Morfydd Owen – Composer

Posted on September 2, 2026 by roathhistory

The Morfydd Owen story has it all. A woman of beauty and plentiful talent, famous friends, who died far too young aged 26, in unusual, and some would say suspicious circumstances.

Morfydd Owen (Pic Credit: Rhian Davies MA, 1994)

There is a new Morfydd Owen mural in Pontypridd where there is also an annual Morfydd Owen festival in October.

The Pontypridd Morfydd Owen Festival advertising – Pontypridd Museum

I’ll give a brief summary of her life but not go into too much detail as there is already plenty available online (see references at end of article). I will however then share some things which I’ve discovered during my research which may not have been shared previously in relation to Roath and Cardiff.

Morfydd Owen was born on 1^st Oct 1891 in Treforest to William Owen, a bookkeeper, originally from Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire and Sarah Jane Owen nèe Jones, a draper and milliner, originally from Merthyr Tydfil.

Blue plaque on the birthpace of Morfydd Owen, 68 Park Street, Treforest.

On her father’s side she is believed to be descended from William Williams, Pantycelyn, the famous Welsh hymn writer. On her mother’s side there is thought to be Romany stock. Put those two things together and we have an explanation for her musical talent and dusky appearance.

Her twin brothers William and Richard had been born five years previously at 15 Mackintosh Place, Roath. She was schooled in Treforest (and possibly Roath – see later).

Morfydd’s musical talent shone through at a young age and when her learning outpaced local music teachers in Treforest, she travelled to Cardiff to be tutored privately by Professor David Evans, head of Music at Cardiff University. Whether that was at the university or his home in Cefn Coed Road is not clear. She wrote her first composition in 1908 at the age of 17.

Two years later she won the Caradog scholarship in composition and started studying music at Cardiff University. She graduated two years later aged 21 having already penned around twenty compositions. Also in 1912 she attended the Wrexham Eisteddfod where she was admitted to the Gorsedd of the Bards under the name Morfydd Llwyn Owen, a reference to where her father came from in Montgomeryshire.

After graduating in Cardiff she went to the Royal Academy in London.

Morfydd is probably best known as a composer but she was also a talented mezzo-soprano vocalist and pianist. It wasn’t just classical music that occupied her. She also wrote accompaniments to Welsh folk songs.

Her time in London was musically productive and she penned many compositions. Her social circles were initially her fellow students at the Royal Academy and the London-Welsh chapel attending community at Charing Cross Presbyterian Chapel but then a third friendship group appeared, the Bohemian society in Hampstead which included D.H.Lawrence. It was through this group that she met and quickly married psychoanalyst Dr Ernest Jones, an atheist with a flamboyant lifestyle and friend and biographer of Sigmund Freud. Her musical output began to diminish as married life took over.

Eighteen months after being married Morfydd and Ernest went on holiday and stayed with his parents in Mumbles. It was there that she became seriously ill. Appendicitis was diagnosed. An operation to remove the appendix was hastily arranged and took place at the family home in Craig-y-môr, Thistleboon, Mumbles but died a few days later after developing a high temperature. In his autobiography Ernest Jones explains the death was due to chloroform being used as the anesthetic. She is buried in Oystermouth Cemetery. The headstone is inscribed with a quotation in German from Goethe’s Faust. In translation it reads ‘Here the indescribable consequences (of love) have been fulfilled’.

There has always been speculation over the circumstances of her death. Was it the result of the anaesthetic or was it blood poisoning caused by infection? There was also speculation that she may have been pregnant at the time but not by Ernest Evans. The one certainly was that her death was a loss of a very talented young musician.

Grave of Morfydd Owen at Oystermouth Cemetery, Sept 2026

A bit of family history

I know what it’s like when people like me write about family history. It must be so easy to lose the plot. To make things a bit easier I have sketched out a simplified Morfydd Owen family tree.

The Roath Connection

We know that the twins, Richard Austin Owen and William David Owen, were born at 15 Mackintosh Place on 10 Nov 1886. By 1888 the Owen family had moved to Treforest where Maldwyn Hugh Owen was born. He died in infancy on 17 Oct 1891, aged three, just a couple of weeks after Morfydd herself was born on 1 Oct 1891.

Written accounts of Morfydd Owen state that she and her twin brothers were schooled in Treforest and Pontypridd but some school records more recently digitized and available on Find My Past tend to suggest they lived part of the time in Cardiff.

In 1889 Morfydd’s admission to Wood Street Board School, Treforest states that her previous school was in Cardiff. I would have tended to overlook that had it not been for finding three school records for her twin brothers.

1889 Morfydd’s admission to Wood Street Board School (Find My Past)

In 1895 on entering Wood Road Boys School, Treforest their records say their previous school was Stacey Road, Cardiff.

1895 Wood St admission record for the twins (Find My Past)

In 1899, again at entering Wood Road school in Treforest their records state they previously went to Albany Road school in Cardiff.

1889 Admission Record – Wood St School (Find My Past)

In 1899 the twin brothers are admitted to Howard Gardens School in Cardiff. On this admission form they are recoded as living at 46 Miskin Street, Cathays, their previous school being Roath Park Board School.

1899 twin brothers admission to Howard Gardens School, Cardiff (Find My Past)

Why do their records show that they seemingly attended every school in Roath? Were they actually flitting between Treforest and Roath? Maybe if I search I will find some relative in the Roath area they were living with.

There is something to support the fact that the Owen children may have moved around in childhood between relatives. At the time of the 1891 census neither of the four year old twin brothers, William nor Richard, were living with their parents. William was with his paternal grandparents in Penrhiwceibr and Richard with his maternal grandparents in Cilfynydd.

Father – William Owen and his annus horribilis

1918 was to be an awful year for William Owen, Morfydd’s father. In April 1918 his wife Sarah passed away. She is buried in the graveyard next to the now abandoned Saron Chapel, Treforest along with their infant son Maldwyn. I tried to visit the grave recently but the church is abandoned and the whole graveyard has become overgrown and impassible.

Saron Chapel, Treforest 2026 – Cemetery now overgrown

On 7 Sep 1918 Morfydd herself died in Mumbles and buried a few days later in Oystermouth Cemetery. Newspaper reports appear to show her father William and the twin brothers attended the funeral.

A month later on 11 Oct 1918 William David Owen had made it back to France but died in a military hospital of influenza.

So in the space of six months William Owen had lost his wife and two of his three remaining children.

He moved to Cardiff living initially in Colum Road. He remarried to Ethel Parry in 1926 and they had a son Huw Parri Owen (1926-1996) who went to Cardiff High School and went on become Professor of Theology at Aberystwyth and Bangor.

In his time in Cardiff William Owen attended Plasnewydd Presbyterian church (now the Gate Arts Centre).

William Owen (sharpened image) (Photo Credit: Megan Thompson via Rhian Davies MA, 1994)

William Owen died on 14 Jul 1948, aged 83, at his house 63 Park Place, Cardiff, a building now part of Cardiff University. He is buried in Cathays Cemetery (plot EG1720). Other articles state that the grave could not be found as the area was completely overgrown but when I visited it was clear. William appears to be buried on his own. His second wife Ethel died in Bangor in 1962.

Grave of William Owen, father of Morfydd Owen at Cathays Cemetery

Brother – William David Owen

As already stated William Owen died in WWI. As he was born in Roath we have included him on our Roath Virtual War Memorial. Here is his summary on the memorial:-

WILLIAM DAVID OWEN

2^nd Lieutenant, 15^th Battalion, Welsh Regiment

William David Owen and his twin brother Richard Austin were born on 10 Nov 1886 at 5 Mackintosh Place, Roath to William Owen, an accountant, originally from Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire and Sarah Jane Owen nèe Jones originally from Methryr. In 1891 the twins were living separately with different grandparents; William in Penrhiwceibr. They attended Albany Road and Roath Park primary schools then Wood Road board school in Treforest before being registered at Howard Gardens School, Cardiff. In 1901 the Owen family were living together in Castle Street, Treforest including their sister Morfydd who was to go on to become a composer of notoriety. After leaving school William became a bank clerk with the London and Provincial Bank. At the time of the 1911 census he was working in Ruthin, Denbighshire. He later worked in a bank in Cowbridge. William married Ivy Keturah Owen in Portsmouth in 1917. William had joined the Officer Training Corps. He held a temporary commission in the 4th Battalion the Welch Regiment (a territorial battalion). He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieut on 26 Sep 1917. He was serving with the 15th (Service) Battalion Welsh Regiment when he died from influenza in a British military hospital near Lyon on the 11 Oct 1918, aged 31. A newspaper report said he had been on his way to Salonika. He is buried in Saint-Germain-au-Mont-d’Or Communal Cemetery Extension, France. Commonwealth War Graves Commission record. He is also remembered on the Cowbridge War Memorial and on the Welsh Regiment WW1 Memorial in Sandhurst and the Pontypridd War Memorial in Ynysangharad Park. His sister, Morfydd Owen, had died tragically a month before William in Mumbles, aged 25. William’s daughter was born after he died, in April 1919 and given the middle name Morfydd after his sister. Megan Morfydd Owen lived to be 100 years old.

William David Owen and war grave in France (Photo Credit: Rhian Davies MA, 1994 & Find a Grave.com)

Brother – Richard Austin Owen

After leaving school Richard become an elementary school teacher himself. At the time of the 1911 census he is living with his parents and sister Morfydd at Wain House, Treforest.

In WWI he served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (service no.16377).

On 26 May 1917 he married Margaret Mary Evans in Pontypridd. He returned to the front and received a gunshot wound in the right hand on 2 Aug 1917.

At the time of the 1921 census Richard and his wife and first child William are living with his father at Colum Road and he is teaching at Grangetown Boys School. He later taught at Gladstone School, Cathays. Richard and Margaret had three children together.

Richard Austin Owen (Photo Credit: Rhian Davies MA, 1994)

He died in 1931, aged 45, and is buried in Cathays Cemetery (grave EJ523).

Richard’s widow, Margaret Mary Owen, remarried Thomas William Pugh, father of Muriel Agnes Pugh the Royal Eye Surgeon, subject of one of our previous blogs. Margaret died in Cardiff in 1976 and is buried with her first husband Richard ‘Richie’ Owen in Cathays Cemetery.

Grave of Richard Austin and Margaret Owen in Cathays Cemetery, Cardiff

Remembering Morfydd

In honour of Morfydd’s vibrancy & quirkiness the annual festival named after her in Pontypridd has a lampshade parade. When Morfydd was in London she decided on upcycling old lampshades and wearing them as hats. So I’ll leave you there as I head off to the charity shop to choose between a pleated, round or bell lampshade.

References:

Never so pure a sight – Morfydd Owen (1891-1918) – Rhian Davies (1994) (Gomer press)

Rhian Davies, ‘An incalculable loss’: Morfydd Owen (1891-1918) – Illuminate Women’s Music (2018)

Morfydd Owen – Eliot-Crawshay-Williams, Wales No. 35, Dec. 1958 (National Library of Wales)

Oh can it be that evermore she sleeps? Morfydd Owen (1891-1918): A Centenary Lecture – Rhian Davies MA. Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1991)

Morfydd Llwyn Owen of Treforest – Welldigger blog post (2014).

Blue Plaque in Thistleboon – The Story of Mumbes (2026)

Morfydd Llwyn Owen facts for kids – Kiddle Encyclopedia (2025)

Morfydd Owen – Radio Wales Arts Show (2018)

Where’s my Gunn?

Posted on August 2, 2026 by roathhistory

I hadn’t previously come across the Gunn brothers, John and Marcus, which is somewhat surprising considering they appear to have been prominent in Cardiff life in the late 1800s.

They hailed from Halkirk, Caithness, in Scotland, just about as far north east as you can go on mainland Scotland without falling off the edge.

Both Gunn brothers lived in Roath at different times so fear not, there is a Roath connection.

John Gunn

John Gunn, born 1837, was the first to come to Cardiff. His father, Donald, educated him with a view to him entering the legal profession but John was determined to seek his fortune in commercial pursuits and left home at 17. He appears in the 1871 census living with his sister Helen in Charles Street, Cardiff and working as a travelling draper.

Later that year he married Sarah Jane Hill, daughter of Thomas Hill, who ran a glazing and plumbing business. In 1872 they had a son together, John Donald Gunn, when living at Dyffryn Villa, Roath Road (later renamed Newport Road). Poor John tragically died in infancy, an all too common occurrence at the time. They had two more sons together before Sarah Jane herself died at the young age of 27. She, together with her infant child and her mother, are buried together in Cathays Cemetery. Their grave has a grand and distinctive granite headstone topped with an octagonal obelisk and a cross. It is also unusual in that the inscription uses her maiden name (the first instance, though somewhat contrived, of me not being able to ‘find my Gunn’):

In Affectionate Remembrance of
Sarah Jane Hill
Wife of John Gunn, Shipbuilder Cardiff.
Who died January 9th 1875, aged 27 years.

And
John Donald, their son
Who died August 9th 1872, aged 11 weeks

Even the inscription for the mother uses Hill as a surname even though she had remarried James Walker when previously widowed. It makes me think that the Hill family had paid for the headstone:

In Affectionate Remembrance of
Sarah Ann Hill
Wife of James Walker
Duffryn Villa, Cardiff
Who died Nov 19th 1875, aged 60 years

Grave of Sarah Jane Gunn nee Hill at Cathays Cenetery (plot M1221).

John Gunn remarried on 30 Aug 1877 to Harriette Boyle from Antrim, Ireland. They married at Hollywood, County Down which explains why their house in Newport Road at the time of the 1881 census was called Hollywood House. The census also records that things had moved on apace for John Gunn. No longer is he a travelling draper but he is now a ship builder and engineer employing 306 people.

Harriett Gunn has seven children with John Gunn, six girls and a boy. In the 1891 and 1901 census they are living at Llandaff House, which is on the corner of Cardiff Road and Fairwater Road.

Llandaff House on Fairwater Road, former home of John Gunn

His business interests became very broad and spanned coal mining, transportation, shipping and insurance as we can see from the following list:-

Shipbuilder and Shipowner.
Owner of the Mount Stuart Dry Docks.
Chair of John Bland, Timber Merchants.
Director of Cardiff Railways Company (owner of the Bute Docks)
Director of Cardiff Collieries Ltd
Chair of Bristol and West of England Bank (which became amalgamated with Lloyds Bank.)
Director of Weston-Super-Mare Grand Pier Ltd
North British and Mercantile Insurance Ltd
President of Cardiff Chamber of Commerce.
Member of Cardiff Town Council.

John Gunn was also an active member of the Presbyterian Church. He was a founder member of the Presbyterian Church in Windsor Place (now City URC church) which cost £10,000 to build but which opened free of debt in 1866, largely it is thought to John Gunn’s financial contributions.

In 1898 he was knighted by Queen Victoria at Osborne Palace, Isle of Wight, after being transported from Portsmouth on board a specially chartered steamer.

The following year he was elected President of the Institute of Marine Engineers.

He stood for Parliament in the Unionist interest, campaigning against the idea of home-rule for Ireland but lost.

In 1902 he purchased Ty-To-Maen in St Mellons for £14,500 (£1.5 million today’s money) in an auction held at the Angel Hotel. It was advertised as having more than 30 rooms plus stables. The mansion had been built in 1885–9 by the Cardiff architect E. Bruce Vaughan for Richard Allen of Spillers flour mills. John Gunn lived there for 16 years until his death in 1918.

In 1903 the Gunn family entertained Right Honorable Joseph Chamberlain who was on his tour of South Wales drumming up support for his opposition to home rule. He arrived at Cardiff railway sation and drove off through barricaded streets lined with enthusiastic supporters to Ty-To-Maen, St Mellons.

I looked at the 1911 census for Ty-To-Maen in St Mellons expecting to find John and Henriette Gunn there but there were on holiday in The Empire Hotel, Bath at the time. The census does however record six of the Gunn children (aged 22-37) at home in Ty-To-Maen along with 11 servants.

Henriette died in 1914. The newspaper reports that the funeral took place in St Mellon’s Church and she was buried in a grave ‘close to the porch in the shadow of a clump of yew trees’. John died in January 1918.

So here’s my second instance of ‘Where’s my Gunn?’ I haven’t been able to find their headstone in two visits to the St Mellon’s church graveyard. I have however found a booklet of monumental inscriptions from St Mellon’s Church made in 1940-47 and the Gunn headstone is listed. So we know it was legible in the 1940s. If anyone spots it in the churchyard perhaps they could let me know please.

St Mellons Parish Church (pic credit: Jaggery on Geograph)

After the death of John Gunn, Ty-To-Maen was sold to Sir William Edgar Nicholls, the manager of Spillers, who gave the house and its estate to the Cardiff Royal Infirmary, when it became the William Nicholls Convalescent Home.

It is certainly good to see that the building has survived and today it is St John’s College, a Catholic independent school, sat neatly in the middle of new housing in Old St Mellons. Quite how that would have sat with the politics of Sir John Gunn I don’t know.

John Gunn had ten children in total, nine living into adulthood. Quite a number remained unmarried or had few children themselves. One of the daughters, Annie Gunn married Sir George Penny, 1st Viscount Marchwood. He must have had a good head for numbers as he was both treasurer of the Conservative party and treasurer of the royal household.

Marcus Gunn

Marcus was born in 1842, five years after his brother John, also in Halkirk, Caithness. Early on in life he had looked to the ministry as a possible career but ended up heading south to Cardiff, nine years after his brother.

He married Mary Elizabeth Yeandle, in Cheltenham in 1877 who went on to have seven children, five sons and two daughters. In 1881 they were living at 22 St Andrews Crescent. A few years later in 1887 they lived at Duffryn Villa, Halswell Terrace, Newport Road. In the 1890s the Gunn family lived at Preswylfa, Clive Road before moving again to the very grand 22 Cathedral Road, a house which they named St Albans.

As well as being a co-director in the family shipbuilding firm with his brother he became most admired for his public work in particular to the Free Library. The Free library was the precursor to today’s Public Libraries. He was a very well-read individual and personally assisted in selecting books to go into the Free Library. Newspaper reports say that there had been times when the Free Library Committee could not do what it desired on account of the low state of funds and on many such occasions Marcus Gunn had come forward and given the money required.

He was also a member of the Windsor Place Presbyterian church but unlike his brother he took no active part in politics.

Marcus Gunn was a reserved man who expressed his thoughts in few words. And yet, gifted with a beautiful voice, and mind richly stored with a liberal education in early life, and wide reading, he was capable of great eloquence but very rarely exercised his gifts as a speaker.

22 Cathedral Road, the Marcus Gunn household

He died at age just 54 at his home in Cathedral Road in July 1899. He is buried at Cathays Cemetery. But here’s another case of ‘Where’s my Gunn?’. His wife’s name os on the grave and two of his sons are also remembered on it but not Marcus himself. The top of the headstone is missing so I’m guessing that part contained his name at one stage.

After he died his friends and colleagues on the Free Library Committee paid for a bronze bust of him to be made by the renowned sculptor Goscombe John. The bust of Marcus Gunn was unveiled at the Free Library and it sat of a plinth on the staircase, overlooking the main corridor. I imagine Goscombe John must have been pleased to see his work on display in the very building in which he had trained to become a sculptor.

That brings me on to my last and most mysterious case of ‘Where’s my Gunn?’ The last mention of the bronze bust I can find is the unveiling. There seems to be no mention of it in any itinerary of Goscombe John works. Has he been consigned to a storeroom somewhere or did the temptation of a lump of valuable bronze on a public staircase prove too much for someone one day?

Missing Marcus Gunn bust by Goscombe John

After the death of her husband, Mary Gunn moved to London with a number of her children. She died in 1913 and is also buried at Cathays Cemetery in the family grave along with son Ernest Gunn who died in 1916. Two of his younger siblings were killed the same year in WWI. Their entries on our Roath Virtual War Memorial appear below.

KENNETH GUNN

Lieutenant, 2nd Battalion (attached to 1st Battalion), Black Watch (Royal Highlanders).

Kenneth Gunn was born in Cardiff on 8 Jun 1885 to Marcus Gunn, a shipowner and director of the Mount Stuart Dry Locks Ltd, originally from Halkirk, Caithness, Scotland and Mary Elizabeth Gunn nèe Yeandle, originally from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Kenneth attended Llandaff Cathedral School and later Repton Pubic School, Derbyshire. In the 1890s the Gunn family lived at Preswylfa, Clive Rd, Canton before moving to 22 Cathedral Road. Kenneth became a marine engineer and in 1911 was living at 25 North Gate, Marylebone, London with his widowed mother and siblings. In WWI he enlisted in the London Scottish Regiment before he and his brother, Marcus Sinclair Gunn, obtained commissions in the Black Watch. He was thrice wounded, once in Oct 1915 when in charge of a bombing party. Kenneth was killed in action on 4 Apr 1916 on the western front in France, aged 27. He is buried at Noeux-les-Mines Communal Cemetery (plot I.K.30). The address given in his probate was 16 Windsor Esplanade, Cardiff and his obituary states he worked for Messrs John Shearman & Co, Barry. He is remembered on his parents grave in Cathays Cemetery and the City URC WWI Memorial, Llandaff Cathedral School Memorial, Repton School Memorial, Thames Rowing Club Memorial at Putney. Commonwealth War Graves Commission record. His brother Marcus Sinclair Gunn also died in WWI.

Kenneth Gunn (pic credit: Imperial War Museums) and his inscription on his parents grave at Cathays Cemetery, Cardiff.

MARCUS SINCLAIR GUNN

Lieutenant, 1st Battalion, Black Watch (Royal Highlanders).

Marcus Sinclair Gunn was born in Cardiff on 29 May 1890 to Marcus Gunn, a shipowner and director of the Mount Stuart Dry Locks Ltd, originally from Halkirk, Caithness, Scotland and Mary Elizabeth Gunn nèe Yeandle, originally from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. In the 1890s the Gunn family lived at Preswylfa, Clive Rd, Canton before moving to 22 Cathedral Road. He was educated at Blundell’s School, Tiverton, Devon from Jan 1902 to Apr 1906 where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps. After leaving school Marcus worked as an insurance broker for C.T. Bowring (Insurance) Ltd, Lloyd’s brokers and lived at 26 North Gate, Regent’s Park in London with his widowed mother and brother. When in London he rowed for the Thames Rowing Club and boxed for the Belsize Boxing Club. On the 4 Aug 1914 he applied for a commission and expressed a preference for the South Staffordshire Regiment in his application. Unable to wait for a response, he re-enlisted at 59 Buckingham Gate on the 5 Aug 1914 as a Private for a four-year term of service in his old battalion the 1/14th Battalion London Regiment (London Scottish). At his medical examination it was recorded that Marcus was 5 ft 11¾” tall and that he weighed 13 stone 4 pounds. After five weeks of training at St Albans he embarked for France with his battalion from Southampton on the 15 Sep 1914, landing at Le Havre the following morning. They became the first Territorial Army unit to see action on the Western Front during the Great War. He was wounded twice and then awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry near Hulluch from 25 to 27 Sep 1915 when he brought his machine-guns into action on two occasions under very heavy rifle and shell fire, in order to support attacks. He also rescued many wounded men, who were lying under fire between the lines. He was injured again at the Battle of the Somme on 2 Sep 1916 amd died of his wounds four days later on 6 Sep 1916, aged 26. Marcus is buried at Heilly Station Cemetery (Plot III, Row E, Grave 22). He is remembered on his parents grave in Cathays Cemetery and the City URC WWI Memorial, Blundell’s School War Memorial, Thames Rowing Club Memorial at Putney and the Lloyds of London War Memorial. Commonwealth War Graves Commission record. His brother Kenneth also died in WWI.

Marcus Sinclair Gunn (pic crdit: Imperial War Museums) and his inscription on his parents grave at Cathays Cemetery, Cardiff.

Thames Rowing Club war memorial at Putney includes the names of the two Gunn brothers.

City URC Church, Windsor Place, Cardiff – WWI memorial including the names of the Gunn brothers.

Stop Press – Missing Sir William Goscombe John bust of Marcus Gunn found

I had made enquiries regarding the missing Goscombe John bust of Marcus Gunn in places such as the Cardiff Story Museum, National Museum of Wales, St Fagans Museum, the City Hall and all had come back negative. Then somebody mentioned that the Cardiff Libraries archives contain more than just books. A few more enquiries and bingo! There it was in the library archives. I haven’t seen it in person as yet but have kindly been sent a photograph and it is indeed Marcus Gunn. One day we may be able to put him upright again!

Marcus Gunn bust by Sir William Goscombe John (Pic credit: Cardiff Libraries).

The Life of Welsh Boxing Champion John O’Brien

Posted on July 22, 2026 by roathhistory

John O’Brien was a tough character, there’s no doubting that. A Welsh Boxing Champion, with potential to go further. He lived through the era where boxing transitioned from being an illegal bare-knuckle sport to being fought in the gentleman clubs of London through to larger sporting venues.

Newspaper reports hailed him a ‘The Roath Boxer’ or ‘The Milton Street Boxer’. The O’Brien family moved to Roath from Cardiff’s other Irish stronghold, Newtown, soon after John was born in 1867.

The ‘Poet Streets’ of Roath; Shakespeare Street, Milton Street and Byron Street, were at the heart of Roath’s Irish community in the late nineteenth century. New streets such as Shelly Walk and Dylan Place have since been added. The original terraced housing of Milton Street has all now gone. Milton Street has all but disappeared but the name remains in a street perpendicular to the original Milton Street.

John O’Brien’s Boxing Career

In May 1889 a bare-knuckle fight between John O’Brien and Jack Jones, known as Shoni Engineer, with a prize of £100 took place at Marshfield, between Newport and Cardiff. The fight was for the ‘Championship of Wales’. Twenty rounds were fought in about as many minutes. Shoni was virtually beaten after the first knock down blow from O’Brien and frequently afterwards went down to avoid blows from O’Brien. In the twentieth round Shoni’s second threw in the sponge. According to the paper, neither of the men were much injured. The Newport police arrived when the fight was over after the principles and seconds had left the ground. The boxers were later arrested and bound over to keep the peace.

In Liverpool in Feb 1890 O’Brien fought Felix Scott. He broke his arm in the first round but hid he fact and still managed to win in three rounds.

John O’Brien then moved to London, fighting against Ted Bryant in Nov 1890, but losing in 47 seconds, including the count. Undeterred O’Brien next fought favourite Ted White at the Soho Pelican Club, beating him without the use of gloves and obtaining the ‘English’ belt.

In Dec 1891, at the National Sporting Club, he met another boxer from Cardiff and a former Guardsman, Alf Mitchell, again winning. The National Sporting Club became the principal centre for elite professional boxing in Britain during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In the fifth round O’Brien floored Mitchell no fewer than five times. He was knocked down twice more the seventh round ending the fight. The purse was £300, equivalent to over £30,000 in today’s money. O’Brien beating Mitchell gained him the recognition as being the best boxer in Britain.

Next he was scheduled to challenge world champion Bob Fitzimmons in New Orleans. O’Brien was however struck down with sciatica, an illness to last two years. A similar match with Ted Pritchard, a Merthyr-born boxer, in London was also missed.

In 1894 the Welsh Heavy Championship was fought against Dai St John at the National Sporting Club, London for £150. O’Brien won in the fifth round despite injuring his hand. St John was later to be killed in the Boer War.

John O’Brien however met his match in American champion Frank Craig, the ‘Harlem Coffee Cooler’, in 1894. O’Brien was knocked down in the first round. A famous incident is said to have happened here when Criag ordered a telegram to his landlady after the first round requesting that she start baking his favourite apple dumplings for supper as ‘he wouldn’t be long’. He disposed of O’Brien in the second round. The ‘Cooler’ on the termination of the fight returned to his dressing room and indulged in his favourite pastime of producing a sweet lullaby on his harmonica.

Newspaper sketch of the John O’Brien versus Frank Craig, the ‘Harlem Coffee Cooler’ fight in 1894

In 1895 he was involved in an unplanned rematch. Craig’s scheduled opponent, Pritchard, was taken ill so John O’Brien stepped in but was in no fair condition having been drinking. The fight only lasted one round. A newspaper report of the time makes sad reading:

The facts as we gathered them were that on Good Friday the Welshman received a wire inviting him to take Pritchard’s place in the advertised contest. Known to be utterly unfit for the task set out for him, and advised to stay at home, the big fellow would come south, and instantly packing his bag, and presumably providing himself with a wee drop of stingo, of which he didn’t spill much when the cork was drawn during the journey up, he arrived at the London terminus in very jolly condition. How it came about that the poor’ fellow was allowed to mount the stage passes comprehension, for he was manifestly as drunk as the proverbial fiddler… he stumbled through the ropes into the ring, reaching his seat in safety by holding on to a friendly rope, and seated on his chair, with dropped jaw and glazed eye, he looked, as he was, in hopeless condition.

John O’Brien’s boxing career was all but over. He returned to living in Cardiff, reputedly losing his crown to Ted James.

Some Misdemeanours

John O’Brien was no angel. The newspapers report a number of incidents:

In May 1890 ‘John O’Brien, champion pugilist, appeared at Cardiff police court, and was sentenced to three months imprisonment with hard labour for assaulting two foreigners, Antonio Prestonivitch and John Leho and one month for assaulting the police. The assault was of a very violent character’.

In 1892 John O’Brien was cleared of assaulting Henry Miller with an iron bar at 42 Peel Street, Cardiff. A witness claimed that the complainant had an open knife in his hand at the time of the assault and it was a case of self-defence.

In June 1895 a police constable encountered a crowd of rough-looking young men in the vicinity of Sophia Gardens Field wending their way rather boisterously in the direction of the field and in their mist was the Welsh pugilistic champion Jonny O’Brien. The policeman suspected a pugilistic encounter and ordered them away though the crowd was much incensed by this unforeseen interruption to their afternoon sport.

In April 1911 the Western Mail in an article headlined ‘The Pugilist’s Trouble’ described how he was charged with selling beer without a licence at 3 Duffryn Street having thus succumbed to the temptations of the Sunday Closing Act. On the arrival of the police O’Brien threatened them with a poker.

The Genealogy bit

Rarely have I had such a tough genealogy nut to crack. I must admit I am still not 100% convinced I have it right but let me share with you my thoughts and if anyone can add anything then I’d be keen to hear.

This isn’t the first Roath O’Brien family I’ve studied. I researched Billy Brian – the trick cyclist. It was whilst researching him did I discover the difficulty of O’Brien research. The O’ is sometimes dropped and the spelling regularly changes, so it can be Brien, Brian or Bryan etc.

Birthplace

I believe John O’Brien was born on 27 Nov 1867 at 15 Thomas Street in the Newtown district of Cardiff. His birth is registered under the name John Brian. His parents are registered as being John Brian, general labourer and Catherine Brian formerly Donovan. His birth certificate took a bit of finding as I had been looking for O’Brien and not Brian. His parents were both originally from Cork, Ireland.

Discovering he was born in Thomas Street in agreement with Gareth Jones in his book The Boxers of Wales Vol 1 (2009).

John O’Brien’s elder brother, Michael O’Brien, was also born at 15 Thomas Street, on 5^th Aug 1865, but interestingly registered under the surname O’Brien.

John O’Brien’s birth place, Thomas Street, and death place, Duffryn Street.

By 1871 the O’Brien family had moved to Roath and were living at 15 Milton Street. Ten years later they were still in Milton Street but living at No.52 (where Shelley Gardens now is).

Milton Street, Roath as it was in the 1880s and now

At the time of the 1891 Census John O’Brien, Pugilist (boxer) is a visitor at 11 Rigault Road, Fulham, London.

In 1901 he was back in Cardiff living at 3 Duffryn Street, Newtown working as a labourer in the steel works. It shows him as being married to Bridget O’Brien from Ireland. I haven’t been able to find any records of this marriage.

His younger sister Ellen O’Brien was born on 22 Apr 1874 at 15 Milton Street. She lived with her parents at 52 Milton Street in 1881 and 1891 and married William Leahy in 1898, living at 19 Milton Street (1901) and 18 Milton Street (1911).

The O’Brien family seem to move to different houses in Milton Street occupying No 13 (1871), No 15 (1874), No 52 (1881 & 1891). As the children grow up some marry and stay in Milton Street.

Michael O’Brien (brother) married Catherine O’Neil and they initially shared a house with his parents (1891) and then moved to 63 Milton Street (1901 & 1911). He died in 1914 and is buried at Cathays Cemetery (Grave R3882)

There are at least four other O’Brien siblings who I haven’t researched: Mary, James, Patrick and Honora.

There are a couple of anomalies regarding the birth details of John O’Brien.

In the South Wales Echo on 22 Dec 1891, reporting on a match between John O’Brien and Alf Mitchell, it stated ‘Like Mitchell, O’Brien has also served in the Guards, though with less distinction. He was born at John Street, or, as it is known now Nora Street, Roath some 22 years ago’.

Another anomaly is much more recent, from a couple of letters in the South Wales Echo (28 Oct 1989), which state O’Brien was ‘born in Roath on 20 Dec 1867’.

Death

John O’Brien died in the Infirmary on 25 Mar 1911, aged 43, from chronic nephritis and cardiac failure. The newspaper noted that he had been suffering from rheumatism for a number of years. On his death certificate he was described as a dock labourer living at 1 Dyffryn Street. His sister, Ellen Leahy, was in attendance. The paperwork is somewhat confusing with his death certificate stating he was 39 and his burial recoding him as 44.

He is buried in an unmarked grave (R4412) at Cathays Cemetery. The newspaper records that his sister Ellen thanks people, in particular champion boxer Morgan Crowther, for ‘defraying the cost of the late John O’Brien’s funeral’.

John O’Brien grave at Cathays Cemetery plot R4412

Cardiff Street Ballad

In a letter published by the South Wales Echo on 28 Oct 1989, Bill Barnett wrote: He is mentioned in the Cardiff Street ballad “I met John O’Brien outside the Cambrian and we all got drunk at Steve O’Donnell’s wake”. I wonder if the words and tune of this Cardiff ballad still survive.

How did I get here?

By complete accident as is often the case. I wasn’t researching Welsh boxers. I researching a fallen solider Michael O’Brien. His records stated his father was John and wife Catherine and some more research showed his sister was Ellen O’Brien. A lot seemed to fit with the O’Brien family of Milton Street, Roath, but not everything. It was during that research that I tripped over the fact that John O’Brien of Milton Street was a boxer and that he is buried in Cathays Cemetery and from that moment I was hooked. That’s the beauty of local history research.

Crumbs! I never knew that.

Posted on July 18, 2026 by roathhistory

When I first read that the man I was researching was born in Union Buildings I wrongly assumed it was the Cardiff Workhouse. I was only after I got his birth certificate and read No.12 Union Buildings did I realise it was the name of a street and began to look elsewhere.

I then read somewhere that Union Buildings had become the Morgan Arcade. I put out a plea on the ‘Cardiff Now & Then’ Facebook group asking if anyone had a map with Unions Buildings marked on it. The good amateur historians of Cardiff came up trumps once again. Kim Judd pointed me towards some old and incredibly well detailed fire insurance maps of central Cardiff which has 12 Union Buildings marked on it.

Not only that, a while later a picture of Union Buildings was kindly posted by Kim.

Looking at the picture it appears that there is a group of people outside No.12 having a chat and drying a sheet. Is this the family I am researching I wonder?

Using the excellent National Library of Scotland side-by-side mapping facility I think I am able to tell that No.12 Union Buildings stood where the lovely Crumbs Kitchen now stands in the Morgan Arcade.

I had read that there were some ‘courts’ in central Cardiff; areas of dense small houses, but hadn’t realized that today’s gentrified arcades have replaced much of that Victorian housing.

How did I end up here? I was busy researching a fallen soldier ahead of putting him on the Roath Virtual War Memorial. Unlike many of the soldiers I research I had a lot of information to go on with Michael O’Brien but I just could not track down any addresses for where he had lived nor his genealogy.

From his Commonwealth War Graves Commission record I knew he was 37 when killed in 1917, and he was son of John O’Brien, of Cardiff; husband of Catherine O’Brien. A newspaper cutting told me he was a well-known Cardiff and District Rugby Union player and played in the league for Roath and Mackintosh clubs. Plus when he enlisted he was in the employment of Mr Wisbey, builder and contractor of Grangetown. Another war record told me that his sister was Ellen Alderman of Madras Street, Grangetown. How could I fail to find him with all that information? Try as I might however I just could not find any trace of him.

South Wales Daily News 13 April 1917 (picture credit: FindMyPast)

I kept homing in on an O’Brien family living in Milton Street, Roath. The names looked right but the ages did not. In looking at that family however I did find something very interesting! More of that in a separate blog.

The breakthrough to finding my Michael O’Brien finally came when I sketched out a family tree for him in Ancestry. Among the hints Ancestry offered me was that Michael O’Brien possibly appeared in someone else’s family tree though they had their tree set to ‘private’. I had nothing to lose so I contacted them and asked if ‘their’ Michael O’Brien was the same as the one I am researching. Turns out he was and they kindly provided me with some key bits of information.

It turned out that Michael’s father John had died when Michael was an infant and his mother Catherine had remarried to John Donovan. My Michael O’Brien therefore appeared as a step-son living with John and Catherine Donovan. The added confussion was that Donovan was Catherine’s maiden name before she had married John O’Brien.

The Birth Certificate of Michael O’Brien

You just wouldn’t believe how difficult it can be to research the name O’Brian and all the different ways it can be spelt. There is O’Brien, Brien and Brian, Byran with and without the O’. I’d already had experience of researching the surname when I looked at Billy Brian, the trick cyclist from Roath.

I still can’t locate him on the 1881 or 1901 census but he is probably there somewhere.

Piecing together all the bits of information I have been able to compile the following summary for Michael O’Brien in the Roath Virtual War Memorial.

MICHAEL O’BRIEN

Private, 6th Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (Service Number: 25506)

Michael O’Brien was born at 12 Union Buildings, Cardiff on 18 Aug 1880 to John O’Brien, a coal trimmer and Catherine O’Brien nèe Donovan, originally from Cardiff. He was baptized at the St David’s Roman Catholic church on 22 Aug 1880. Michael lost his father when he was an infant and his mother remarried to John Donovan in 1886. At the time of the 1891 census the family were living at 43 Mary Ann Street. In 1911, , aged 30, Michael was living with his mother and step-father at 190 Penarth Road and working as a mason’s labourer, employed by Wisbey builders and contractors. Michael was a well-known Cardiff District rugby union forward who played in the league for Mackintosh and Roath clubs (whether the family ever lived in the Roath area has yet to be established). During WWI he was a Private in the 6th Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. The battalion landed at Boulogne in May 1915. He was injured on 7 Sep 1916 and after that entitled to wear a wound stripe. Michael was killed in action on 12 Mar 1917, aged 37, in the Arras area, France. He is buried at the Beaurains Road British Cemetery just south of Arras (grave C24). Commonwealth War Graves Commission record. His next of kin was his sister Ellen Alderman.

What I still haven’t been able to find however is a link for him with Roath. Why was he playing his rugby in the Roath area I wonder? More research needed!

The Cardiff Mackintosh rugby team of 1910-11 that includes Michael O’Brien. But where was this picture taken I wonder?

Kenneth More and his Cardiff Roots

Posted on March 22, 2026 by roathhistory

It always surprises me where I happen to stumble upon local history stories. I have recently started a beer appreciation group in Cardiff u3a called ‘Hops R Us’. The idea being that we visit local hostelries, socialise and discuss the ales on offer. Having an interest in local history I find myself wanting to know more about the pub we intend to visit. In this instance we were heading for the Pen & Wig, 1 Park Grove, Cardiff.

Park Grove is a quiet street of Victorian houses close to the city centre. The relatively new Pen & Wig opened in 1994 so the house had a lot of history prior to that. A mirrored plaque inside the pub lists some previous inhabitants including pioneering ophthalmologist Sir Tudor Thomas. I did a bit of my own research and came up with some additional interesting people who had occupied 1 Park Grove.

In 1939 it was home of cinema organist Idris Thomas, originally from Bargoed. He moved to Cardiff when he was appointed organist at the Empire Theatre. Let the Wurlitzer music begin!

The 1911 census tells us it was home of Richard John Watkins, Solicitor and Superintendent Registrar of births, deaths and marriages in Cardiff.

Unfortunately, the life of Richard John Watkins came to a tragic end in 1924. By that time the family had moved to Penarth and Richard died of gas poisoning one night. He had gone to the bathroom in the middle of the night and accidentally tuned on a gas pipe. A verdict of accidental death was delivered by the coroner.

1924 newspaper report into the inquest of Richard Watkins

He is buried not in Penarth but in Cathays Cemetery, Cardiff.

Grave of Richard John Watkins at Cathays Cemetery.

Returning to the 1911 census for 1 Park Grove, I was keen to find the other child of Richard and Susan Watkins. It turns out to have been a daughter, Edith Winifred Watkins. She was baptized at St Margaret’s, Roath in 1890 when the family were living at 173 Castle Road, now called City Road. She married in 1910 which explains her absence from on the 1911 census. She married at St Andrew’s Church, a stone’s throw from their home in Park Grove. She married Charles Gilbert More, a civil engineer from Kenley, Surrey.

I’d been building up a family tree for the Watkins family in Ancestry.co.uk as I’d been gathering information and by now it was beginning to make suggestions as to other family members. And lo and behold what should I discover but that Edith and Gilbert More had two children one of whom was Kenneth More the actor! So Kenneth More’s mother used to live in what is now the Pen & Wig.

For the younger readers Kenneth More was a highly popular British actor, recognized as one of the UK’s biggest film stars during the 1950s and 1960s. Known for his charming, heroic, and dependable screen persona, he starred in classic films such as Genevieve (1953), Doctor in the House (1954) and Reach for the Sky (1956), He later starred in BBC’s The Forsyte Saga (1967)

I got hold of a copy of Kenneth More’s autobiography called ‘More or Less’. It makes interesting reading. He says his mother didn’t possess the solemnity of a solicitor’s daughter but ‘bubbled with vivacity like a glass of campaign’ and perhaps because of this was never called Edith but ‘Tops’, ‘Topsy’ or ‘Toppy’. She liked dressing up and had a wonderful infectious laugh.

Kenneth More describes his mother ‘Topsy’ and being free-living. I can imagine she was quite different to her father Richard Watkins who would have required an eye for detail in his job as Registrar for Cardiff. Kenneth More was born in Gerrards Cross. His birth certificate reveals that his birth was registered some nine months after his birth and his name registered as Gilbert Kenneth More. I can’t imagine his grandfather being impressed by such a late birth registration.

Kenneth More’s father Charles Gilbert ‘Bertie’ More inherited a considerable sum when his father died early meaning that Bertie didn’t need to seek a career. They had a high standard of living including employing three servants. Just as that first inheritance was running out and the lawyers circling, a second inheritance arrived. Kenneth More describes it as being from a friend of an aunt of his fathers. It was however around the time of Richard Watkin’s tragic death in 1924 and I’m left wondering if the money referred to was in fact his which the probate indicates he left to his two children one of whom was Edith ‘Topsy’.

Bertie More wasn’t that fond of children so Kenneth and his sister got sent off to boarding school at the age of six which Kenneth recalls as being a most miserable time in his life.

Bertie More served in the Royal Naval Air Service during WWI after which he continued his hobby of trying to invent things. He ‘invented’ a liqueur called Vespatrio at one stage, mixing spirits together and rebottling and relabeling them. It wasn’t a success.

Bertie More did find employment eventually as engineer of the Jersey Eastern Railway. I must confess I hadn’t even realized that Jersey had a railway at one stage. The More family, including Kenneth, moved over to Jersey in the summer of 1924 so his father could manage the eight mile long railway from St Helier to Gorey Castle.

Kenneth More’s father Bertie died young at aged just 46, of kidney failure. His mother Topsy and grandmother, who they called ‘Dear One’, moved to Weston-Super-Mare before both returning to live in Penarth. Susan ‘Dear One’ Watkins died in 1942 and Edith ‘Topsy’ More in 1950. I haven’t yet been able to find their burial place. Kenneth More described his mother’s funeral as being on a Welsh hillside. I wondered if it was St Augustine’s in Penarth but I can’t find her grave there.

One of the most popular talks I give is ‘Captain Scott and the Cardiff Connection’. In it I explore the reason why the Scott’s South Pole expedition left from Cardiff. As an active member of Friends of Cathays Cemetery I am keen to find connections between the Scott expedition and people buried in the cemetery but nobody on the expedition came from Cardiff, not even second in command Lieutenant ‘Teddy’ Evans. His claims to be Welsh appear dubious. He was born in London, his father in March, Cambridgeshire and his grandparent in Lancashire. His mother was from Kent.

It was therefore a relief to discover that in the film Scott of the Antarctic, Lieutenant Teddy Evans was played by none other than Kenneth More. So having discovered that Kenneth More’s grandfather is buried in Cathays Cemetery I think we can claim to have a connection to the Scott Expedition in the cemetery.

Loose ends:

If I haven’t already sent you to sleep here are some other odds and ends and some unanswered question I came across looking at the Kenneth More story:

It wasn’t just his grandfather Richard Watkins who was registrar for Cardiff. His great-grandfather Richard Reece Watkins (1824-1903) was also Cardiff Registrar as was his uncle Richard John Henry Watkins (1888-1954).

Kenneth More’s cousin Leonard John Stewart Watkins was also born in Gerrards Cross on 4 Nov 1914, a couple of weeks after Kenneth More was born (but at a different address). So I wonder what Edith ‘Topsy’ More and her brother Richard John Henry Watkins were doing both living in Gerrards Cross in 1914?

On Bertie More’s WWI papers he gives details of his next of kin i.e.his wife Edith ‘Topsy’ More. In 1914 he states she lives in Stanwell Road, Penarth and then later in the war in 1918 at the Marine Hotel, Porthcawl. If true, this seems to infer that Kenneth More spent some of his very early years in Wales.

I’ve described how the Watkins family were living at 1 Park Grove in 1911 and that’s also the address Edith gives on her wedding certificate in 1910. But at the time of the 1901 census and the 1921 census and the time of Richard Watkins tragic death in 1924 they lived at 47 Stanwell Road, Penarth. In 1911, 47 Stanwell Rd was occupied by another family. Did the Watkins family sell 47 Stanwell Rd, more to Cardiff and then re-purchase it later I wonder?

Anther question I haven’t answered is how 20 year old Edith met 25 year old Charles Gilbert More. Was it in Cardiff or in London or elsewhere. I looked for evidence of him having been in Cardiff but haven’t found any to date.

Of special interest to Roath:

Richard John Watkins (grandfather of Kenneth More) was also baptized at St Margaret Church, Roath, like his daughter Edith, though in his case it was at the original St Margaret Church which was later rebuilt He was baptized on 16 Jan 1861 when the family were living in Wordsworth Street, one of the early Roath streets.

The Watkins Family of Cardiff

Cardiff was a small town in the early 1800s with a population of just 2,000. The building of the Glamorganshire Canal and later the railways led to a burgeoning population and a lot of arrivals from other parts of Wales, Ireland and the West Country. Few families could claim to have their roots in Cardiff but the Watkins family did. One member, William Bradley Watkins (b.1812), became Mayor of Cardiff in 1865 and when he died in 1898 was described as ‘the oldest resident in Cardiff’. So Kenneth More, if he ever knew or chose to do so, could have described himself as having true Cardiffian roots.

One of Kenneth More’s cousins was named William Bradley Watkins (1917-80), presumably after his ancestor, the Mayor of Cardiff.

Feeling Thirsty?

So next time you are in town and feeling a little thirsty you may consider a visit to the Pen & Wig, grabbing a drink and sitting at the front of the bar next to the old fireplace and wondering if that is where vivacious Edith ‘Topsy’ Watkins, future mother of Kenneth More used to dress up and entertain the family.

Additional Information

Kenneth More’s Family Tree

Kenneth More interview mentioning his youth.

Another Kenneth More interview.

Margaret Lindsay Williams – Royal Portrait Artist

Posted on December 26, 2025 by roathhistory

In June this year our Newsletter contained the following interesting article by Gareth Brown on the acclaimed artist Margaret Lindsay Williams. Since then some more information has come to light concerning her birthplace and other aspects of her family life. Transcribing Gareth’s original article into an online blog had enabled the new information to be added as well as providing links to where examples of her pictures can be found etc. The new information has been added to the article is in italics.

*Margaret Lindsay Williams; Self Portrait; (credit: The National Library of Wales;* http://www.artuk.org/artworks/self-portrait-119880)

Margaret Lindsay Williams was a childhood prodigy as an artist and became well known as a portrait painter, whose subjects included the Royal family, politicians and leaders of industry and commerce. Yet these days she is barely known by the public of Barry, let alone Wales or Britain. The Pride in Barry/ Balchder yn y Barri blue plaque reads “Margaret Lindsay Williams 1888-1960 artist and portrait painter lived here.”

I first read about this lady when I prepared to give a talk in Capel i Bawb at Cardiff Royal infirmary in November 2022. I gained my initial information from Wikipedia and other internet sources. I learned that she was born in Cardiff on 18 June 1888 and died in London, probably in the St Marylebone district on 4 June 1960.

*Birth Certificate of Margaret Lindsay Williams*.

Margaret was born at 33 Gordon Road which is off Richmond Road in the Tredegarville area of Cardiff.

*Birthplace of Margaret Lindsay Williams, 33 Gordon Road, Tredegarville, Cardiff (image credit: Google Street View)*

I also learned that her father, Samuel A Williams, was a shipbroker at Barry docks and had moved from Cardiff, having been born in Neath. Her mother was Martha Margaret, née Lindsay, of Scottish descent and was born in Newport and that Margaret was the eldest of 2 daughters. I assumed, therefore, that Samuel had started his career as a shipbroker in Neath, then moved to Cardiff and then subsequently to Barry. However, after attending an excellent talk in the St Francis Millennium Hall in October 2024, organised by Art Central Friends entitled ‘Life is my Canvas’ and given by Dr Jonathan Hicks, ex headteacher at St Cyres Penarth, I learned that my knowledge was incomplete and rather inaccurate. Dr Hicks had researched the topic thoroughly and presented his findings excellently. His mission was to provide a headstone on the grave of this remarkable lady who had been in an unmarked grave in Barry cemetery until recent times, when a temporary marker was placed there. It is intended that a headstone on the grave will be unveiled at 12 midday on 21 June 2025, preceded by an introductory talk by Dr Hicks in the nearby community hall.

Armed with the additional family history given by Dr Hicks, I did my own genealogical research and confirmed that Margaret Lindsay Williams’ parents were married in the district of Cardiff in the 3rd quarter of 1884.

*The future queen, Princess Elizabeth wth Princess Margaret painted by Margaret Lindsay Wiliams* in 1937

Dr Hicks said that the family history was rather tragic and that two sons had been born but died before Margaret’s birth. I thought I would unable to find out their dates of birth and death and their names, particularly because the surname Williams is very common and a thorough search of birth and death records not knowing their Christian names would be exhausting and very expensive. But by chance I came across a Charles Lindsay Williams who died aged 0, registered in the death records in Cardiff in the 4th quarter of 1885 whose birth was registered in the 3rd quarter. As all the other children of Martha and Samuel had the middle name of Lindsay, this had to be one of Margaret’s brothers, as was Edgar Lindsay Williams whose death was registered in Cardiff in the 1st quarter of 1887 and birth registered in the 4th quarter of 1886.

*BIrth record of Margaret’s two younger brothers who both died in infancy*.

Charles Lindsay Williams died aged just 11 weeks and is buried in Cathays Cemetery (plot M330). Burial records show he was buried on 24 Oct 1885 and record that he was son of Samuel Arthur & Martha Margaret Williams – Commission Agent of Gordon Road. The plot is adjacent to one of the main paths in the cemetery but it is not marked with a headstone. In all likelihood, the other brother Edgar Lindsay Williams who died in the first quarter of 1887, is buried in the same plot.

*Plot M330 in Cathays Cemetery, Cardiff, burial place of Charles Lindsay Williams and probably his brother Edgar Lindsay Williams, both died in infancy.*

Charles Williams – grandfather of Margaret Lindsay Williams:

Death announcement of Charles Williams, June 1877

Samuel’s father Charles (grandfather of Margaret Lindsay Williams) died aged 52 in Cardiff and was buried in the parish of Cadoxton juxta Neath on 8 June 1877. He owned Loudoun Iron Foundry which was just to the west of Loudoun Square in Butetown.

*Loudoun Foundry (iron) shown on the west of Loudoun Square.*

In the 1881 census Samuel Williams (Margaret’s father), aged 20, was living as a boarder at 13 Longcross Street Cardiff. So we have a Roath or Adamsdown connection here! He is described as a shipbroker, born in Neath and there was a John Williams living as a boarder at the same address, a clerk ship broker, aged 22, also born in Neath. They are likely to be brothers. The head of household is William Lindsey, aged 54, a boilermaker born in Scotland. His wife is Margaret, aged 52, born in Scotland and their daughter Martha is 18 and born in Newport, Mon. The birth records include the birth of Martha Margaret Lindsay at Newport, Mon in the 4th qtr 1862. She was Samuel’s future wife. There is also a servant, Ann Davies, aged 15, born in Cardiff and another boarder, Benjamin Williams, 18, a butcher born in Aberdare.

In the 1871 census the Williams family were living at 5 Loudon Square, St Mary. Cardiff. Samuel’s parents Charles and Elizabeth were both 46 and born in Neath. Charles was an iron and brass founder. Their 20 year-old daughter Elizabeth was a labourer, as was their 18 year old son Charles. Miriam,15, was a scholar and then came John, 13, Samuel, 10, and Benjamin, 8. So it seems that this is likely to have been 18 yr old Benjamin the butcher in Longcross St in 1881. A nephew George Williams 20 was also there. All were born in Neath, apart from Benjamin who was born in Cardiff rather than Aberdare, according to this census!

The 1861 census finds the family living in the hamlet of Dyffryn Clydach in the parish of Cadoxton, ecclesiastical District of Skewen, Neath. Samuel at 6½ is the youngest child and his parents and elder siblings are all there. Therefore it would seem that Samuel only became a ship broker when he was in Cardiff as an adult, and it is likely that he moved to Barry where there may have been greater opportunities for a young ship broker to establish himself.

My reading informed me that from the age of 9, Margaret Lindsay Williams lived at 9 Windsor Road. This is wrong. The 1891 census of Barry, a town only recently developing after Number 1 Dock opened in 1889, shows the family at 9 Windsor Road. Her father is the head of family aged 30, born at Neath a ship broker agent. Her mother Martha M is 28 and born in Newport, Mon and speaks English only. Maggie Lindsay Williams herself is 2, born in Cardiff, and English speaking. Her sister Dorothy Farquhar Lindsay Williams is 1 month old. Samuel’s father-in-law William J Lindsay, aged 60, a boiler maker born in Scotland, and mother-in-law Margaret Lindsay, 58, born in Scotland, are in the household along with Margaretta James, 21, a general domestic servant born in Cardiganshire. This goes to show that you cannot always believe what you read! It is always best to go back to source material to check facts.

*1953 – the first painting of Prince Charles and Princess Anne.*

Doctor Hicks told us of another tragic event which happened in the family. He said that Margaret’s baby sister Dorothy died when her nurse, possibly Margaretta the servant (my suggestion) slipped on the steps outside the house, dropping Dorothy, presumably on her head and Dorothy died of her injuries. I confirmed the death by checking the death records. A Dorothy Farquhar L Williams died in the third quarter of 1891 in the district of Cardiff. The 1891 census was carried out on the night of Sunday 5 April, so Dorothy was likely to have been born either in February or March of 1891. The third quarter of the year commences in July, therefore Dorothy would have been between 4 and 8 months old when she died.

In the 1901 census the family are still at 9 Windsor Road, Barry. Samuel is now 40 and born in Neath Abbey and is a ship broker and an employer, who can speak both Welsh and English. His wife, Martha M Williams is 38, born in Newport, Monmouthshire and speaks only English. His daughter, Margaret L, is 12, born in Cardiff and speaks English only. There is another daughter, Olwen L Williams, aged 1, born in Barry and speaks English. The birth records show that she was born in the 4th quarter of 1899 in the Cardiff district. Margaret Lindsay, Samuel’s mother-in-law is now a widow, age 75 and born in Scotland. Her husband, William John Lindsay, died in the district of Cardiff in the second quarter of 1895, aged 70. Apart from finding the birth record of Martha Margaret Lindsay in the fourth quarter of 1862 in Newport, Monmouthshire, I have been unable to find incontrovertible evidence of the Lindsay family in Monmouthshire or Glamorgan or elsewhere in Britain before 1881.

*Margaret Lindsay Williams as a child with easel 1903 (Cardiff Libraries)*

Margaret Lindsay Williams entered the Cardiff School of Art aged 13, the youngest female to do so and won a gold medal there for her work in 1904. In 1905 she enrolled at the Pelham Street School of Painting in Kensington to prepare for the Royal Academy which she entered in 1906. She won various prizes at the Royal Academy School and a gold medal for a painting, the City of Refuge in 1911.

At that time she was the youngest gold medal recipient and the only person from Wales. This was despite women students having an inferior teaching experience. They sat separately from the men and, if I recollect Dr Hicks correctly, they did not have such a varied course as the men and were not treated as equals. She won so many prize competitions that at one stage she was barred from entering to give others a chance, and I believe she was overlooked for exhibitions at some stages in her career.

In 1911 her father helped her as a student to fund her own studio in Eaton Terrace, St John’s Wood. In the 1911 census she is at Eaton Studio at that address in the parish of St Marylebone as the first entry on the form. She is single, 22 and an art student born in Cardiff, S Wales, whose nationality is Welsh. She, or someone else, has crossed out the description of Head next to daughter. Her mother is here named Martha Lindsay Williams, 47 and is described as mother with “Head” in parenthesis added next to mother. Martha had been married 25 years and had given birth to just 3 live children with 2 still living. She was born in Newport, Mon. Her nationality is “Scotch”. Olwen Lindsay Williams, daughter, is 11, born in Barry, S Wales and is Welsh. Note that Martha’s mother Margaret Lindsay is not here. A Margaret Lindsay, aged 85, died in the 2nd quarter of 1909 in the district of Cardiff.

Margaret Lindsay Williams’s father, Samuel A Williams, was a boarder, aged 50, living at 11 The Parade, Barry, a married man, a shipbroker and employer born at Neath Abbey and speaking both languages. Interestingly the section for married women was filled in by mistake. It says he was married for 26 years and had 5 children born alive with 2 children still living (Margaret and Olwen) and 3 had died (Dorothy and the two sons Dr Hicks mentioned, I assume). It would appear that Samuel stayed at Barry to look after his business while his wife and daughter Olwen went to stay with Margaret in London.

In 1912 Margaret won a travelling scholarship and spent 18 months studying in Italy and Holland as advised by John Singer Sargent. In March 1914 she had her first solo exhibition, showing 58 paintings at the New Galleries, Cardiff. Dr Hicks said these were in Queen Street. He also said that she was called back from Italy because her sister was seriously ill with poliomyelitis. Margaret was into spiritualism and attempted to remove the disease from her sister by massaging her from her back down the back of her legs to her feet. This went on for a number of weeks and, lo and behold, Olwen was cured. She accompanied Margaret back to Italy by sea, if I recollect correctly, but when they returned to Britain Olwen contracted pneumonia and died. So, Margaret had lost a second sister and was the only child of Samuel and Martha to reach adulthood.

Margaret Lindsay Wiliams in 1920s. © Copyright National Portrait Gallery

No 9 Windsor Road was broken into at one time, but none of Margaret’s paintings were stolen or damaged, although her paints were spilled. The family moved to no 11 or 12 Windsor Road some time after, and subsequently to Elm Grove in Dinas Powys. My recollection of the talk was that Margaret lived at these addresses in addition to 9 Windsor Road and in the 1921 census she is at Elm Grove, Dinas Powys, 31 and single, an artist whose workplace is at home. Her father, Samuel Arthur, is the head of household and is 60 and 10 months, a shipbroker born at Neath Abbey, whose place of work is at the Dock Chambers, Barry Docks. Her mother, Martha Margaret Williams, is 57 and 9 months. The three of them were at the same address on the electoral register in 1931. I am not sure if Margaret was living full time in Dinas Powys then or partly there and in London

At the outbreak of the First World War Margaret lobbied David Lloyd George to be an official war artist with the Welsh Division in France. He thought the idea of a war artist was good but refused her permission to go because she was female and being near the Front would not be a safe place for her. She had to be satisfied with providing illustrations for Margaret Lloyd George’s prose anthology to support the National Fund for Welsh Troops. These were themes from Welsh legends and she returned to these themes for work in 1916 and 1917. It is interesting that Christopher Williams originally of Maesteg and15 years her senior was also pursuing these subjects at that time. Were people in Britain let alone Wales more familiar with Welsh legends then than now? There were also some imaginative paintings with religious overtones through the war and the early 1920s such as’ The Devil’s Daughter, ‘the Triumph’ ‘The imprisoned Soul’ and one suggesting a male “spying” on a partially dressed young female.

In 1915 there was an exhibition of her work in Cardiff to raise money for the Netley Military Hospital and this led to her having commissions for large works including ‘Wounded soldiers at Cardiff Royal Infirmary during the Great War’ and ‘The scene at Cardiff City Hall’ when Lloyd George unveiled a number of marble statues of Welsh heroes. This latter painting included 114 individual portraits and she visited Downing Street several times to paint portraits of Lloyd George and cabinet members.

*Williams, Margaret Lindsay; Unveiling of the Welsh Historical Sculptures by the Right Honourable David Lloyd George (pic credit: Cardiff Council)*

Care of Wounded Soldiers at Cardiff Royal Infirmary during the Great War; Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Her largest painting was of the Welsh National Service held in Westminster Abbey in June 1918 to support the Welsh POW fund. This included 150 portraits including ones of Queen Alexandra and Princess Victoria. It was commissioned by Lord Glanely, born William James Tatem and it may still be hanging in the Law Courts in Cardiff.

*Welsh National War Service in Westminster Abbey – Margaret Lindsay Williams, measuring 20ft x 16ft (photograph of painting – Court Service)*

Barry Dock News 10th December 1915.
Link to picture of King Edward VII mentioned in article.

By the end of the war Margaret Lindsay Williams was a successful and established artist. From the mid-1920s she concentrated on portraiture. Although based in London she painted several generations of prominent Welsh families such as the David Morgan family of the department store in Cardiff and the Novello Davies family. Another large painting was of the St Paul’s Cathedral Thanksgiving Service to mark the reopening of the cathedral after 5 years of restoration. This was shown in the Royal Academy in 1933 and featured King George V and Queen Mary. She painted Queen Mary again in 1938, Princess Margaret, Prince Charles, Princess Anne and at least 5 portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, one as a young princess. She visited the USA 5 times and in 1922 painted a near life sized portrait of President Warren Harding and was deeply affected by his death despite him being regarded by some as the worst President of the USA. Other portraits included Henry Ford and General Slim of WW2 fame for his leadership in Burma. On one of the visits to the USA she was particularly treated as a celebrity, being interviewed possibly some on the radio on five consecutive days. People were fascinated by her fashionable clothing, particularly her boots.

She exhibited with the South Wales Art Society throughout her life and became a Vice- President in 1931. After her parents moved to London in 1934, I believe after Samuel retired, she visited Wales infrequently. My genealogical research suggests that her mother died aged 71, in St Marylebone, London in the 2nd quarter of 1934. In the 1939 register she was living at 108 Hamilton Terrace, single, an artist and portrait painter. Her widowed father, now a retired shipbroker, was with her and there was a jobbing gardener, single and aged 63 also there. Her father died aged 83 in the last quarter of 1943 in the same district, presumably at Margaret’s home and studio at Hamilton Terrace.

Margaret appeared to live a solitary life and never married. It is reported that she felt very alone. She did have parties and receptions for which she did all the catering and typically invited 700 people of whom about 500 attended over two days at her house in Hamilton Terrace but these were particularly when she had new work to show. As well as being an excellent artist and certainly one of the greatest portrait artists of her generation, she was a pioneer for women in the world of fine art and was an intelligent woman able to hold her own intellectually and in high society. Many people feel her best paintings were done as a youngster. Margaret Lindsay Williams was a lifelong Welsh Congregationalist and after she died in Marylebone in June 1960 her funeral was at the Windsor Road Congregational Church Barry before her burial in Barry Cemetery.

Additional information and references:

Video of the making of the new headstone for her grave in Barry by Mossfords.

ITV coverage of the new headstone in Barry: Artist to the stars: How one of Wales’ finest painters is finally being honoured

BBC story of painting in the Infirmary: How forgotten painting of an injured soldier inspired nurse’s career.

Barry & District News coverage of unveiling of new headstone: Headstone for Margaret Lindsay Williams unveiled in Barry

Link to Art UK page on Margaret Lindsay Williams and her paintings.

Dictionaly of Welsh Biography.

‘Wedded to her Art’: Margaret Lindsay Williams 1888–1960 – Biography booklet published by University of Wales.

National Portrait Gallery – Margaret Lindsay Williams

BBC Story from 2018: Dyffryn Gardens’ ‘hugely significant’ paintings found

Look and Learn: Margaret Lindsay Williams (1888-1960), Welsh royal portrait artist working on a painting of Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. Illustration for Women of all Lands, Their Charm, Culture and Characteristics, edited by Rosita Forbes (Amalgamated Press, 1935).

Dives and Lazarus painting in Barry Herald in 1910.

Painting of John Sankey, 1st Viscount Sankey, GBE, PC, KC (1866–1948); Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (1929–1935), His story was covered in our blog Viscount John Sankey, Lord Chancellor – Roath’s top brief.

Memories of a Steelworks Electrician

Posted on November 15, 2025 by roathhistory

In February 2024 we had a lecture on East Moors and the South Wales Steel Industry from Professor Louise Miskell. It was well attended, not just by our members but also by people who had connections with the steelworks including ex-workers themselves. The audience shared their recollections and a discussion ensued about how best to capture those memories. People were encouraged to write down their experiences and recollections. Geoff Harris took up that challenge and has been busy recording his memories of working as a Steelworks Electrician. Even better, he has agreed to share his memories with us in the form of an evocative document entitled ‘Memories of a Steelworks Electrician’. Evocative may seem a strange word to use in connection with a steelworks but Geoff has certainly captured not just the history but the feeling for what it was like working there, the heat, noise and dusty environment.

Geoff began life in Grangetown. His father was in the merchant navy before he suffered an accident. On recovering he got a job in the steelworks . Geoff followed him into the steel works in 1961 began his career as a humble mail boy. It wasn’t long before he commenced a 5 year electrical apprenticeship attending college at the same time, which finished at the age of 21.

After training he declined a job in the drawing office preferring to be an electrician on the steel manufacturing plant itself. Geoff became shift foreman, the youngest foreman they had ever had in the Engineering Department.

As an electrician Geoff worked throughout the steelworks, visiting every stage of the steel manufacturing process as equipment needed maintaining and repairing. Geoff has a good clear memory. We are taken on a virtual tour of the East Moors works from unloading of raw materials at the wharf through to the finished product via such stages as the coke ovens, blast furnaces, melting shop, various steel milling operations. We learn about the various pieces of electrical equipment including giant motors that need repairing or replacing in areas hard to access with hostile working environments. Safety, or lack of it, is a concurrent theme as are environmental conditions.

Geoff’s memoirs begin with his memories of attending Ninian Park School before work and then a very successful career after leaving the steelworks in 1974 when the steel works closure was imminent.

Thank you Geoff for sharing your memories with us. We hope people get as much enjoyment out of reading them as we did. Just click the link below.

Link to Memories of a Steelworks Electrician by Geoffrey Harris

Preswylfa School, 82 Pen-y-lan Road,

Posted on November 3, 2025 by roathhistory

Preswylfa School was at 82 Pen-y-lan Road, on the corner of Pen-y-Lan Road and Sandringham Road, Roath Park, a building still there to this day.

The first mention in the newspapers of the school appears to be 1910 when it was advertised as Preswylfa High School, a good Day and Boarding School for Girls. Roath Park Terminus. Principal: Miss Jones. They had a second premises at 2 Newport Road (presumably catering for those who had missed the tram).

The booklet that recently appeared on e-Bay is of unknown year but probably soon after the school opened as it has Miss Jones as Principal. The Telephone number was 28 indicating their early take up of the telephone service. I wonder how many calls they received? The school included a kindergarten and also took boys up to the age of 10. Day boarders were charged at 6½ Guineas a term and a terms notice was required if you wanted to withdraw your child.

In 1917 Preswylfa School had a second premises at 87 Ninian Road.

The curriculum was broad offering English Education, Religious Knowledge, Mathematics, Science, French, Latin, Music and Singing, Drill and Dancing, Plain and Fancy Needlework, Handwork, Swimming and Sports.

After all that education the pupils were ready to sit entrance examinations for Oxford, Cambridge , London and Welsh Universities, College of Preceptors (teacher training), Royal College of Music, Royal Drawing Society, Elocution, Shorthand, Royal College of Arts, Book keeping and Commercial Practice. Later newspaper adverts included typewriter training.

A notice from 1929 tells us that the colour of the hatbands has changed and will in future be green in colour with a white monogram.

In September 1939 the school was advertising vacancies for pupils unable to return to their own school and boasting a specially constructed ARP Shelter.

The school ran up until the end of WWII. Sometime after the war it was turned into the Penylan Hotel. The building these days has yet another use and is the Penylan Residential Hotel Care Home.

References: Thanks to Ian Clarke on Cardiff Now & Then Facebook Group for posting the pictures from eBay and Find My Past for the Nwspaper Cuttings.

Confessions, Opinions and Autographs of my Friends: The Story of an Autograph Album owned by Alice Tovey

Posted on October 21, 2025 by roathhistory

It was in the latter part of the wet winter in 1903 that Alice May Tovey may have been given the autograph book, most probably for her nineteenth birthday. No birthday cake nor ‘Happy Birthday’ would have been sung as these customs had yet to be established. We don’t know if she had a special afternoon tea in the parlour of 15 Partiridge Road, Roath, Cardiff but we do know she was quick to ask family and friends to write in her book, ‘Confessions, Opinions and Autographs Of My Friends’.

This type of book had been popular since the 1860s but the fashion was beginning to decline by the time Alice received hers. The giver may have purchased it for a few shillings from The Park Newsagency, Stationery and Fancy Repository, on the corner of Wellfield Road and Albany Road. Alice asked thirty three people to answer the thirty eight questions; her siblings were the first, on Monday 9th March 1903.

What characteristics do you admire most in a man?
What characteristics do you admire most in a woman?
What would be your ideal life ?
What do you consider your best quality?
What do you consider your forte to be?
If necessary to work for a living, what calling would you pursue?
What do you consider your greatest failing?
What is your favourite pastime?
What gives you most annoyance?
Are you a linguist and what is your favourite language?
In what country would you prefer to live?
What foreign land would you best like to visit?
Who do you consider has the greatest brain power, man or woman?
Do you think women should take part in public life?
Do you believe in women’s suffrage?
What colour do you think is most becoming to you?
Do you think dress influences character?
Describe the girl of the period
Describe the young man of the day
What is your favourite motto?
What is your favorite flower and what is its meaning?
Who do you consider is the best sovereign in Europe?
What nation exercises most influence in the world?
Who do you consider the greatest politician in Great Britain
Who do you consider the greatest artist of the present age?
Who do you consider the greatest musician of the present age?
Who do you consider the greatest man of science of the present age?
Who do you consider the greatest orator of the present age?
Who do you consider the greatest author of the present age?
Who do you consider the greatest poet of the present age?
Which is your favourite reading prose or poetry?
Name two poems that have given you great pleasure
Name two books of fiction that have given you the most profit
Who is your hero in life?
Who is your hero in fiction?
Who is your heroine in life?
Who is your heroine in fiction?
Name the composer whose music you most enjoy

Over the next few years the book was filled in by Alice’s friends and acquaintances. It can be surmised that some of the contributors were also friends of Alice’s siblings, such as the school mistresses and office clerks. Others may have been work colleagues of Alice when she was a grocer’s assistant. She may have had visitors as some entries were labelled, Port Talbot and Fishguard.

By 1911 Alice was a domestic servant to retired tobacconist William Bowles and his wife, Anna, at 140 Cathedral Road, Cardiff where two of their young nephews signed the book; two of their nieces had signed it in 1906, suggesting Alice was the Bowles’ servant by this time. The young priest at St Martin Church, Roath and his future wife, is an obvious connection but two brothers who lived in Newport and became meat traders along with an Italian born refrigeration engineer who lived in Lancashire, it’s harder to conclude what the links were; they are yet to be found.

After years of apparent abandonment the book was resurrected for the last time in 1923, when Alice was living at 118 Richmond Road, Cardiff, with her mother & sisters. In spite of WWI having been fought and some women gaining the vote in 1918 the answers were much the same as in 1903.

Here’s a broad summary of the most popular answers.

What characteristics do you admire most in a man / woman? Stereotypical such as bravery & love respectively
What would be your ideal life? Money
What do you consider your best quality? Many were too modest to answer
What do you consider your forte to be? Many were too modest to answer
If necessary to work for a living, what calling would you pursue? Various
What do you consider your greatest failing? Temper, impatience
What is your favourite pastime? Cycling & walking
What gives you most annoyance? Other people
Are you a linguist and what is your favourite language? English
In what country would you prefer to live? England
What foreign land would you best like to visit? Switzerland
Who do you consider has the greatest brain power, man or woman? Man
Do you think women should take part in public life? No
Do you believe in women’s suffrage? No
What colour do you think is most becoming to you? Various
Do you think dress influences character? Yes
Describe the girl of the period Various
Describe the young man of the day a toff
What is your favourite motto? Various
What is your favorite flower and what is its meaning? Various
Who do you consider is the best sovereign in Europe? King Edward VII (almost unanimously)
What nation exercises most influence in the world? England, Great Britain (almost unanimously)
Who do you consider the greatest politician in Great Britain? Joseph Chamberlain (almost unanimously)
Who do you consider the greatest artist of the present age? Various
Who do you consider the greatest musician of the present age? Paderewski
Who do you consider the greatest man of science of the present age? Edison
Who do you consider the greatest orator of the present age? Various
Who do you consider the greatest author of the present age? Various
Who do you consider the greatest poet of the present age? Tennyson

The rest of the answers were individual.

To conclude, as Alice and her siblings didn’t have any children there was no one to hand the book on to. It’s not known how the book came into the possession of its owner, Richard Adair; he suggested it was from a house clearance as his parents were antique dealers. Richard is the author of ‘Courtship, Illegitimacy and Marriage in Early Modern England’ which may be of interest to some readers. Thank you Richard for sending the images of the entries and collating the answers.

A full analysis and more details of the contributors can be found by clicking here.

Thanks to members of Roath Local History Society Research Group who have contributed to this.

Dorcas Frazer

Mary Traynor

Posted on August 27, 2025 by roathhistory

It is with sadness that we learnt recently of the death of Mary Traynor, at the age of 91. Besides being a Society member and a long-time resident of Penylan, Mary was an accomplished artist, who depicted many of Cardiff’s notable buildings in her book Creating Cardiff.

Copies of her book will be available for sale at the AGM and talk on 10 September 2025.

Here is a profile of Mary, first published in the RLHS Newsletter in August 2020.

Some of my most treasured possessions are my sketchbooks. For me they are a record of things I have done, seen and visited over the years on family holidays in places like North Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and painting trips to Palma, Symi and Barcelona; not forgetting Australia and Vietnam where two of my children lived for a while. Being an artist is one thing that has kept me going and has given me pleasure throughout a long life. I have been a widow for many years. There is still a layer of sadness in me, but Brian was so supportive that l was compelled to continue painting, partly in his memory and have done so ever since, exhibiting and selling my work

A four- year course in Theatre Design at Birmingham College of Art & Crafts introduced me to architectural history and the challenges of drawing buildings, especially large historical ones. Perspective has always been difficult and I faintly ‘set square in’ a few vertical and horizontal lines as a guide. The Grade 1 listed art college was the ideal base from which to sketch the huge 19c buildings of the city centre. I then lived in Hammersmith, London for a while, spending my free time in sketching the Thames at Battersea Bridge, going to galleries and museums until I met Brian, a Cardiff man.

It was exciting to have the early sight-seeing trips of Cardiff: the gleaming white City Hall and Law Courts, the National Museum, Cardiff Castle, Castell Coch, the parks and in contrast the Docks and The Valleys which paid for all this building. We settled in Roath (this includes Penylan for convenience) and I have lived here ever since, in three different houses in one road! I raised a family and continued doing art through this time as most women artists blessed with children do. I usually love sketching children.

**Roath Brook Gardens, from Westville Road**

I have spent many happy years living in Roath – and here are some of my favourite places: firstly busy Albany Road and the network of streets surrounding it; the Mackintosh Institute or ‘The Mac’ an early 19c mansion in Plasnewydd Square, a thriving community centre and Farmers’ Market, not forgetting the arts centre opposite in the former Presbyterian Church where I much enjoyed dance performances by the young people of the Rubicon. There is a gruesome side to this as the Albany and Richmond Road crossroads is where Cardiff’s hanging field was! It is very sad that Grade 2 listed Globe Cinema was replaced and The Gaiety in City Road is making way for yet more student flats – how unnecessary is that?

**Globe Cinema, Albany Road, Roath, Cardiff**
A reconstruction based on sketches and photographs of how the cinema might have looked in the 1920’s. It opened in 1913 and was a listed Grade II building that was demolished to build The Pear Tree Cafe.

Top of my list of favourite Roath buildings is the Edwardian Roath Church House with its central panel elegantly carved with the name and 1914 which says it all. Opposite is Grade 1 listed St Margaret’s Church with the polychromatic interior that makes it so special. I felt that I should have painted the interior but the drawing does show patterned brickwork and different stones. I must go down after Covid-19 is over and subtly paint the shadowy interior. I enjoyed doing the front and back in their leafy settings. Nearby I like Willie Seager Cottages, a modern version of the original ones on Newport Road. Charming as they were, it must have been very noisy for the retired mariners living there.

The East Cardiff Conservation Area which takes in the area encircling the parks starts at St Margaret’s and ends at the top of Roath Park Lake. As a representative of The Victorian Society I was on the advisory group. We helped keep the character of the area by vetting detrimental planning applications to both large and smaller houses, sometimes for extensions, more often for new inappropriate windows in the front or as dormers on the front roofs. One application was for another of my favourite buildings – listed Roath Park Primary School- to have replacement windows. We opposed this and the school remains as it was. I did a painting of it as a retirement gift from the school to its Headmistress enjoying putting in the proper windows and children in the playground. Roath Park, said by experts to be one of the country’s finest urban parks is of course of on my list. Scott’s Memorial Lighthouse was done in the raging blizzard of my imagination, instead of from outside! Finally, St Andrew’s United Reformed Church, its elegant spire marking Wellfield Road, the parks and playing field; is for me a reminder of Constable’s paintings of Salisbury Cathedral.

**House in Ninian Road**
Pen and Watercolour
Facing the Roath Recreation Ground, the houses in Ninian Road date from 1891 and completed 1910

Artists don’t retire if they can help it and I keep painting and drawing from my sketch books and photos during Covid -19. I am proud to be one of a group of at least five artists living quite near. For a few years an enterprising group of artists organised ‘Made in Roath’, taking place in October when artists, including me opened their studios to anyone who wanted to see them.

When I first started in the late ’60s and ’70s there were a lot of changes going on in Cardiff, such as the building of Boulevard de Nantes, the demolition of the houses at Dumfries Place and the splitting of the civic centre from the city centre. There was even talk of driving a road through Cathays Cemetery. Painting is what I do, so I would go and sketch buildings I knew were going to disappear – but I didn’t think I would still be doing it 50 years later. In January 2003 the Central Hotel was lost, when a huge fire swept through the derelict building. It was demolished in 2006 to make way for a new high-rise hotel. I have mixed feelings about the redevelopment of Cardiff over the years, some things I love – like the walkway around Cardiff Bay and the Millennium Stadium, which I think is fantastic – but other things I’m not so sure about. There does seem to be a bit more sensitivity now though in the way historic buildings are treated.

The climax of my work to date has been the writing of ‘Creating Cardiff’ done alongside my painting and drawing. The illustrations are taken from work done over many years and especially for the book. Now it is published I shall return to my latest project which is a very challenging commissioned painting of Roath Brook Gardens and then continue recording the different styles of the houses of Roath and Penylan.

In June 2014 Glamorgan Archives received a very interesting and unique deposit, when Mary gifted her collection of sketchbooks and loose works. They form an invaluable record and resource, both for researchers and as the basis for many exhibitions.

Creating Cardiff

ISBN: 9781845242961
Mary Traynor
Publication June 2020
Format: Paperback,
150×155 mm, 168 pages
Price : £8.95

Cardiff became a city in 1905 and the capital of Wales in 1955. It has a castle, civic buildings and extensive parklands, docks, two cathedrals, three universities,concert halls and theatres and museums. A new rugby stadium and arts centre marked the millennium.

Author Biography: Mary Traynor is an artist with a vivid interest in architectural and historical subjects. She has spent a lifetime recording Cardiff buildings, many of which have been threatened and has campaigned to save them. All the images in this book have been sketched on site. Sadly, some have been demolished over the years. This book brings the memory of them back to life in the company of her present-day images of the capital.

To me, this beautiful book, honed over many decades, represents a love letter from Mary to Cardiff, for all to cherish. Elizabeth Morgan.