, briefly, to Wales where he took part in the Chartist march on Newport in 1839. He managed to escape justice, however, sailing back to the USA and eventually settling in California.

Another Welsh soldier in the American army was William Jones from Pencnwr Farm at Dinas. He emigrated to the States in 1870, working as a coachman in Chicago before joining the 7th Cavalry in 1876. He was with George Armstrong Custer's unit at Little Big Horn in June that same year and was one of the 261 casualties.

Someone who might also have been a victim of Custer's folly at the Battle of Little Big Horn was Lord Dunraven whose ancestral home was at Dunraven Castle in Southerndown. Travelling in America he hunted for elk with no less a person than Buffalo Bill Cody on the prairies of the mid West and became friendly with General Phil Sheridan. As the Earl later commented:

"Colonel Custer invited me to join him on a punitive expedition against the Indians. Unluckily, as I thought, but fortunately as it turned out, I received the invitation too late. The whole outfit was wiped out."

The history of the American West is littered with stories of fearless lawmen and one of these was Welshman John T Morris, Sheriff of Collins County in Texas during the 1870s. In his most famous exploit he trailed an outlaw gang led by the notorious James Reed, a cattle rustler, bandit and husband of the infamous Belle Starr. He finally ran them to ground in Paris, Texas. While his posse surrounded the saloon where Reed and his gang were holed up, John Morris went inside and confronted the bandits.

Morris immediately challenged Reed and asked him to give himself up. Reed went for his gun but the Welsh Sheriff was faster on the draw. Within seconds Belle Starr's husband lay dead on the floor of the saloon.

Someone you might not automatically connect with the Wild West was the explorer Henry Morton Stanley. Originally from North Wales Stanley (real name John Rowlands) was a journalist and in 1867 journeyed to the West to interview Wild Bill Hickock. That same year he also rode with the US Cavalry in their campaigns against the Indians and reported on his adventures for The Weekly Missouri Democrat.

The most famous cowboys of Welsh descent were, of course, the James gang. Jesse and Frank James were originally Confederate guerrilla fighters during the Civil War, men who found that they could not give up the violent way of life once the war was over. They were decidedly not the "Robin Hood" figures depicted by American folk lore and, in fact, were vicious and violent killers who cut a swathe through the mid West in the years after the war. Jesse was the worst of the lot.

Although Jesse was born in Clay County, Missouri on 5 September 1847, his family originated in Pembrokeshire. Several of his descendents were Baptist ministers and his father even helped to found the William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. Jesse's career went a different way, however, before he was finally shot down and killed by his cousin, Bob Ford, on 3rd April 1882.

There were undoubtedly thousands of Welsh farmers and industrial workers who emigrated to the USA and settled in various parts of the States. They might never have achieved the fame of those mentioned above but they all contributed towards the creation and the development of the United States of America.

Feel free to comment! If you want to have your say, on this or any other BBC blog, you will need to sign in to your BBC iD account. If you don't have a BBC iD account, you can register here - it'll allow you to contribute to a range of BBC sites and services using a single login.

Need some assistance? Read about BBC iD, or get some help with registering.

Murray the Hump, Welsh gangster

2010-10-25T09:18:31+00:00

Say the words "American gangster" and your mind invariably turns to criminals like Al Capone, Pretty Boy Floyd or John Dillinger. But one of the most successful of all gangsters - perhaps because he lived to a ripe old age - was actually a man of Welsh descent.

His real name was Llewellyn Morris Humphreys and for many years, under the assumed name or nickname of Murray the Hump, he was one of the most powerful men in the whole Chicago underworld.

Murray the Hump's parents came from Carno, a few miles outside Newtown, having been married in the Methodist chapel at Llanidloes. However, the final years of the nineteenth century were difficult for the small Welsh farming community and the young couple found it hard to make a living on their isolated hilltop farm.

As a result they decided to emigrate to America in the hope of "making it big" in the New World. Their son, Llewellyn Morris Humphreys, was born in their first American home on North Street, Chicago in the year 1899.

Conditions in Chicago were not much better than Carno and by the age of seven young Llewellyn had quit school and was making a living selling newspapers on the street corners. It was a rough and dangerous existence in a city where the newspaper sellers - and even the staff of the papers - fought with fists and baseball bats for the best pitches.

Luckily, Llewellyn found himself befriended by a local judge, Jack Murray, a man who took something of a benevolent and fatherly interest in the mischievous young boy.

He soon adopted the judge's name, Murray, instead of Llewellyn - which was probably just as well because nobody in Chicago could even begin to pronounce his real name anyway. And, of course, it let the other paper sellers know that he had powerful "protection."

Murray the Hump, as he became known because of his fondness for wearing fashionable camel-hair coats, quickly moved on, out of newspaper selling, into the world of gangsters and hit men. To begin with he worked as a hired gun - one of his early victims was apparently Capone's arch enemy Roger Touhy, blown apart by a shotgun blast shortly after his release from federal prison.

Forging his way up the ladder, Murray the Hump was one of the planners behind the infamous St Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929 when seven members of Bugsy Moran's gang were lined up against the wall of a garage in North Street, the very street where the Hump was born, and machine gunned to death. He was far too clever and too powerful to be involved in the killings himself but his was the hand that guided the machine gunners.

After that Murray the Hump was clearly destined for the top. He was the man who, when Prohibition was repealed in 1933, decided to channel the mobsters into the semi-respectable world of running bars, keeping saloons and distributing liquor.

He also became involved in controlling the unions and by the early 1950s the mob was making nearly $100,000 dollars a year under his careful and diligent management. The other interests of the mob, prostitution and gambling, the Hump kept to himself.

When Al Capone died in 1947 Murray the Hump succeeded him at the head of the organisation. The FBI were clear that the Hump was a violent and vicious gangster but one who always preferred to use his brain rather than the machine gun.

He was, they declared, the gangster who introduced money laundering to the mob, investing money from crooked deals in what were otherwise legitimate businesses. He was the man, they said, who was responsible for the introduction of gambling to Las Vegas.

Violence was, however, a way of life for Murray the Hump. It is believed that he murdered the husband of his mistresses, stabbing him with an ice pick before divorcing his own wife, a Native American by the name of Mary, and then marrying the younger mistress.

Murray the Hump never forgot his Welsh roots, so much so that he had a real desire to see what the country was like. He visited Wales just once, in 1963, travelling to the land of his parents under an assumed name. He never had the chance to come again as, two years later, at the age of 66, he died suddenly at his Chicago home.

It was perhaps just as well for the Welsh gangster as the FBI had just issued a warrant for his arrest and with his violent and murderous past beginning to catch up with him he was certainly looking at a long spell behind bars - or maybe even the death penalty.

Need some assistance? Read about BBC iD, or get some help with registering.

Victorian handkerchief donated to National Waterfront Museum

2010-10-19T12:04:54+00:00

The National Waterfront Museum at Swansea has been given a commemorative handkerchief from the 1893 Pontypridd Eisteddfod, which was found hidden in an abandoned house in Burma during World War Two.

Dewi Phillips found the handkerchief hidden inside a wall in Burma and brought it back to Wales

The remarkable souvenir was found by soldier, Dewi Phillips, and had remained in his house in Rhos near Swansea for decades.

Dewi Phillips died in 2000 at the age of 80, and the family had only just started going through the large number of souvenirs and mementos he had gathered when they found the Victorian handkerchief.

The handkerchief depicts the cremation in Llantrisant, near Cardiff, in 1893 of the radical activist, druid and surgeon Dr William Price.

Read more on this story on the BBC Wales News website.

Prince Madoc and the Discovery of America

2010-10-11T07:25:20+00:00

Who discovered America? It's a simple question and one that usually brings the standard response - Christopher Columbus. But here in Wales we have our own theory. And that theory says that America was actually discovered 300 years before Columbus sailed "the ocean blue" in 1492 - and more importantly, that it was discovered by a Welshman.

Mandan Indians used Bull Boats for transport and fishing that are identical to the Welsh coracle.

The man in question was Prince Madoc, the son of Owain Gwynedd, one of the greatest and most important rulers in the country, and while the legend cannot be corroborated there are many who believe it implicitly. Owain Gwynedd certainly existed, his reign being marred by long and hard-fought disputes with Henry II, king of England.

The story goes that in 1170 Owain died and, almost immediately, a violent and very bloody dispute arose between his 13 children regarding the succession. Madoc and his brother Rhirid were so upset and angered by events that they decided they wanted no further part in what was happening. Indeed, they wanted nothing more to do with their family or their homeland. They duly took ship from Rhos on Sea (Llandrillo) and sailed westwards to see what they could find.

What Prince Madoc found, so the legend runs, was America. He and his brother managed to cross the Atlantic and land on the shores of the New World. Madoc returned to Gwynedd for more men, then sailed off again, this time never to return. His sailors inter-married with a local Native American tribe and for years the rumour of Welsh speaking Native American tribes was widely believed. It is, of course, the stuff of legend but like all good legends it has at least a grain of truth about it.

As America was explored and colonised several Native American tribes were discovered, speaking a language that did actually sound quite like Welsh. That was not the only connection. The Mandan Indians used Bull Boats for transport and fishing, vessels that were identical to the famous Welsh coracles. It was all too good for storytellers and poets to ignore. The legend lasted well into the 19th century and even the explorers Lewis and Clark were instructed to keep their eyes open for these "Welsh speaking Indians" while they were trekking through the interior of the country.

The earliest reference to such a people can be found in a Welsh poem by Maredudd ap Rhys who lived and wrote in the years between 1450 and 1483. However, it was during the Elizabethan period that the story gathered momentum and grew.

There was a political agenda behind the spreading of the legend - it was a ploy, used to assert the right of England to the lands of the New World. Put quite simply, Welsh colonisation of America, many years before, was a convenient justification for Elizabethan settlement in a territory that had already been claimed by Spain.

Starting with Humphrey Llwyd in 1559, the story was embroidered and developed - the detail of the Welsh speaking tribe comes from this period. Even recognised experts in the field of navigation and exploration, men such as Richard Hakluyt, consciously and deliberately wrote about the legend as if it were the absolute truth. Sadly, there is no absolute historical or archaeological proof - even Lewis and Clark were unable to find that - but it remains a great story, one that we in Wales have taken to our hearts.

Other people have not been quite as happy to believe the story of Prince Madoc. In 1953 the Daughters of the American Revolution set up a plaque on the shores of Mobile Bay in Alabama. On the plaque it stated that it had been erected "In memory of Prince Madoc," who was in the opinion of the Daughters of the Revolution the original discoverer of America. The plaque did not last long and was soon removed by the Alabama Parks Department.

For Welsh men and women, however, the story of Madoc's discovery of America remains special - even if, in our heart of hearts, we know that it is probably not true. And as the saying goes, why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

Need some assistance? Read about BBC iD, or get some help with registering.

Welsh-American place names

2010-10-01T07:26:32+00:00

A census taken in 2008 revealed that there were approximately 1.98 million Americans with a surname that had Welsh origins.

The star-spangled banner

Many of these, incidentally, were African Americans. There are hundreds of black Americans with names like Evans, Jones and Thomas and these are usually of Welsh origin. It comes from the old slave tradition of workers taking the names of their masters and would therefore seem to indicate that many of the plantation owners - or, at least, the overseers - were Welsh. Not exactly something we should boast or be unduly happy about.

But quite apart from people's names there are also lots of American towns and cities that are named after original settlements in Wales. Some of them are well known.

So we have Bangor in Maine, Newport on Rhode Island, even Swansea in Massachusetts. Yet not many Welshmen and women realise that there are no fewer than 10 Cardiffs in the States. These can be found in Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New York and Texas. That takes some imagining, doesn't it?

It's easy to see why immigrants to the USA should choose to name their new villages after places they knew and remembered in the old world. It meant a degree of security and familiarity in a strange and, in the early days at least, largely untamed land. When death and destruction could visit at any moment, in the shape of disease or famine, raiding war parties of Native Americans, even from Britain's traditional enemies like the French, it was important to keep some semblance of normality alive. It was something firm and tangible to hold onto.

In later years, once America had achieved independence from Britain and begun to develop as an industrial and economic power of major proportions, people from Wales continued to settle in the States. Many of these were coal and steel workers, eager to start a new and better life. And that is why many Welsh immigrants settled in areas of Pennsylvania.

Welsh settlement in Pennsylvania had been going on for many years, mind you. Thanks to the efforts of William Penn in the late 17th century, the Welsh Tract was created. This consisted of 40,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania, most of the settlers being Welsh Quakers. Welsh was the predominant language spoken in the region and this was reflected in the place names of many of the towns that soon grew up. Places such as Bryn Mawr, Lower and Upper Meirion, Radnor and Haverford still exist and remain proud of their Welsh origins.

There are so many other towns and cities with names of Welsh origin in America. Some of them have fascinating histories.

Malad City in Idaho, for example, was created in the mid 19th century as a Welsh Mormon Settlement. And five towns in Maryland were built between 1850 and 1942 to house Welsh quarry workers who had made the dangerous trip across the Atlantic to work in the local quarries.

Dozens of Welsh-American societies meet on regular basis in all parts of the USA. Along with the surnames of thousands of Americans and the names of their cities they are part of a strong and undying link between the USA and the old country from which so many early settlers came.

Need some assistance? Read about BBC iD, or get some help with registering.

The ironmaster of Yuzovka

2010-06-17T09:24:36+00:00

Those intrepid and, probably, rather tentative ironworkers were accompanying a 55 year old Welsh industrialist and entrepreneur who had just won a contract from Imperial Russia to provide armour for a new naval fortress at Kronstadt.

His name was John Hughes and within the space of ten years the township he established around his new ironworks would be christened Yusovka (or Hughesovka as it is sometimes called) in his honour.

John Hughes was born in Merthyr in 1815, his father being an engineer in the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. John followed in his father's trade at Cyfarthfa before taking up senior positions in Ebbw Vale and at the Uskside Foundry in Newport.

Such was his success at Uskside that he was given a seat on the board of the company and when, in due course, he moved on to become Director of Millwall Engineering and Shipbuilding in London, his company quickly earned a massive reputation for the making of composite ships - vessels that had wooden framework overlaid with iron armoured plating.

In 1870, thanks to the worldwide reputation of his company, the Russians decided that this was the man they needed to build their new fortress. It was too good a chance to miss and Hughes obviously loved a challenge. A challenge this would certainly be as there was, quite literally, nothing waiting for him in Russia, just an empty wilderness and a burning desire to succeed.

Undaunted, excited even, Hughes sailed to the Ukraine with eight shiploads of equipment and a team of specialist ironworkers and miners from his native land. As well as the fortress they were to build and run a new metallurgical plant and rail factory. It was the beginning of a dynasty.

The town that was created alongside the ironworks - originally intended for the Welsh ironworkers - quickly grew. From bare and basic beginnings it soon boasted hospitals, schools, churches, bathhouses and tearooms. There was even a town fire brigade! And the driving force behind the new community was John Hughes who planned, designed and oversaw much of the development.

The Imperial Russian government was delighted with the work of John Hughes and his team, a team that was soon augmented by Russian workers, keen to learn the iron trade from the Welsh specialists.

However, Hughes was nothing if not a driven man and it is quite possible that he pushed himself too far and too fast. On 29th June 1889, whilst on a visit to the Imperial city of St Petersburg, he died suddenly. He was 74 years old.

The company was taken over by Hughes' four sons and the work continued, the ironworks expanding several times in the years before the First World War. Then, in 1917, came the Bolshevik revolution. Although the works continued to prosper, most of the Welsh workers - or the descendents of the Welsh workers - soon left the country.

Despite this, the company and the ironworks prospered under Communist control and although, since 1969, the town has been known as Donetsk, it was, for many years, one of the largest metallurgical centres in the USSR. And it all came from the efforts of one amazing Welsh industrialist - John Hughes of Yusovka.

Need some assistance? Read about BBC iD, or get some help with registering.