Saunders Lewis

Saunders Lewis (born John Saunders Lewis) (15 October 1893 – 1 September 1985) was a Welsh political activist, poet, dramatist, historian and literary critic. He was a prominent Welsh nationalist and one of the founders of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (the National Party of Wales), later known as Plaid Cymru. Lewis is usually acknowledged as one of the most prominent figures of 20th century Welsh-language literature. In 1970, Lewis was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature. Lewis was voted the tenth greatest Welsh hero in the '100 Welsh Heroes' poll, released on St. David's Day 2004. [1]

Saunders Lewis
Saunders Lewis as an army officer in 1916
President of Plaid Cymru
In office 1926–1939
Preceded by	Lewis Valentine
Succeeded by	John Edward Daniel
Personal details
Born	John Saunders Lewis 15 October 1893 Wallasey, Cheshire
Died	1 September 1985 (aged 91) Cardiff, Wales
Political party	Plaid Cymru
Spouse(s)	Margaret Gilcriest ​ ​ (m. 1924; died 1984)​
Children	1
Alma mater	University of Liverpool

Early life

John Saunders Lewis was born into a Welsh family living in Wallasey, England, on 15 October 1893. He was the second of three sons of Lodwig Lewis (1859–1933), a Calvinistic Methodist minister, and his wife Mary Margaret (née Thomas, 1862–1900). Lewis attended Liscard High School for Boys[2] and went on to study English and French at Liverpool University.

First World War

When the First World War broke out, Lewis enlisted as a volunteer with the King's Liverpool Regiment in September 1914, and in April 1915 applied for a commission with the South Wales Borderers and was promoted to full lieutenant in February 1916. He served in France and was wounded in the Battle of Cambrai.[3]

During the war, Lewis read the series of novels The Cult of the Self (French: Le Culte du moi) by the French writer Maurice Barrès. Barrès, a French nationalist, influenced Lewis' own Welsh nationalism.[3]

Return to Wales

In 1922, he was appointed as a lecturer in Welsh at the University College of Wales, Swansea. During his time at Swansea he produced some of his most significant works of literary criticism: A School of Welsh Augustans (1924), Williams Pantycelyn (1927), and Braslun o hanes llenyddiaeth Gymraeg (An outline history of Welsh literature) (1932).[4]

Founding Plaid Cymru

Discussions of the need for a "Welsh party" had been conducted since the 19th century.[5] With the generation or so before 1922 there "had been a marked growth in the constitutional recognition of the Welsh nation," wrote historian John Davies.[6] By 1924 there were people in Wales "eager to make their nationality the focus of Welsh politics."[7] Lewis's experiences in World War I, and his sympathy for the cause of Irish independence, brought him to Welsh nationalism.

In 1924, Lewis founded Y Mudiad Cymreig ("The Welsh Movement") with a small group of fellow nationalists. The group met secretly for the first time in Penarth on 7 January 1924.[8] The group continued to meet in secret throughout 1924 and began drawing up a set of aims and policies intended to "rescue Wales from political and cultural oblivion."

At around the same time as Lewis formed Y Mudiad Cymreig, another group of nationalists formed Byddin Ymreolwyr Cymru ("The Welsh Home Rule Army") in Caernarfon.[9] The group was led by Huw Robert Jones, who made contact with Lewis in early 1925 and proposed to form a new political party.[8]

A plaque was inaugurated to mark the 75th anniversary of Plaid Cymru's founding meeting in 2000, on the building where the meeting took place in Pwllheli.

Lewis met with Jones, Lewis Valentine, Moses Griffith, Fred Jones and D. Edmund Williams in a café called Maes Gwyn[9] during the 1925 National Eisteddfod in Pwllheli, Gwynedd, with the aim of establishing a "Welsh party".[7] They founded Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru ("National Party of Wales"), on 5 August 1925.[10] The principal aim of the party would be to foster a Welsh speaking Wales.[11] To this end it was agreed that party business be conducted in Welsh, and that members sever all links with other British parties.[11] Lewis insisted on these principles before he would agree to the Pwllheli conference.

According to the 1911 census, out of a population of just under 2.5 million, 43.5% of the total population of Wales spoke Welsh as a primary language.[12] This was a decrease from the 1891 census with 54.4% speaking Welsh out of a population of 1.5 million.[13] With these pre-requisites, Lewis condemned "'Welsh nationalism' as it had hitherto existed, a nationalism characterized by inter-party conferences, an obsession with Westminster and a willingness to accept a subservient position for the Welsh language," wrote Davies.[11] It may be because of these strict positions that the party failed to attract politicians of experience in its early years.[11] However, the party's members believed its founding was an achievement in itself; "merely by existing, the party was a declaration of the distinctiveness of Wales," wrote Davies.[11]

The Lewis Doctrine 1926–1939

During the inter-war years, Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru was most successful as a social and educational pressure group rather than as a political party.[14] For Saunders Lewis, party president 1926 – 1939, "the chief aim of the party [is] to 'take away from the Welsh their sense of inferiority... to remove from our beloved country the mark and shame of conquest.'" Lewis sought to cast Welshness into a new context, wrote Davies.[14]

Lewis wished to demonstrate how Welsh heritage was linked as one of the 'founders of European civilization.[14] Lewis, a self-described "strong monarchist", wrote "Civilization is more than an abstraction. It must have a local habitation and name. Here its name is Wales."[14][15] Additionally, Lewis strove for the stability and well-being of Welsh-speaking communities, decried both capitalism and socialism and promoted what he called perchentyaeth: a policy of "distributing property among the masses".[14]

Lewis was, in fact, ill-equipped to lead any party, or indeed even convince his immediate colleagues of his theories. Historian Geraint H. Jenkins writes:- "..Lewis was a cold fish. His reedy voice, bow tie, cerebral style and aristocratic contempt for the proletariat were hardly endearing qualities in a political leader, and his conversion to Catholicism lost him the sympathy of fervent Nonconformists. Heavily influenced by the discourse of right-wing French theorists, this profoundly authoritarian figure developed a grand strategy, such as it was, based on the deindustrialization of Wales. Such a scheme was both impractical and unpopular. It caused grave embarrassment to his socialist colleague D. J. Davies, a progressive economist who, writing with force and passion, showed a much better grasp of the economic realities of the time and greater sensitivity towards the plight of working people.[16]

Broadcasting

Saunders Lewis perceived the early development of BBC radio broadcasting in Wales (which was almost entirely in English) as serious threat to his aim of arresting the decline of the Welsh language (then down to 36%) and turning Wales back into a 100% Welsh-speaking nation. At the same time he also recognised that if he could exert influence and pressure on the BBC, the Corporation could become a useful tool to serve Plaid Cymru's political ends. In 1929 he declared it would soon be necessary to arrange for "thousands of Welshmen to be prosecuted for refusing to pay for English programmes".[17] The following year Lewis was commissioned by E.R. Appleton, Director of the BBC's Cardiff radio station, (who had banned broadcasting in Welsh) to broadcast a talk which would "explain Welsh Nationalism". On vetting the script, which advocated political nationalism in preference to "cultural nationalism", Appleton decided it was too controversial and inflammatory to be broadcast.[18] In October 1933 the University of Wales Council, which had been lobbying for more Welsh-language broadcasting, appointed a ten-man council to press the case with the BBC. It included David Lloyd George, William George, W. J. Gruffydd and Saunders Lewis – who was continuing to incense the BBC by publicly alleging it was "seeking the destruction of the Welsh language". The University Committee, which was described by BBC Director General John Reith as "the most unpleasant and unreliable people with whom it has been my misfortune to deal" gained ever more influence on the BBC in Wales not least in the selection of BBC staff – a function delegated to the Committee by the Corporation. As newspapers of the time noted, appointees seemed primarily drawn from the families of the Welsh-speaking elite including "the son of a professor of Welsh and the offspring of three archdruids".[19] Saunders Lewis's assiduous campaigning over the years was to succeed in cementing an ongoing Plaid Cymru influence within the BBC. When the BBC's Welsh Advisory Council was eventually established in 1946, although half its members were Labour, several Plaid Cymru supporters were appointed including Saunders Lewis's successor as Plaid Cymru president, Gwynfor Evans.[18]

Tân yn Llŷn 1936

Welsh nationalism was ignited in 1936 when the UK Government settled on establishing an RAF training camp and aerodrome at Penyberth[20] on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd. The events surrounding the protest, known as Tân yn Llŷn ("Fire in Llŷn"), helped define Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru.[21] The UK Government settled on Llŷn as the site for its training camp after similar proposed sites in Northumberland and Dorset met with protests.[22]

However, UK Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin refused to hear the case against building this 'bombing school' in Wales, despite a deputation representing 500,000 Welsh protesters.[22] Protest against the project was summed up by Lewis when he wrote that the UK Government was intent upon turning one of the "essential homes of Welsh culture, idiom, and literature" into a place for promoting a barbaric method of warfare.[22] Construction of this military academy began exactly 400 years after the first Act of Union annexing Wales into England.[22]

On 8 September 1936, the building was set on fire and in the investigations which followed Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valentine, and D. J. Williams claimed responsibility.[22] They were tried at Caernarfon, where the jury failed to agree on a verdict. The case was then sent to be retried at the Old Bailey in London, where the "Three" were convicted, and sentenced to nine months imprisonment. On their release from Wormwood Scrubs, they were greeted as heroes by 15,000 Welsh people at a pavilion in Caernarfon.[22]

Llosgi'r Ysgol Fomio: "The Burning of the Bombing School"

Many Welsh people were angered by the judge's scornful treatment of the Welsh language, by the decision to move the trial to London, and by the decision of University College, Swansea, to dismiss Lewis from his post before he had been found guilty.[21] Dafydd Glyn Jones wrote of the fire that it was "the first time in five centuries that Wales struck back at England with a measure of violence... To the Welsh people, who had long ceased to believe that they had it in them, it was a profound shock."[21]

However, despite the acclaim the events of Tân yn Llŷn generated, by 1938 Lewis's concept of perchentyaeth ("home ownership") had been firmly rejected as not a fundamental tenet of the party. In 1939 Lewis resigned as Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru president, saying that Wales was not ready to accept the leadership of a Roman Catholic.[21]

Lewis was the son and grandson of prominent Welsh Calvinistic Methodist ministers. In 1932, he had converted to Roman Catholicism.

Second World War

Lewis maintained a strict neutrality in his writings through his column Cwrs y Byd in Y Faner. It was his attempt at an unbiased interpretation of the causes and events of the war.[23]

Outside of the party's initial position on the war, party members were free to choose for themselves their level of support for the war effort. Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru was officially neutral regarding involvement the Second World War, which Lewis and other leaders considered a continuation of the First World War. Central to the neutrality policy was the idea that Wales, as a nation, had the right to decide independently on its attitude towards war,[24] and the rejection of other nations to force Welshmen to serve in their armed forces.[24] With this challenging and revolutionary policy Lewis hoped a significant number of Welshmen would refuse to join the British Army.[23]

Lewis and other party members were attempting to strengthen loyalty to the Welsh nation "over the loyalty to the British State".[24] Lewis argued "The only proof that the Welsh nation exists is that there are some who act as if it did exist."[23]

However, most party members who claimed conscientious objection status did so in the context of their moral and religious beliefs, rather than on political policy.[23] Of these almost all were exempt from military service. About 24 party members made politics their sole grounds for exemption, of whom 12 received prison sentences.[23] For Lewis, those who objected proved that the assimilation of Wales was "being withstood, even under the most extreme pressures".[23]

University of Wales by-election, 1943

Prior to 1950, universities could elect and return representatives to the House of Commons. The University of Wales seat had become vacant when the constituency's Liberal Member of Parliament, Ernest Evans, had been appointed a county court judge in 1942. Lewis was selected to contest the seat for Plaid Cymru in the ensuing 1943 University of Wales by-election.

His opponent was former Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru Deputy Vice-President Dr William John Gruffydd. Gruffydd had been voicing doubts about Lewis's ideas since 1933,[25] and by 1943 he had left Plaid Cymru and joined the Liberal Party. His other opponent, independent candidate Alun Talfan Davies, was another former member of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru who would later become Chairman of the Welsh Liberal Party.

The "brilliant but wayward" Gruffydd was a favorite with Welsh-speaking intellectuals and drew 52.3% of the vote, to Lewis's 22.5%.[25]

The election effectively split the Welsh-speaking intelligentsia, and left Lewis embittered with politics, leading him to retreat from direct political involvement.[26] However the experience proved invaluable for Plaid Cymru, as "for the first time they were taken seriously as a political force."[26] The by-election campaign led directly to "considerable growth" in the party's membership.[26]

Tynged yr Iaith and the 1961 census

In 1962 Lewis gave a radio speech entitled Tynged yr iaith ("The Fate of the Language") in which he predicted the extinction of the Welsh language unless action was taken. Lewis's intention was to motivate Plaid Cymru into more direct action promoting the language; however it led to the formation of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society) later that year at a Plaid Cymru summer school held in Pontardawe in Glamorgan.[27] The foundation of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg allowed Plaid Cymru to focus on electoral politics, while the Cymdeithas focused on promoting the language.

Lewis's radio speech was in response to the 1961 census, which showed a decrease in the percentage of Welsh speakers from 36% in 1931 to 26%, of the population of about 2.5 million.[28] In the census the counties of Meirionnydd (Merionethshire), Ynys Môn (Anglesey), Caerfyrddin (Carmarthenshire), and Caernarfon (Caernarvonshire) averaged a 75% proportion of Welsh speakers, with the most significant decreases in the counties of Glamorgan, Flint, and Pembroke.[28][29]

Responding to calls for Welsh devolution, in 1964 the Labour Government established the Welsh Office (Welsh: Swyddfa Gymreig) and Secretary of State for Wales.

Nobel nominee

In 1970, Lewis was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His literary works include plays, poetry, novels and essays. He wrote mostly in Welsh, but he also wrote some works in English. By the time of his death in 1985 some rated him as amongst the most celebrated of Welsh writers.

Political criticisms

Lewis's perceived "elitist" views, "and a "condescending attitude towards some aspects of the Nonconformist, radical and pacifist traditions of Wales" drew criticism from fellow nationalists such as D. J. Davies, a leftist party member.[14] Davies argued in favour of engaging English-speaking Welsh communities, and stressed the territorial integrity of Wales. Davies pointed towards Scandinavian countries as a model to emulate, and was active in the economic implications of Welsh self-government.[30]

In many ways it was D. J. Davies's ideal of Welsh nationalism which was adopted after the Second World War, wrote John Davies. But it was Lewis's "brilliance and charismatic appeal" which was firmly associated with Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru in the 1930s.[22]

In 1936, in the midst of the turmoil of Tân yn Llŷn, Lewis praised Adolf Hitler when he said "At once he fulfilled his promise — a promise which was greatly mocked by the London papers months before that — to completely abolish the financial strength of the Jews in the economic life of Germany."[31] However, in the 1930s other British politicians also made favourable comments about fascist leaders.[32]

In 2001 Dafydd Elis-Thomas, himself a former Plaid Cymru President, declared in a television documentary on Lewis that he was "lousy as a politician, lousy as a writer, but a good Catholic".[33]

Literary activity

Lewis was above all a dramatist. His notable plays include Blodeuwedd (The woman of flowers) (1923–25, revised 1948), Buchedd Garmon (The life of Germanus) (radio play, 1936), Siwan (1956), Gymerwch chi sigarét? (Will you have a cigarette?) (1956), Brad (Treachery) (1958), Esther (1960), and Cymru fydd (Tomorrow's Wales) (1967). He also translated Samuel Beckett's En attendant Godot from French into Welsh. His plays drew on a wide range of material and covered a range of subject matter including Welsh mythology and history, as well as the Bible, although he also wrote plays set in contemporary Wales.

Lewis wrote the libretto for Arwel Hughes's opera Serch yw'r doctor (Love’s the doctor), based on Molière's L'Amour médecin (first performance 1960 by Welsh National Opera).[34]

He published two novels, Monica (1930) and Merch Gwern Hywel (The daughter of Gwern Hywel) (1964) and two collections of poems as well as numerous articles and essays in various newspapers, magazines and journals. These articles have been collected into volumes including: Canlyn Arthur (Following Arthur) (1938), Ysgrifau dydd Mercher (Wednesday essays) (1945), Meistri'r canrifoedd (Masters of the centuries) (1973), Meistri a'u crefft (Masters and their craft) (1981) and Ati ŵyr ifainc (Go to it, young men) (1986).

Published translations

• Lewis, Saunders (1997) [1930]. Monica. Translated by Stephens, Meic. Bridgend: Seren. ISBN 1-85411-195-7.
• Lewis, Saunders (1985–2002), The Plays of Saunders Lewis, 4 vols, translated by Joseph P. Clancy. ISBN 0-9540569-4-9, ISBN 0-7154-0648-5, 0954056957, 0715406523.
• Lewis, Saunders (1993), Selected Poems, translated by Joseph P. Clancy. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1194-6.

Honorary doctorate and demand for Latin mass

In March 1983, at the age of 89, Saunders Lewis was made an honorary Doctor of Letters of the University of Wales at a ceremony specially conducted at his home in Penarth. The Catholic Herald, reporting the honour, noted that in the previous year Lewis had made a plea for Mass to be said in Latin in Wales rather than in the "foreign language of English", which he pointed out was "a later arrival".[35]

Electoral record

Lewis contested the University of Wales Constituency on two occasions, once in the General election of 1931;

General election 1931: University of Wales

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Ernest Evans	2,229	75.4	+11.9
	Plaid Cymru	Saunders Lewis	914	24.6	N/A
Majority			1,315	50.8	+12.2
Turnout			3,143
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

and again in the University of Wales by-election of 1943.

25–29 January 1943 by-election: University of Wales

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William John Gruffydd	3,098	52.3	-9.0
	Plaid Cymru	Saunders Lewis	1,330	22.5	N/A
	Independent	Alun Talfan Davies	755	12.8	N/A
	Independent Labour	Evan Davies	634	10.7	N/A
	Independent Labour	N.L. Evans	101	1.7	N/A
Majority			1,768	29.8	+7.2
Turnout			5,918	53.4	-9.0
Registered electors			11,079
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

References

1. Bevan is ultimate Welsh hero extracted 12-04-07
2. Chapman, T. Robin (2014). "Lewis, John Saunders". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
3. Williams, Gwyn A. (1993). "Saunders Lewis: Alien Face In The Mirror". Writ‌ing On The Line. Channel 4.
4. Kendall, Tim (22 February 2007). The Oxford Handbook of British and Irish War Poetry. OUP Oxford. p. 342. ISBN 978-0-19-928266-1.
5. Davies (1994a), pp. 415, 454
6. Davies (1994a), p. 544
7. Davies (1994a), p. 547
8. "PENARTH'S SECRET ROLE IN WELSH HISTORY". Plaid Cymru Penarth. 5 December 2013.
9. "Site of Plaid Cymru's founding, Pwllheli". History Points.
10. Morgan (2002), p. 206
11. Davies (1994a), p. 548
12. BBCWales History extracted 12-03-07 Archived 9 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
13. BBCWales history extracted 12-03-07 Archived 9 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
14. Davies (1994a), p. 591
15. "Royal plans to beat nationalism". BBC News. 8 March 2005. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
16. Jenkins (2007)
17. Manchester Guardian 1 August 1929
18. Davies (1994b)
19. Davies (1994b), pp. 70–71
20. RAF Penrhos
21. Davies (1994a), p. 593
22. Davies (1994a), p. 592
23. Davies (1994a), p. 599
24. Davies (1994a), p. 598
25. Davies (1994a), p. 610
26. Davies (1994a), p. 611
27. Morgan (2002)
28. BBCWales History extracted 12-03-07 Archived 9 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
29. BBCWales History extracted 12-03-07 Archived 9 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
30. Davies (1994a), pp. 591–592
31. United Kingdom Parliament: Debate on Government of Wales Act 1998. Retrieved 31 August 2006.
32. Canadine, p. 52
33. "Plaid founder blasted". WalesOnline. 26 March 2013. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
34. "Serch yw'r Doctor (Love's the Doctor)". Opening Night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres. Stanford University Library. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
35. The Catholic Herald 4 March 1983

Sources

• Griffiths, Bruce (1989), Saunders Lewis. Writers of Wales series. Cardiff: University of Wales Pres. ISBN 0-7083-1049-4.
• Jones, Alun R. & Gwyn Thomas (Eds.) (1973), Presenting Saunders Lewis. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-0852-X.
• Jones, Harri Pritchard (1991), Saunders Lewis: A Presentation of His Work. Illinois: Templegate. ISBN 0-87243-187-8.
• 'Lewis, Saunders (1893–1985)'. In Meic Stephens (Ed.) (1998), The New Companion to the Literature of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1383-3.
• Chapman, T. Robin (2006), Un Bywyd o Blith Nifer: Cofiant Saunders Lewis. Llandysul: Gomer. ISBN 1-84323-709-1 (in Welsh; the only complete biography).

Bibliography

• Davies, John (1994a). A History of Wales. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-014581-8.
• Davies, John (1994b). Broadcasting and the BBC in Wales. University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1273-X.
• Jenkins, Geraint H. (2007). A Concise History of Wales. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-53071-2.
• Morgan, Kenneth O. (2002) [1981]. Rebirth of a Nation: Wales, 1880–1980. History of Wales. 6. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-821760-9.

External links

• Saunders Lewis and the "Tynged yr iaith" (= The fate of the Welsh language) lecture from the National Library of Wales website
• Saunders Lewis, 'The Banned Wireless Talk on Welsh Nationalism' (Caernarfon, 1930) from the Gathering the Jewels website.
• Paham y Llosgasom yr Ysgol Fomio (Why we Burnt the Bombing School) by Saunders Lewis and Lewis Valentine (1936, Plaid Cenedlaethol Cymru, Caernarfon): their speeches to the jury at the Caernarfon Assizes (in Welsh).
• James, E. Wyn. "Williams Pantycelyn". Gwales (in Welsh). Welsh Books Council. Review of Lewis's book Williams Pantycelyn