1914: A WELSH HOME RULE BILL INTRODUCED

The introduction of the Welsh Home Rule Bill at Parliament was more or less a one man affair, and its presenter, E.T. John (born at Pontypridd but MP for East Denbigh) was practically ignored by the House of Commons. Yet his arguments in favor of the economic benefits of a separate Wales were to resurface in the 1997 referendum.

1914: WORLD WAR I BEGINS

In and following the Great War of 1914 to 1918, Wales was once again to undergo a metamorphosis. Like the Irish volunteers, the young men of Wales responded to give their lives in the service of another country. It certainly helped the cause that Lloyd George, their favorite son, had a meteoric career during the course of the conflict, becoming Minister of Munitions, Secretary for War, and Prime Minister. Propaganda from the Government and the pulpit ensured that war hysteria and patriotic fervor were well-fuelled. Germany was portrayed as a great evil that no Christian could tolerate, and Socialists and Nonconformists in Wales marched happily to the colors (and to their deaths) singing their stirring hymns.

Welsh regiments were proud of their part in this great Crusade. Over 280,000 Welshmen shared experiences with soldiers from all parts of Britain and the Empire; it was inevitable that much of their provincial outlook would be broken down. It was hard to think of independence for Wales when its soldiers were sharing trenches with Irish, Scots, English soldiers all united in a common cause. The continuance of that Anglo-Welsh identity begun in the Valleys that came to dominate Welsh life in the twentieth century certainly found an ideal breeding ground in the mud of Flanders and the slaughter on the Somme.

1915: LORD RHONDDA SURVIVES THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA

One of the survivors of the Lusitania disaster was the 1st Viscount Rhondda who introduced food rationing to Britain during the war and who directed the supply of munitions from the United States to Britain.

1916: LLOYD GEORGE BECOMES PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND

Former lawyer, David Lloyd George, born in Manchester of Welsh parents and raised in the little village of Llanystumdwy, Gwynedd, became the first Welshman in British history to achieve the position of Prime Minister.

1917: THE BIRKENHEAD EISTEDDFOD

During Word War I, the large Welsh community on Merseyside staged the National Eisteddfod at Birkenhead, England, where there was a large Welsh population. The winner of the Chair was Ellis Humphrey Evans, (Hedd Wynn) who had been killed on 31 July in France fighting with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Thus the winning chair was draped in black. A collection of the dead poet's work, "Cerddi'r Bugail" (Poems of the Shepherd) was published in 1918.

1920: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE SWANSEA ESTABLISHED

The new college at Singleton Park, Swansea joined the others at Bangor, Aberystwyth and Cardiff as part of the University of Wales.

1920: THE CHURCH OF WALES DISESTABLISHED

The Parliamentary Bill that would deprive the Anglican Church of its status in Wales as the State Church was passed in 1914, but its implementation was delayed because of World War One. A Society for Liberating the Church from the State had begun in Britain in 1853, following an earlier Anti-State-Church Association and much bitter debate over Church Establishment. The Church in Ireland was disestablished in 1869 by Gladstone, but it was not until 1920 when a disestablished province of the Anglican Communion was finally created in Wales.

1921: SAUNDERS LEWIS' "THE EVE OF ST. JOHN" PUBLISHED

This play was the first of 19 published by Lewis (the last was "Excelsior", 1980). His influence as dramatist, poet, literary historian and critic is unparalleled in Welsh literary history. For over a decade he was president of Plaid Cymru, which he helped found. His writings show his great concern that Wales was losing its sense of vision and moral integrity.

1922: URDD GOBAITH CYMRU FOUNDED

Though almost a million people spoke the Welsh language in 1921, signs about its disappearance in many areas were already becoming increasingly ominous. It was his concern that the young children of Wales were increasingly turning to English that led Ifan ab Owen Edwards to found Urdd Gobaith Cymru (The Welsh League of Youth) in 1922. The movement took over many of the activities of Urdd y Delyn (Order of the Harp) which had been founded in 1896 for Welsh children by Owen M. Edwards, Ifan's father. The Movement attracted thousands of children to its ranks, where they spoke and sang Welsh at summer camps, weekly and monthly meetings, and at school activities. The Urdd has retained its popularity.

1925: PLAID CYMRU (the Party of Wales) FOUNDED

After World War I, with its massive loss of life that affected whole Welsh-speaking communities, the language began a precipitous decline, and with it, a distinct way of life. In an attempt to stop the rot, Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (The National Party of Wales) came into being, the brainchild of a handful of visionaries who saw that political action was necessary to preserve what was left of the unique culture and to further the aims of self-government for Wales. Saunders Lewis became president of the party in 1926, but it took over 40 years for Plaid to gain its first seat in Parliament.

1913: THE HADDOW REPORT

The report recommended that every child in Britain attend secondary school. The technical advances in agriculture and the decline of those engaged in farming meant that no longer were children needed on the land. In industry, though traditions died hard, important reforms had safeguarded the rights of children who could now look forward to education beyond the elementary level. Many problems caused the Central Labour College to close its doors in 1929, but other avenues opened for working class education.

1927: COLEG HARLECH ESTABLISHED

Thanks to Tom Jones and the Workers' Education Association, Coleg Harlech "the college of the second chance" opened in 1927 with the aims and philosophy much like those of today's Community Colleges, (called Polytechs in Britain).

1931: THE WELSH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT CARDIFF FOUNDED

1931: T. H. PARRY-WILLIAMS' POETRY PUBLISHED

Another influential literary figure from the area around Snowdon, Parry-Williams won both the Chair and the Crown at two National Eisteddfodau. His poetry took Welsh literature towards a new realism best expressed in the self-deprecating irony of such poems as "Hon" (This Spot) that expresses both a hatred and love for the enigma that is Wales.

1932: "Y CYMRO" (the Welshman) FOUNDED

The weekly Welsh-language newspaper was founded to "unite Wales and create a Welsh view and opinion on all things pertaining to Wales and the Welsh." It has remained an important source of information on Welsh life in general.

1934: THE GRESFORD DISASTER

On 22 September, 1934, the bells of Gresford Parish Church joined in with the sirens at the local colliery to announce that one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Welsh coal mining had taken place that morning when an explosion and fire ripped through the Dennis section of the mine. Apart from the lucky six men who escaped the blast, along with a few men at the pit bottom, all the men working that day were killed, a total of 266 miners. Such was the force of the explosion and the immensity of the following fire, that the pit was sealed off and the dead miners entombed forever where they lay. Over 160 widows were left in the surrounding villages to provide for over 200 children.

In 1982 a memorial to the dead miners was erected in the form of the wheel from the old pit head winding gear. On the 6Oth anniversary of the disaster, a memorial painting in Gresford Church was unveiled by the Archbishop of Wales that shows various scenes and people at the colliery the day of the explosion.

1935: FIRST RADIO BROADCAST IN WELSH

It was a reluctant BBC that finally agreed, after much pressure, to broadcast Welsh language programs from their studio at Bangor, Gwynedd. Radio Cymru had to wait until 1977, however, much too late to attract the majority of Welsh listeners, who now habitually spoke English. We can only guess at the positive impact on the language a complete Welsh-language broadcasting service in the early 1930's would have had.

1936: THE FIRE AT PENYBERTH (8 September)

To protest the government's decision to build a bombing school at Penyberth in the Llyn Peninsular, three well-known Welsh literary figures started a small fire in an outbuilding and then reported their nefarious deed to the local police. After a no-verdict was reached by a sympathetic Welsh jury at Caernarfon, confessing their guilt, Saunders Lewis, D.J. Williams, and Lewis Valentine were sent to trial at the Old Bailey in London. Here they were not allowed to testify in their own language. The case became a cause celebre for the efforts of Plaid Cymru to establish its credentials as a party to be taken seriously and for the Welsh language to be given legal status.

The outbreak of World War II three years later did much to undo the enthusiasm engendered by the symbolic act at Penyberth, but it stirred the conscience of R. Williams Parry to write against official smugness and small-mindedness, leading to his "Cerddi'r Gaeaf" (Poems of Winter) published in 1952.