Today in Welsh history… Geoffrey Lawrence, 3rd Baron Trevethin, 1st Baron Oaksey, was born in Builth Wells, in 1880. Lawrence was the main British judge during the Nuremberg trials after World War II, and President of the Judicial group. According to US historian Mark Weber, The Nuremberg Tribunal of 1945-46 - “was meant to prove that the defeated German regime had been one of unique and monstrous deceit, rapaciousness and evil. But in fact, the Tribunal dispensed not justice, but injustice. The four Allied powers that organized and ran it were themselves guilty of some of the very same crimes they accused the German defendants of having committed. The Tribunal operated on the basis of “ex post facto” law created after the fact expressly for the occasion, and which the Allies applied only to the defeated. The hangings of German leaders ordered by the Tribunal were little more than murders glossed over with a veneer of makeshift, hypocritical pseudo-legality.” https://www.ihr.org/mwreport/2011-11-16

Today in Welsh history… 3rd December 1935, South Wales’ Felinfoel brewery, produced Britain's first ever canned beer. This made it the first brewery outside of the USA to commercially can beer. The cans were made from tinplate, produced in South Wales which, from the late 18th century until the early 20th dominated the world's production, so much so that in the early 1890s, 80% of all tinplate was produced in South Wales. In 2019 two extant cans of pale ale from Felinfoel, sold at auction for £2,270.50.

Today in Welsh history, Calvert Richard Jones was born on 4th December 1804 in Swansea. This early ‘daguerreotype’ photograph of Margam Castle was taken in 1841 by Jones and is credited with being the first photograph ever taken in Wales. He was a mathematician, painter and photographer, who came from a wealthy Swansea family and was educated at Eton and Oriel College, Oxford. He was a friend of William Henry Fox Talbot (the English inventor of photography) and was familiar with the new discoveries in the medium. Whilst rector of Loughor, he developed his interest in photography, taking many photographs of the Swansea area as well as France and Italy. Jones also discovered a technique for taking panoramic photographs by overlapping images. In 1847, Jones inherited the Heathfield estate in Swansea, which he developed and named Mansel Street after his brother. He died in Bath and was buried at St Mary's Church, Swansea, but the grave was destroyed during the bombings of World War II.

Today in Welsh history… 5th December, is the feast day of St. Justinian of Ramsey Island, Abbot of St David's Cathedral. Justinian was born circa 550, he was possibly a Breton nobleman who settled on Ramsey Island as a hermit. Saint David is reputed to have visited him and was so impressed with his holiness that he made him Abbot of St David's Cathedral. Justinian returned to Ramsey Island with his most loyal monks to establish a more holy spiritual community. According to legend he was eventually murdered by some monks who had become disgruntled with his leadership. They beheaded him but to their horror, his headless corpse collected the head and, walking on the water, crossed Ramsey Sound, carrying the head in its arms…

Today in Welsh history… On the 7th of December 1939, a group of 10 Welshmen arrived home following the end of the Spanish Civil War. The group had been volunteers for the International Brigade that was formed to aid the left-wing Republican government against General Franco’s Nationalist forces. Political responses to the war in Wales had been polarised. The leader of the Welsh Nationalist Party (Plaid Cymru), Saunders Lewis, is said to have proposed a toast at a private dinner: "To a fine Christian gentleman, General Franco!" Nor were all the Welsh fighting for the left. Frank Thomas was a young man who made the snap decision to travel to Spain and enlist to fight communism with Franco’s forces. In Franco's Foreign Legion he soon became a battle-hardened veteran. After being badly wounded, Thomas returned home to write his own account about his experiences as a Nationalist Legionary, ‘Brother Against Brother: Experiences of a British Volunteer in the Spanish Civil War’.

Today in Welsh history… 11th December 1282, the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. Llywelyn had been tricked into attending a meeting with Edmund Mortimer at Aberedw, who claimed that he wished to give homage to Llywelyn. The English army then advanced on the Welsh position and after fording the river further upstream, crossed and engaged the leaderless Welsh army. Llywelyn realised that he had been tricked and he and his knights immediately headed back to assume command however, they were ambushed and overwhelmed. Llywelyn lay mortally wounded and asked for a priest, but when recognized, he was instantly killed, and his head cut off and sent to Edward at Rhuddlan. The King took the head to London, put an ivy crown on it and had it placed on the gate of the Tower of London, where it stayed for 15 years. Resistance continued for a while under Dafydd, but by June of the following year he too had been captured and executed, with his head displayed next to that of Llywelyn.

Today in Welsh History… A Tale of Two Welsh Warriors.
On the 12th December 1595, Sir Roger Williams died. Williams was a Welsh soldier of fortune (or more uncharitably, a mercenary) who has been identified as the basis for Fluellen in Shakespeare's Henry V and who was, in his day, a national hero. He was variously described as "an obstreperous, opinionated Welsh soldier" who was "worth his weight in gold". Williams was a staunch protestant who fought for many European states against the Catholic League. He was knighted after the Battle of Zutphen in 1586 and later accompanied Sir Francis Drake to Portugal. Williams held a wide reputation for exceptional courage and daring and was recognised as an expert on military matters by his contemporaries. In 1590, he wrote ‘A brief discourse of war’.

Born today in 1889, Robert Bye, who received the Victoria Cross at Ypres in WW1. His citation stated: “Robert Bye, Welsh Guards (Penrhiwceiber, Glamorgan). For most conspicuous bravery. Bye displayed the utmost courage and devotion to duty during an attack on the enemy's position. Seeing that the leading waves were being troubled by two enemy blockhouses, he, on his own initiative, rushed at one of them and put the garrison out of action. He then rejoined his company and went forward to the assault of the second objective. When the troops had gone forward to the attack on the third objective, a party was detailed to clear up a line of blockhouses which had been passed. Bye volunteered to take charge of this party, accomplished his object, and took many prisoners. He subsequently advanced to the third objective, capturing a number of prisoners, thus rendering invaluable assistance to the assaulting companies. He displayed throughout the most remarkable initiative.”

Today in Welsh history… Alfred 'Fred' Bestall was born on 14th December 1892. He is remembered as the writer and illustrator of the Rupert Bear stories in the Daily Express, from 1935 to 1965. His parents were Methodist missionaries in Burma, and he spent his school years in Colwyn Bay until they returned. Most of the landscapes that Bestall used in his illustrations were inspired by his childhood in North Wales and holidays in Snowdonia, an area he continued to regularly visit as an adult, settling in a cottage on Mynydd Sygun, in Beddgelert in 1956.