Motoring and aviation pioneer Charles Stewart Rolls, who together with Fredrick Henry Royce co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm, was born on 27 August 1877 in Berkley Square, London, the third son of Lord and Lady Llangattock.

Throughout his life, he would retain a strong  connection with the family gothic mansion of The Hendre, near Monmouth. Photograph is of C.S. Rolls' autocar with HRH The Duke of York, Lord Llangattock , Sir Charles Cust and C.S. Rolls on board, taken at 'The Hendre'.

After graduating with a degree in engineering from Cambridge, he went to Paris to buy his first car, a Peugeot Phaeton.  This incidentaly was one of the first three cars owned in Wales.  He then began a car dealership in Fulham, during which time, he met with Henry Royce, who was manufacturing the two-cylinder Royce 10 which Rolls agreed to take all the cars he could make.  This was the beginning of the famous partnership with, Royce building and Rolls selling.

They worked to improve the reliability of cars and had a very meticulous attention to detail.  Their cars were designed for the richest people in the country.  and Rolls was the first person to take George V and Queen Mary, for a ride in a car in 1900.  By 1906, they had formally bound their names as the new Rolls Royce company and launched their classic Silver Ghost.

Rolls was involved in forcing an increase in the national speed limit from 4 to 12 miles per hour and was also a founding member of the Royal Aero Club and enjoyed flying balloons and planes. In 1910, he became the first pilot to fly across the channel and back in a single journey, but tragically later that year, aged just 32,  he was the first man to die in an aeronautical accident when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during a flying display in Bournemouth. 

Hanged on this day 1679 for High Treason and canonised a saint in 1970 by Pope Paul VI

Fr David Lewis, the last Welsh martyr.

David Lewis was born in Abergavenny in 1616. His father, Morgan Lewis, was headmaster of Abergavenny Grammar School and raised him as a Protestant, but as a young man he spent some time in Paris and while there he converted to Catholicism.

Subsequently, he went to study at the English College in Rome, where he was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1642. Three years later he became an evangelising Jesuit and returned to  Monmouthshire, where he was greatly loved and was known as ‘Tad y Tlodion’ - ‘Father of the Poor’.

In 1678 he became a victim of Titus Oates's Popish Plot (false claims that there was a vast, Jesuit  conspiracy to assassinate Charles II and bring his Catholic brother, the future  James II to the throne).  Oates was given the authority to round up the suspects and David Lewis was arrested at Llantarnam and brought for trial at the Lenten Assizes in Monmouth on 16th March 1679.  His charge was High Treason, that is, having become a Catholic priest and remaining in the country. He pleaded not guilty, but several witnesses claimed they had seen him perform priestly duties and he was found guilty and sentenced to death.  Lewis was brought to Newgate Prison in London  and questioned about the “plot” by Oates and his henchmen but they were unable to get him to confess. He was taken to Usk Gaol to await his execution.

On 27th August 1679, he was taken from his cell and carried on a hurdle to a place known as the Coniger and there he was hanged. His body was taken in procession to the churchyard of the Priory Church and there it was buried in the grave closest to the main door of the church and every year on the Sunday nearest to 27th August there is a pilgrimage to this holy site.

In October 1970, Fr David Lewis was canonised by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. 

Katheryn of Berain  (born 1540 or 1541; died 27 August 1591), sometimes called "Mam Cymru" (mother of  Wales), because of her extensive network of descendants and relations.

Katheryn was the heiress to the Berain and Penymynydd estates in Denbighshire and Anglesey.  Her maternal grandfather Sir Roland de Velville was thought to be an illegitimate son of King Henry VII of England by "a Breton lady"

The story of her and her many husbands and supposed lovers has become one of the great romances of north Wales.  She married four times to high-profile Welshmen, becoming part of the richest, most influential families of north Wales, including the  prestigious Salusbury Family, who first came to prominence after they arrived as vassals of William the Conquerer in 1066 and then received vast amounts of land after they assisted in the Conquest of Wales  under Edward I. Katheryn's decendantsl went on to form some of the country's richest families, earning her the title 'the Mother of Wales'.

The portrait of Kathryn of Berain by the Dutch artist Adriaen van Cronenburgh can be seen in the Historic Art galleries galleries at National Museum Cardiff.  In it she appears to be in mourning, but in fact had recently married the royal agent Richard Clough. She is presented as a fitting wife for a wealthy merchant.

The prayer-book confirms her piety.

Married women traditionally wore a head-dress, often decorated with jewels to draw attention to the forehead, considered to be an area of beauty.

Pale skin was  a sign of nobility and delicacy – only the poor who worked in the sun all day had tanned skin.

Smiling was associated with foolishness, hence Katheryn’s solemn expression.

Katheryn's long black velvet dress was the latest in Spanish-style fashion in 1568. Black costumes were considered formal and dignified, but black dye was difficult to find and very expensive,

Katheryn wears a fashionable chain belt, which symbolized her obedience as a wife, with a locket at the bottom, in which it is said she kept a locket of the hair of her second and favourite husband. 

It is said that Katheryn murdered many of her lovers, but this skull is not one of theirs!  The skull often occurs in sixteenth-century portraits as a symbol  of human destiny. 

Today is the feast day of Saint Degymen. 

Saint Degymen (Decumen)  Died 706.  He is said to have been born of noble parents at Rhoscrowther in Pembrokeshire, where the church is dedicated to him. He also had a chapel at nearby Pwllcrochan. Wishing to escape to a world of solitude he crossed the Bristol Channel on a hurdle of rods (possibly a coracle) with only a cow for a companion and landed at Dunster in Somerset, where he became a hermit, living from the produce of his cow.  There he is said to have been killed by a pagan who cut off his head with a spade.   Legend tells that the saint miraculously picked up his head, washed it, and replaced it.  After this the local people assisted Decuman to build a church.  He is also associated with the churches of Ballyconnick, Killag, and Killiane in County Wexford, Ireland. 

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Born this day 1977 in Thames, New Zealand 

Sonny Toi Parker - former Welsh rugby international

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