The welsh world and the British Empire, c.1851-1939: An exploration

The British World: Diaspora, Culture and Identity

Volumn , Issue , 2003, Pages 57-81

  Jones, Aled ^a   Jones, Bill ^b  

^a ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^b CARDIFF UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 84905938330     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.4324/9780203009116     Document Type: Chapter

References (140)

1. C.A.Bayly, Imperial Meridian: The British Empire and the World 1780-1830 (London, 1989), 81;
2. Keith Jeffery, 'Introduction', in idem (ed.), Άη Irish Empire '? Aspects of Irelandand the British Empire (Manchester, 1996), 1.
3. In writing this essay we have benefited greatly from comparative insights suggested by reading David Fitzpatrick, 'Ireland and the Empire', in Andrew Porter (ed.), The OxfordHistory of the British Empire, vol. 3 The Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1999), 494-521;
4. Jeffery, 'Introduction'; and
5. John M.MacKenzie, 'Essay and Reflection: On Scotland and Empire', International History Review, 15 (1993), 714-39.
6. See discussion in Neil Evans, 'Internal Colonialism? Colonization, Economic Development and Political Mobilization in Wales, Scotland and Ireland', in Graham Day and Gareth Rees (eds.), Regions, Nations and European Integration: Remaking the Celtic Periphery (Cardiff, 1991), 235-64.
7. Gwyn A.Williams, 'Imperial South Wales', in his The Welsh in their History (London, 1982), 171-87;
8. Prys Morgan, 'Keeping the Legends Alive', in Tony Curtis (ed.), Wales: ThelmaginedNation: Essays in Cultural andNational Identity (Bridgend, 1996), 19-41,38.
9. Baruch Hirson and Gwyn A.Williams, The Delegate for Africa: David Ivon Jonesl883-1924 (London, 1985).
10. Most histories are by retired missionaries, the most informative being the following three-volume series: Ednyfed Thomas, Hanes Cenhadaeth Dramor Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru. Cenhadaeth Casia. Y gyfrol gyntaf Bryniau 'r Glaw (Caernarfon, 1988);
11. J.Meirion Lloyd, Hanes Cenhadaeth Dramor Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru. Cenhadaeth Mizoram. Yr ailgyfrol, Y Bannau Pell (Caernarfon, 1989);
12. D.G.Merfyn Jones, Hanes Cenhadaeth DramorEglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru, Cenhadaeth Sylhet-Cachar. Y drydedd gyfrol, Y Popty Poetha 'i Gyffiniau (Caernarfon, 1990).
13. See also two novels by D.G.Merfyn Joness, Ar Fryniau'rGlaw (Swansea, 1980), and
14. Eryr Sylhet (Denbigh, 1987). Other useful studies include J. Meirion Lloyd, Nine Missionary Pioneers: The Story of Nine Pioneering Missionaries inNorth-East India (Caernarfon, 1989);
15. and loan W. Gruffudd (ed.), CludoeddMoroedd: CofioDwy Ganrif o Genhadaeth (Swansea [?], 1995).
16. See also Sian Rhys Morris, 'Dwy ar Daith i'r Dwyrain: Cenadesau Cymru yn yr India, 1889-1914', BA Hons dissertation, Department of History and Welsh History, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1994;
17. Aled Jones, '"Meddylier am India": tair taith y genhadaeth Gymreig yn Sylhet, 1887-1947', Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion 1997, new series, 4 (1998), 84-110;
18. and Jane Aaron, 'Slaughter and Salvation: British Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century Welsh Women's Writing', New Welsh Review, 38 (1997), 38-46.
19. In an otherwise admirable account of religious movements in modern Wales, D.Densil Morgan, The Span ofthe Cross: Christian Religion and Society in Wales 1914-2000 (Cardiff, 1999), 17, makes only one reference to the Indian mission.
20. A notable exception, Robert Pope, Building Jerusalem: Nonconformity, Labour and theSocial Question in Wales, 1906-1939 (Cardiff, 1998), reinserts the religious impulse into the history of early twentieth-century Welsh labour politics.
21. On the reluctance of historians in the Celtic countries to address their involvement in Empire, Patrick O'Sullivan observes that, 'aspects of the missionary enterprise are rarely discussed within Irish writing, nor is the concomitant effect on non-European ethnic groups. It might be thought that a nation, part of whose nationbuilding myth involves criticism of an invader who vilified Irish religion and culture, would at least think twice about so happily doing precisely that to other peoples... This is clearly an area where the sensitivity of the subject matter creates "gaps in the literature".' Patrick O'Sullivan (ed.), The Irish World Wide:History, Heritage, Identity, vol.5 Religion and ldentity (London, 1990), 13.
22. Marjory Harper, 'British Migration and the Peopling of Empire', in Porter (ed.), OxfordHistory of the British Empire, vol.3, 75-87, 78.
23. See also Stephen Constantine, 'Migrants and Settlers', in Judith M.Brown and Wm. Roger Louis (eds.), Oxford History of the BritishEmpire, vol.4 The Twentieth Century (Oxford, 1999), 163-87.
24. Ged Martin and Benjamin E.Kline, 'British Emigration and New Identities', in P.J.Marshall (ed.), The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire (Cambridge, 1996), 254-79, 265.
25. They have described the Welsh as being 'rarities everywhere' in the Empire. See also David Williams, 'Some Figures Relating to Emigration from Wales', Bulletin ofthe Boardof Celtic Studies, 7 (May 1935), 396-415;
26. James Jupp and Barry York, Birthplaces of the Australian People: Colonial andCommonwealth Censuses, 1828-1991 (Canberra, 1995);
27. Wayne K.D.Davies, 'The Welsh in Canada: A Geographical Overview', in M.E.Chamberlain (ed.), The Welsh in Canada (Canadian Studies in Wales Group, 1986), 1-45, 3;
28. Heather Hughes, 'How the Welsh Became White in South Africa: Immigration, Identity and Economic Transformation from the 1860s to the 1930s', Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion 2000, new series, 7 (2001), 112-27;
29. Williams, 'Some Figures', 160.
30. The 1890 United States census recorded around 100,000 Wales-born persons, and according to the 1901 British census, 265,000 people who had been born in Wales were living in England, with major concentrations in Liverpool, London, the Midlands and the North East. For the Welsh in the United States, see William D.Jones, Wales in America: Scranton andthe Welsh, 1860-1920 (Cardiff and Scranton, 1993).
31. For England, see Emrys Jones (ed.), TheWelsh in London 15002000 (Cardiff, 2001);
32. and R.Merfyn Jones and D.Ben Rees (eds.), The Liverpool Welsh and their Religion (Liverpool, 1984).
33. See Glyn Williams, The Desert and the Dream (Cardiff, 1975).
34. Harper, 'British Migration', 78.
35. The Cambrian, 11 (June 1891), 163-64.
36. See, for example, W.R.Owain-Jones, 'The Contribution of Welshmen to the Administration of India', Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1970), 250-62.
37. See Norman Holme, The Noble 24th (London, 1999), 265-372;
38. and David Berry, Wales andCinema-The First Hundred Years (Cardiff, 1994), 266-67, for discussions of the film Zulu.
39. Wales, Jan. 1912, 33; and Aug. 1914, 332;
40. D.E.Lloyd Jones, 'David Edward Evans: A Welshman in India', Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1967), 132-41, 133.
41. Wales, June 1913, 91-94.
42. Jeffery, 'lntroduction', 17.
43. Judith Brown, 'War and the Colonial Relationship: Britain, India and the War of 1914-18', in M.R.D.Foot (ed.), War and Society (London, 1973), 85-106, 89.
44. Official government statistics relating to the army did not distinguish between English and Welsh nationality until 1905. Between 1905 and 1913 the percentage of non-commissioned officers and men in the army who were born in Wales varied between 1.4 and 1.8 per cent, a significant under-representation as Wales contained approximately 5 per cent of the population of the British Isles in 1901. H.J.Hanham, 'Religion and Nationality in the Mid-Victorian Army', in Foot (ed.), War and Society, 159-81, 178.
45. The difficulties the British army encountered in recruiting in Wales in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is discussed in Neil Evans, 'Gogs, Cardis and Hwntws: Region, Nation and State in Wales, 1840-1940', in idem (ed.), National Identity in the British Isles (Harlech, 1989), 67-68.
46. See Wales, June 1913, 105; and Feb. 1914, 242; Owain-Jones, 'Contribution', 254.
47. Fitzpatrick, 'lreland and Empire', 509-10;
48. MacKenzie, 'Scotland and Empire', 722.
49. See also Bayly, Imperial Meridian, 251, for the opportunities Empire presented to a 'revived aristocracy' in Wales, as elsewhere in the British Isles, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
50. MacKenzie, 'Scotland and Empire', 721-22.
51. Owen Rhoscomyl, 'The Place of Wales in the Empire', Wales, July 1912, 369-71;
52. Canon Edwards-Rees, The Welsh: A Neglected Imperial Asset', Wales July 1912, 396-402.
53. Rhoscomyl, 'Place of Wales', 371.
54. Harry Jones, 'Glimpses of Welsh History and Character', Welsh Review, 1 (June 1906), 81-83;
55. Lord Justice Vaughan Williams, 'The Celtic Character', Wales, Feb.
56. 1913, 57-61, 61. See also D.Wynne Evans, 'Cambria's Part in Empire Building', Wales, Aug. 1911, 173-76.
57. Owain-Jones, 'Contribution', 261.
58. Programmes and other material relating to Cymdeithas Gwladol y Cymry yn yr India [National Society of the Welsh in India], which existed 1898-c.1903, and
59. Cymdeithas CymryBengal/Bengal Welsh Society, inaugurated 1909, Ex 887
60. National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth (NLW); Australian Association of Welsh Societies News Letter, 1, 4 (July 1936), 7;
61. unidentified press cutting re Easter Banquet for Welsh in Calcutta, 1892, in Revd Tudur Lloyd Frimston, 'Y Cymry a Ymfudasant ac a Godasant i Enwogrwydd yn America a'r Trefedigaethau Prydeinig' [c.1893], MS 19216C, NLW; Welsh Outlook, Aug. 1925, 213-14.
62. See also Lloyd Jones, 'A Welshman in India', 136-40.
63. Y.Drych, 27 June 1918;
64. The Druid, 1 May 1919.
65. Seren YDwyrain, 1943-45;
66. 'Ar drywydd y llythyren "Y" yn yr Aifft', Y Casglwr, 33 (Christmas 1987), 3. See also programmes, minutes etc. relating to Delhi Welsh Society 1944-48, MS 14983D, and the Welsh Language Society of Rangoon 194546, Ex 1111, NLW.
67. The following discussion is largely based on Bill Jones, 'Welsh Identities in Ballarat, Australia, during the Late Nineteenth Century', Welsh History Review, 20 (2001), 283-307;
68. idem, 'Welsh Identity in Colonial Ballarat', Journal of Australian Studies, no.68 (2001), 34-43;
69. and Kerry Cardell, Cliff Cumming, Peter Griffiths and Bill Jones, 'Welsh Identity on the Victorian Goldfields in the Nineteenth Century', in Kerry Cardell and Cliff Cumming (eds.) A World Turned Upside Down: Cultural Change on Victoria 's Goldfields 1851-2001 (Canberra, 2001), 25
70. See also Arthur Ffestin Hughes, 'Welsh Migrants in Australia: Language Maintenance and Cultural Transmission', Ph.D thesis, University of Adelaide, 1994, 142-51;
71. Lewis Lloyd, Australians from Wales (Gwynedd Archives, 1988);
72. Bob Reece, 'The Welsh in Australian Historical Writing', Australian Studies, 4 (1990), 88-104
73. and in Gavin Edwards and Graham Sumner (eds.), The Historical and Cultural Parallels andConnections between Wales and Australia (Lewiston, c. 1991);
74. Robert L.Tyler, '"A Handful of Interesting and Exemplary People from a Country Called Wales". Identity and Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in Ballarat and Sebastopol in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century', Ph.D thesis, University of Melbourne, 2000.
75. Jupp and York, Birthplaces, 27; Census of Victoria, 1871, passim.
76. Census of Victoria, 1871, 226;
77. Y Gwladgarwr, 16 April 1859;
78. Yr Australydd, June 1871, 7; April 1872, 2;
79. Letters from Mary Jones, Ballarat, to her sister in Llanfihangel-y-Pennant, Wales, 185[5?]-61, MS 22846D, NLW. See also Hughes, 'Welsh Migrants', 146-50; and W. Vamplew (ed.), Australians, Historical Statistics (Broadway, NSW, 1987), 11-16;
80. and especially the discussion in Tyler, 'lnteresting and Exemplary', 254-67.
81. Yr Australydd, March 1867, 129-37;
82. Yr Ymwelydd, 16 March 1875, 142; 16 May 1875, 189-90;
83. Ebeneser Morris to William Meirion Evans, 20 April 1876, MS 21817, NLW; Mary Jones to her sister, 13 Nov. 185[5?], 24 Oct. 1856, 14 Aug. 1859, 22 Sept. 1860, MS 22846D, NLW.
84. For contemporary accounts of the development of Welsh religious institutions in Victoria, see 'Achosion crefyddol Cymreig yn Australia', Y Beirniad, 14 (1873), 146-58, 263-76, 338-47;
85. W.M.Evans, 'Trem ar agwedd crefydd ym mysg Cymry Victoria Awstralia', YCyfaill o'r Hen Wlad, Sept. 1864, 276-78.
86. John Williams (ed.), Digest of Welsh Historical Statistics, vol.1 (Cardiff, 1985), 294-95.
87. For the political and social power of Calvinistic Methodism in nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Wales, see Kenneth O.Morgan, Wales in British Politics (Cardiff, 1963);
88. Theophilus Williams and J.B. Humffray (eds.), Ballarat Eisteddfod: Report of the Meetings Held in Ballarat in 1885-86with Introductory and Historical Notes (Ballarat, 1886). See also reports of meetings in YrAustralydd, 1866-72 and Yr Ymwelydd, 1874-76, passim.
89. Argus (Melbourne), 10 July 1855.
90. Michael G.Clyne, 'Multi-Lingual Melbourne Nineteenth Century Style', Journal ofAustralian Studies, 17 (1985), 69-81.
91. See also Kerry Cardell and Cliff Cumming, 'Scotland's Three Tongues in Australia: Colonial Hamilton in the 1860s and 1870s', ScottishStudies, 31 (1993), 40-62;
92. Cliff Cumming, '"ln the Language of Ossian": Gaelic Survival in Australia and New Zealand-A Comparison', Australian Studies, 12 (1997), 104-22.
93. Ballarat Courier, 25 Feb. 1886.
94. The following account is largely based on Aled Jones, Welsh Missionary Journalism in India,1880-1947, Currents in World Christianity Position Paper no. 123 (Cambridge, 2000). The Welsh missionaries' efforts were concentrated into a divided region which sat astride the frontier between Assam and Eastern Bengal, and which in 1947 was to become the international border separating India from East Pakistan.
95. B.C.Allen, C.S., Assam District Gazeteer, vol.2, Sylhet (Calcutta, 1905), 90.
96. Report of the Foreign Mission of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, 1910, xv.
97. For other statistics, see Blwyddiadur, neu Lyfr Swyddogoly Methodistiaid Calfinaidd, published annually from 1898.
98. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists' Foreign Mission Society, Regulations for the Guidanceof the Directors and Missionaries of the Society (Salford, 1870), 36-38.
99. See also Nicholas Thomas, Colonialism 's Culture, Anthropology, Travel and Government (Cambridge, 1994), 39.
100. Jones, 'Welsh Identities', 299-304.
101. Eiflyn Peris Owen, 'Tair Wythnos yn Liverpool a Chymru', Cylchgrawn Hanes yMethodistiaid Calfinaidd, 7 (1983) 43-52.
102. Y Diwygiwr, 21, 252 (July 1856), 213.
103. 'Gofyniad ag sydd yn cael ei ofyn yn fynych yw, Pa fodd y mae trigolion Ucheldiroedd Scotland, sef y "Gaelic," yn cael gweinidogion i bregethu iddynt yn eu hiaith? a'r Gwyddelod yn cael offeiriaid ac eglwysi yn mhob man y byddont yn sefydlu ynddo? tra yr ydym ni y Cymry heb yr un gweinidog yn perthyn i un enwad crefyddol wedi cael ei ddanfon allan. Miloedd o fechgyn a merched a fagwyd a chymaint o ofal crefyddol, sydd yma...yn syrthio yn ysglyfaeth i'w blys a'i nwydau, tra y mae ffwdan mawr, a chasglu er danfon canadon allan i. [d]reulio eu hunain allan er ceisio dychwelyd rhyw Bagan coelgrefyddol.' See also Cumming, 'ln the Language of Ossian', 109-11.
104. Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837 (London, 1992), esp. 117
105. For the concept of colonial 'entanglement', see Nicholas Thomas, Entangled Objects.Exchange, Material Culture, and Colonialism in the Pacific (Cambridge, MA, 1991).
106. See also Geraint Evans, 'Welsh Publishing in Australia', Biblionews and Australian Notesand Queries, 18 (1993), 105-11;
107. Tyler, 'lnteresting and Exemplary', 204-13;
108. Myfi Williams, CymryAwstralia (Llandybie, 1983), esp. 8290.
109. 'Gweithrediadau Cymanfaol Trefnyddion Calfinaidd', 24-26 July 1863, 10.
110. Tyler, 'Interesting and Exemplary', 204-13.
111. Aled Gruffydd Jones, Press, Politics and Society: A History of Journalism in Wales (Cardiff, 1993);
112. Huw Walters, Y Wasg Gyfnodol Gymreig/The Welsh Periodical Press, 1735-1900 (Aberystwyth, 1987).
113. Yr Australydd, July 1866, 2.
114. See, for example, Yr Australydd, Nov. 1867, 112-15.
115. See also Williams, Cymry Awstralia, 85-86.
116. Tyler, 'Interesting and Exemplary', 209.
117. For details of the reciprocal subscription payment arrangements, see Yr Ymwelydd, June 1875, 216.
118. See Y Drych, 27 April, 13 July 1876, for commentaries on the contents of YrYmwelydd.
119. Tyler, 'Interesting and Exemplary', 209-10.
120. For a fuller treatment, see Bill Jones, 'Welsh Identities'; and 'Cymry "Gwlad yr Aur": Ymfudwyr Cymreig yn Ballarat, Awstralia, yn ail hanner y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg', Llafur, 8 (2001), 41-62.
121. See, for example, Yr Australydd, Oct. 1870, 227-31.
122. Yr Australydd, Sept. 1868, 344-48.
123. Y Cenhadwr, Dec. 1928, 236.
124. Josef L.Altholz, The Religious Press in Britain, 1760-1900 (New York and London, 1989), 20.
125. Adroddiad Cenhadaeth Dramor y Methodistiaid Calfinaidd Cymreig, 1926, CMA/GZ/2-14, NLW.
126. Nigel Jenkins, Gwalia in Khasia: A visit to the site, in India, of the biggest overseas ventureever sustained by the Welsh (Llandysul, 1995), 230-41.
127. For further information on the expulsion of William Pryce, see John Hughes Morris, HanesCenhadaeth Dramor y Methodistiaid Calfinaidd Cymreig, hyd ddiwedd y flwyddyn 1904 (Liverpool, 1907), 300. Pryce died in India on 2 Aug. 1869.
128. Aparnu Basu, 'Mary Ann Coote to Mother Teresa: Christian Women and the Indian Response', in Fiona Bowie, Deborah Kirkwood and Shirley Ardener, Women and MissionsPast and Present: Anthropological and Historical Perceptions (Oxford, 1993), 199.
129. Mary Louise Pratt, 'Scratches on the Face of the Country; or, what Mr. Barrow saw in the land of the Bushmen', in Henry Louis Gates Jr. (ed.), "Race", Writing, and Difference (Chicago, 1986), 139.
130. Thomas, Colonialism's Culture, 38.
131. Miss E.A.Roberts, 'Y Cronicl Cenhadol', YDrysorfa, Dec. 1902, 570.
132. Y Cenhadwr, Jan. 1925, 8-9. 'Yn y bore, fel y mae'r wawr yn torri... (m)ae'r dyfroedd i gyd fel pe'n disgwyl yn swil ond yn ffyddiog dawel am gusan gyntaf yr haul. A phwy ar fachlud haul all ddisgrifio'r cysgodau yn y dwr yn ei droi'n rhuddgoch a phorffor?. (no)son leuad ar yr afonydd a'r wlad yn orchuddiedig gan ddwr-mae yn llawn cyfaredd a hud.'
133. John Pengwern Jones introduced the Eisteddfod to Sylhet in 1904, and Helen Rowlands later held eisteddfodau in Bengali in Karimganj. J.Meirion Lloyd, Hanes Cenhadaeth DramorEglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru, 7.
134. Report of the Foreign Mission, 1910, xiii.
135. Parch. T.Charles Edwards, 'Gair i Gychwyn, Y Cenhadwr, Jan. 1922, 2.
136. Y Cenhadwr, Dec. 1923, 189-90.
137. See also Susan Fleming McAllister, 'Cross-Cultural Dress in Victorian British Missionary Narratives: Dressing for Eternity', in John C.Hawley (ed.), Historicizing Christian Encounters with the Other (Basingstoke, 1998), esp. 123-24.
138. The Link, March-April 1935, 18.
139. For a fuller history, see Aled Jones and Bill Jones, Welsh Reflections: YDrych and America,1851-2001 (Llandysul, 2001).
140. 'The Welsh language is the curse of Wales. their antiquated and semibarbarous language. shrouds them in darkness'. The Times, editorial, 8 Sept. 1866.