On 8 September 1936, three men entered the property of the RAF’s training school at Penyberth on the LlŷnPeninsula. Saunders Lewis, D. J. Williams and Lewis Valentine, three of the main figures of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (The National Party of Wales), were intent on damaging the property of the bombing school.
They set fire to the buildings before presenting themselves at Pwllheli police station to accept responsibility.
This action would become one of the most significant in the history of the Welsh language.
Opposition to the presence of the bombing school in Pen Llŷn was widespread in Walesat the time. Many objected on pacifist and environmental grounds but for Lewis, Williams and Valentine, the school represented the oppression of the English over the Welsh and the imposition of English warmongering and violence on the peaceful Welsh countryside. The government had intended to build similar establishments in Northumberland and Dorset but had yielded to the protests of naturalists and historians. But Baldwin, the Prime Minister, refused to listen to a deputation representing over half a million of the people of Wales.
This text item has not yet been defined, Edit and Save to create.
Trefechan Bridge Protest, 2 February 1963 GatheringTheJewels
Ursula Masson Collection (West Glamorgan Archives) WomensArchiveWales
Aerial view of Llyn Celyn, Tryweryn, 1965 RCAHMW
Booklet mourning death of protester Helen Thomas WomensArchiveWales
Mass meeting at Tonypandy during the Cambrian Combine strike NationalMuseumWales
Suffragettes from Pembroke Dock WomensArchiveWales
Penyberth Spills RCAHMW
Photograph, wounded arriving at hospital, 1915 WomensArchiveWales
Not a member? Click here to register
Click here if you've forgotten your password!
Click here if you've forgotten your username