Today is the feast day of Saint Gildas

Born c.500, Gildas was a cleric, historian and writer, the earliest British writer whose work is still available.  He wrote the De Excidio et Conquestu Britannie (the Ruin and conquest of Britain), about the post-Roman history of Britain.

 There are two main narratives for his life which agree in several aspects, and can be harmonized as follows;

 Gildas was born in Scotland on the banks of the Clyde of a noble Brythonic speaking family.  He was much travelled, he studied in Wales under St. Iltutid and with his companion St Samson embraced the monastic life at Llancarfan (Glamorgan).  He then travelled to Ireland, where he founded monasteries and churches, and then to Northern England  before returning to Ireland.  He is also said to have made a pilgrimage to Rome and on his return in a quest for solitude he retired to Brittany, where he established a monastery at Rhuys.  He is the patron saint of Welsh Historians.  

Born this day 1909 in Port Talbot

George Thomas (1st Viscount Tonypandy), former Secretary of State for Wales and Speaker of the House of Commons, in which role his Welsh-accented cries of "Order! Order!"  were well known and widely imitated.  

 

Born on this day 1859

Sir George Lockwood Morris,  iron foundry owner and Wales rugby international.  Morris was the great-grandson of Sir John Morris, the coal and copper magnet, after whom Morriston is named

Morris played club rugby for Swansea, captaining the club for two seasons.  His rugby career was also notable for him being  the first Swansea player to represent Wales, playing  for Wales in their first international against Ireland in 1882 and the  first rugby international to be played in Wales, at St Helens's, Swansea, in 1883.

Born on this day 1846 at New Mills near Monmouth.

John Pugh - Founder of the Calvinistic Methodist Forward Movement.

Pugh had been a rebellious teenager, but when he moved with his family to Tenby, he converted to the Calvinistic Methodist Church that his parents attended and was soon the leader of a group of young people taking open air services.

He then trained for the ministry and was appointed to Tredegar in 1872, where he became concerned about the Godliness, poverty and poor living conditions that accompanied the rapid expansion of the industrial towns of South Wales and took his services outside the Town Hall in order to try and reach the working men who frequented the surrounding public houses.

Although he received opposition from both publicans and many within his own church who believed he was lowering the prestige of the church, Pugh persisted and grew his congregation to more than 400 people.  During the next ten years, Pugh then moved on to Pontypridd where he preached from a spot surrounded by 17 pubs and to Cardiff  in 1891, where he continued his unorthodox preaching.  His success led to his methods being accepted by his church and being called the "Forward Movement", with Pugh its first superintendent.  In this role, he established forty-eight mission-halls, a home for destitute women and edited several journals.

The Forward Movement swept through many other Welsh towns and thousands were converted.  The Calvinistic Methodist Church is now often known as  ‘The Presbyterian Church in Wales’.