Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Rorke's Drift.

The Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, began on January 11th when the British Army, invaded the Zulu kingdom in an attempt to extend British control in South Africa, as it was realised that this could only be achieved when the Zulu's with its standing army of 40,000, had been suppressed.

 The first major encounter was  the Battle of Isandlwana  January 22, 1879, where a Zulu force of some 20,000 warriors, equipped mainly with the traditional assegai iron spears attacked and overwhelmed  a portion of the British army consisting of about 1,800 men and was one of the British army's worst and bloodiest ever defeats.  As the battle drew to a close several Zulu regiments reached the Tugela River chasing the few escaping British and buoyed by their success  crossed the Tugela and attempted to capture the British base at the river crossing  called Rorke’s Drift and which was manned by a single company of 145, mainly Welsh infantrymen.

The fighting was fierce and often hand to hand, but the British maintained discipline, stood firm and only gave fire when the enemy was right upon them.  They then fought them off with bayonets and as the night dragged, they were reduced to a mere handful of men Then when they were almost out of ammunition, the Zulu, who had themselves taken heavy losses, retreated.  King Cetshwayo was captured in August 1879 and Zululand was broken up and annexed.

The supreme bravery of those 145 men of whom seven were awarded  the Victoria Cross (the largest number awarded to a regiment for a single action) is now immortalised in the film Zulu, starring Michael Caine, Stanley Baker and Ivor Emmanuel.   However, the true legacy of this battle is one of unprovoked slaughter by the British Army.

Born on this day 1937 in Glanamman

Ryan Davies - popular comedian, singer and actor.

Davies was initially a primary school teacher in London before embarking on an acting career, however, it was when he teamed up with fellow entertainer, Ronnie Williams from Cefneithin, as the comic double act "Ryan a Ronnie" that he became a household name.  They were soon spotted by the BBC and were given a comedy show on BBC One, which proved to be very successful. Additionally, Ryan also starred as  Second Voice  in Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O'Toole. 

Ryan and Ronnie split in 1975 to pursue solo careers, with Ryan continuing to work on television and in films.  Ryan died two years later of a heart attack, aged only 40 and there is a commemorative bust in his honour at BBC Wales in Llandaff.  

The charity concert, Tsunami Relief Cardiff was held at the Millennium Stadium on 22nd January 2005.  It raised £1.2 million for the victims of the Indian Ocean earthquake of December 2004.  

Born on this day 1875 of Welsh parents in Kentucky.

David Wark Llywelyn (D. W.) Griffith - film director, best remembered for his film, "The Birth of a Nation,", which at the time of its release in 1915, was the most successful ever film in the United States and also introduced many innovative filming techniques such as the use of long shots from different angles and alternating close-ups.   The film, however, was highly controversial in the way it portrayed the Ku Klux Klan and African Americans. 

Born on this day 1751 at Glanyrafon near Bryn-crug in the parish of Tywyn in Merionethshire.

David Richards, better known by his bardic name Dafydd Ionawr, who was a well known Welsh-language poet.

Charles Dickens came twice to Wales to give readings, firstly at Swansea on 4th April 1867 and then at Newport on 21st January 1869.  On both occasions, there were huge crowds.

Dickens had visited Anglesey in 1859 as a journalist to the report on the loss of the Royal Charter, which was Britain's worst ever shipwreck and also must have visited Wales during the final years of his life when he went to live in Ross on Wye.  

Born on this day 1944 in Cardiff

Peter Rodrigues - former Wales soccer international, best remembered as the FA Cup winning captain of Southampton in 1976.

Born on this day 1962 in Cardiff. 

Glen Webbe - former Wales rugby international, who is notable for being the first black player to play for Wales.  He also appeared as a contender in the television show Gladiators.  

Born on this day 1866 in Laugharne

Sir Edward John Owen Cox - Australian businessman and politician.

He sailed as midshipman to New Zealand in around 1880, later becoming a merchant in the New Zealand frozen meat trade.   He later moved to Australia, where he revolutionised the transportation of frozen carcasses by cutting them in half and packing one inside the other.

He became a close friend of Australian Prime Minister and fellow Welshman Billy Hughes,  who was instrumental in his appointment as deputy controller of overseas shipping.   

Born on this day 1890 to a horse-racing family from the Cilfeithy Stud Farm in Llandyfaelog, Carmarthenshire.

Jack Anthony - jockey who was three times winner of the Grand National. 

John Randolph Anthony, better known as Jack, was also champion jockey on two occasions and after he retiring from riding, he was twice the winning trainer in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.  In 1991, he was included in the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame. 

21st January 1920 saw the granting of a royal charter founding the University of Wales, Swansea.    

 

On 21st January 1808, Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn, died. 

Richard Pennant married Anne Susannah Warburton, heiress to the Penrhyn estate and in 1783 became the first Baron Penrhyn. He owned 8,000 acres of sugar plantations and over 600 slaves in Jamaica and was an outspoken supporter of slavery.  he used his great wealth to industrialise the Bethesda slate quarries, building Port Penrhyn and a rail link from his quarries to the port.  

On 21st January  1940 the lowest ever temperature in Wales, -23.3°C (-9.9°F) was recorded at Rhayader.

Born to Welsh parents on this day 1734 in Liverpool

Robert Morris - merchant, benefactor of the American Revolution and signer of the American Declaration of Independence. 

Morris and his family relocated to Philadelphia in 1747, where he soon became a highly successful merchant. His interest in politics led to him becoming a member of the Continental Congress and his money, coupled with his business acumen and contacts meant he was able to provide Washington's army with supplies and arms.

Following  American Independence, Morris remained involved in politics, being appointed the superintendent of finance in which role, he established a national mint and used his considerable wealth to raise funds for the government.

He was later Senator for Pennsylvania but lost his personal fortune as a result of land speculation, being sent to debtors' prison from 1798 to 1801 and never recovered financially.  

On 20th January 1288 Rhys ap Maredudd's revolt against Edward I was suppressed when his final stronghold at  Newcastle Emlyn castle surrendered, forcing him to go to ground.  

Following the death of Rhys's great grandfather, Lord Rhys in 1197, his father ruled over a truncated portion of Deheubarth, known as the Cantref Mawr, which Rhys succeeded to in 1271  and as such considered himself the custodian of Dinefwr castle, the stronghold of Deheubarth.

Rhys's relationship with the prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, was strained and he, therefore, supported the English crown during Edward I's campaigns in Wales in 1276–77 and 1282–3, which following Llywelyn's death, led to him being bestowed additional lands by Edward.  However, to his extreme disappointment, he was not given Dinefwr castle, which led him to rebel in 1287, capturing the majority of Ystrad Tywi, including the castles at Dinefwr and Carreg Cennen.

The rebellion was put down the following year and Rhys was forced into hiding, being eventually captured in 1291 and executed for treason at York in 1292.  

 

The Amlwch riots of 1817. 

January 1817 saw violence, directed mainly against farmers, corn merchants and shippers in Amlwch, Anglesey. 

At the end of the Napoleonic wars, the government brought in the Corn Laws which prohibited the import of cheap corn in an effort to maintain prices for farmers. In 1817, the Anglesey grain harvest had failed following a very wet summer. The result was widespread poverty and hunger for the people of Anglesey. 

Despite the local problems, grain was still available to those in England who could afford to pay for it. Anglesey corn was still being exported via Amlwch port.  It was the transfer of wagonloads of such corn to a ship called “ The Wellington” in Amlwch port which caused the local people to stir.  In the dead of night, a number of men removed the rudder from the ship and hid it at Llanwenllwyfo church 3 miles away.  Meanwhile, in the “Ty Mawr” a public meeting was held to try and resolve the famine problem. It was decided to try and raised £2000 to buy food for the needy, the mine owners were approached but their paltry offer only resulted in further inflaming the situation. 

Over the next 6 days, the mood of the people worsened and two magistrates were dispatched to the town. Their first act was to enrol the help of 30 Special Constables who arrested some of the ring leaders of the disturbances. However, it was decided that only one of the men arrested should be taken to the Court House at Beaumaris. The following day the hiding place of the rudder was discovered but when some of the special constables attempted to take it back to the ship they were pelted with stones and smelter slag. The magistrates wrote to Sir Robert Peel requesting military assistance. Peel decided to ask the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to send a detachment of troops. 

164 men of the Regiment of Holyhead set sail from Dublin. They arrived in Amlwch on 20th February. Within a few hours, the rudder was restored to the Wellington and over the next few days and weeks normality returned to Amlwch. The soldiers eventually left on 29th March.

Between January and April 1962 an outbreak of smallpox in Wales infected 45 people and killed 19 people, six in the Llantrisant and Rhondda and thirteen in Bridgend.  It resulted in over 900,000 people in South Wales being vaccinated against the disease. 

Born this day 1810 at the Harp Inn, Llanfairtalhaearn, Denbighshire.

Talhaiarn, (the "Welsh Burns"), which was the bardic name of John Jones, architect and poet.

After leaving school Jones became a joiner and then flourished as a talented architect who worked with the Rothschilds in France and was a superintendent of the building of the Crystal Palace, but despite his success as an architect, his burning passion was poetry and his ambition was to win the National Eisteddfod chair, which he never acheived, although he was accepted into Gorsedd y Beirdd in Bala in 1869.   Severe arthritis forced him to retire and return home to the ‘Harp, where in 1869 he commited suicide, which it is thought he was driven to by a combination of his severe arthritic condition and the bitterness he felt at never winning the Eisteddfod chair.

He wrote the Welsh lyrics for the military march "Men of Harlech",  published in Volume II of the 1862 collection Welsh Melodies, the song is said to describe events during the seven-year long siege of Harlech Castle, during the War of the Roses, between 1461 and 1468, where under the command of Constable Dafydd ap Ieuan, the Lancastrians held the castle, until it was taken by Lord Herbert of Raglan on the Yorkist side, in what is the longest known siege in the history of the British Isles.  

Lady Lucy Herbert (1669 – 19 January 1744) was probably born at Powis Castle near Welshpool and was a prominent Roman Catholic during the reign of James II and at the time of The Glorious Revolution

Background;

In 1685, King James II's policies of religious tolerance met with increasing opposition from those unhappy by his Catholicism and his close ties with Catholic France. The situation became more critical, when the King's son, James Francis Edward Stuart was born, as it displaced the king's Protestant daughter Mary as the heir apparent and made the return of a Catholic monarch more likely.

However, at the invitation of influential Protestant leaders, Mary's husband, William of Orange led a large invasion fleet in 1688, which resulted in James's regime collapsing.  James fled to France and with French assistance landed in Ireland in 1689 in an attempt to regain his throne, however, he was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne on 1 July 1690 and fled to France once more, never to return. 

 Lucy's father was William Herbert,  1st Marquess of Powis, who was perhaps the countries leading Catholic of the time and accompanied James II to both France and Ireland.  When Catholic institutions became illegal in Britain, parents who could afford it and wanted their daughters brought up as Catholics often shipped them off to convents in France or the Low Countries.  This was the case with Lucy Herbert, who was sent to the English Augustinians at Bruges, where she  wrote a series of books recording her life at the convent, which have become valuable historical texts.  She was also was elected Mother Superior in 1690.  

On 19th January 2009, The Cardiff International Sports Stadium in the Leckwith area of Cardiff was opened, replacing the old Cardiff Athletics Stadium.  The stadium is part of the major Leckwith Development which includes the new football and rugby stadium, the Cardiff City Stadium (home of Cardiff City F.C) and a retail park.  It is the headquarters of Welsh Athletics—the sport's governing body for Wales.

Bronze Age Wales

The Bronze Age in Britain is considered to have been the period when migration brought new people to the islands, in particular from the area of modern Switzerland and was a time of significant cultural change. 

Copper tools first appeared in Wales about 2500 BC, with most of the copper coming from the mine on the Great Orme, near Llandudno.  These were followed by bronze tools, bronze being an alloy of copper and tin and the tin being sourced from the mines in Devon and Cornwall.  Mining at the Great Orme reached very large scales during the middle Bronze Age (1600–1200 BC) with the mine extended to a depth of 70 metres and it became a major source of copper for much of western Europe. 

Born on this day 1752  in Lambeth, London (to Welsh parents originating from Carmarthen)

John Nash - who is one of Britain's most famous architects.  Examples of his work include the state rooms and western front of Buckingham Palace, Regents Park, Marble Arch, Trafalgar Square, Brighton's Royal pavilion, the Gaol's of Carmarthen, Cardigan and Hereford, Old College (Aberystwyth University) and repairs to St Davids cathedral.

Nash established his own architectural practice in 1777 but was declared bankrupt in 1783.   Following this, he moved to Carmarthen and seems initially to have been a supplier of building materials before becoming a prolific architect, building contractor and landscape garden designer in the South Wales area.  In 1797, he returned to London and soon came to the attention of the Prince Regent (later King GeorgeIV), who became an admirer of his neo-classical style and appointed him Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks and Chases in 1806.  His contributions to the face of London are considered immense and it was said of him that "every part of the city was touched by his hand"  

Dolwyddelan Castle (Castell Dolwyddelan) is located near the village of Dolwyddelan in Conwy, between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Betws y Coed. It was built by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great) in the 13th century as a Snowdonian stronghold guarding one the main routes through North Wales. 

On 18th January 1283, it was captured by the forces of Edward I of England during his conquest of Wales.  After which it was modified and strengthened and a second tower added.  It remained occupied by an English garrison until 1290, when because of their inaccessibility by sea, inland castles such as Dolwyddelan became obsolete.

On January 18th 1486, the Royal Houses of Lancaster and York were united by the marriage of Henry VII to Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV, thus ending the divisive War of the Roses. The unification of the houses of York and Lancaster by this marriage was symbolized by the heraldic emblem of the Tudor Rose, which combined the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster.

Henry was born at Pembroke Castle in 1457 and had a tenuous claim to English throne, as his mother, Margaret Beaufort was a great, great-granddaughter of King Edward III. During Henry's early years, the War of the Roses was ongoing and when Edward IV, a Yorkist became King of England in 1461, Henry although only four years old was seen as a rival claimant from the House of Lancaster and therefore in danger of his life. He was taken to Brittany by his uncle Jasper Tudor to seek refuge and remained there until 1485 when he returned to claim the throne from the then king Richard III. He landed at Dale in Pembrokeshire and made capital out of his Welsh ancestry by marching under the Red Dragon banner of Cadwaladr, attracting military support as he marched through Wales on his way to the Battle of Bosworth, at which on August 22nd 1485, he defeated Richard and seized the crown.

After the political upheavals of the Wars of the Roses, Welsh people hoped that Henry's reign would put an end to the oppression that they had suffered for centuries, but historians are divided on the actual impact his reign had on Wales as he is not reported to have set foot in Wales after his coronation.

Born on this day 1752 in Hawarden, Flintshire.

Josiah Boydell - publisher and painter, who established the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery,  a project that illustrated Shakespeare's plays and showcased the talents of British painters and engravers.

Boydell moved to London at the age of 14, where he learned painting from Benjamin West and mezzotint engraving from Richard Earlom.  He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1772 and 1779 and one of his major early tasks was to draw the picture collection of Sir Robert Walpole prior to the export of the pictures to Catherine the Great of Russia. 

Born on this day 1809 in Swansea 

John Gwyn Jeffreys - conchologist (the study of mollusc shells) and malacologist (the study of molluscs).  He was the author of a number of books and articles on conchology and the mechanics of sea dredging. 

 Jeffreys was educated in Swansea at the Bishop Gore School (Swansea Grammar School), before going to London, where he qualified as a barrister but his greater passion was for conchology, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1840.  On his retirement in 1856, he began a series of dredging and deep sea expeditions to the seas around Britain, Ireland, Greenland, America and Norway, discovering ten new species of mollusc.  Later in life, he became  J.P. for Hertford and High Sheriff of Herefordshire for 1877.

On 18th January 1884, Dr William Price was arrested for attempting to cremate his dead baby son, Iesu Grist, at Llantrisant.  he was later tried at Cardiff Assizes but acquitted on the grounds that cremation was not contrary to law, he was, therefore, able to carry out the ceremony on 14th March.

Born on this day 1920 in Cardiff 

Paul Dickson - award winning   director in film, television and advertising.

Dickson is best remembered for two remarkable postwar documentaries, The Undefeated (1950) and David (1951, the Welsh contribution to the Festival of Britain).  The Avengers and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) were among his best-known television credits.

Born on this day 1863 in Chorlton on Medlock, Manchester (of Welsh parents) 

David Lloyd George 

Born David George, his father William George was a  schoolmaster who died when David was three, so his mother Elizabeth took him and his brother Richard  to her native Llanystumdwy, Caernarfonshire, where he was strongly influenced by his uncle Richard Lloyd, a minister and political activist in North Wales, David later adding his uncle's surname to his own, to become David Lloyd George.  

Lloyd George became a solicitor, in 1884 and also took an active part in local politics, he was a lifelong Welsh nationalist and joined the Liberal Party, who after being  badly defeated in 1886, were looking for a new generation of young enthusiastic politicians, Lloyd George fitted the bill and rose rapidly through the ranks, firstly becoming the Liberal MP for Carnarvon Boroughs in 1890, before being made chancellor of the exchequer by Herbert Asquith in 1908.  The following year he introduced his famous "Peoples Budget" imposing increased taxes on the nation's rich landowners, who were well represented in the House of Lords and vetoed the budget.  The budget eventually passed, which resulted in the House of Lords losing their power of veto.

During the early stages of World War One, Lloyd George was put in charge of the  Ministry of Munitions then made secretary for war and finally prime minister at the head of a coalition government with the Conservatives and after the successful conclusion of the war, famously became known as "the man who won the war".  He was politically untouchable, even though he was a Liberal leading a predominantly Conservative party.  From 1919 to 1922, however, his government steadily weakened and there was increased conservative hostility towards Lloyd George personally who they accused of arrogance and disliked his strong support of Irish Home Rule, however, the botched Chanak Crisis of 1922 was the final straw and the Conservatives revolted, forcing Lloyd George to resign.

During World War Two, he twice turned down offers from Churchill to join the wartime cabinet and became alienated because of his support for the policy of appeasement with Germany.  

He married Margaret (Maggie) Owen, a local farmer's daughter, in 1888 who refused to live in London preferring to live in Criccieth and raise their five children.  Lloyd George's affairs with other women were notorious, including his London secretary Frances Stevenson who he married in 1943, two years after Margaret's death.  He was made Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor in 1944 and died on 26th March 1945, 

Although he is remembered mostly for his contribution to winning the First World War, he is also regarded as one of the great reforming British chancellors of the 20th century and his legacy includes, laying the foundation of the welfare state, increasing council house building, improving pensions and raising the school leaving to 14.  Lloyd George possessed eloquence; extraordinary charm and persuasiveness and was a revered and well-respected opponent in the Houses of Parliament where he was nicknamed the "Welsh Wizard".  

Following the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in 1282, Wales was annexed by King Edward I of England and in 1293, Sir Roger de Puleston was appointed High Sheriff of Anglesey, tasked with imposing new English taxes (one fifteenth of all moveables).  These were unsurprisingly unpopular with the Welsh and led to discontent.  On 17th January 1294 following a raid on Caernarvon borough by de Puleston, a riot ensued during which de Puleston was seized and put to death.  

On 17th January 1941, 58 people were killed in air raids on Swansea. 

Born on this day 1940 in Ynysybwl.

Leighton Rees -  the first ever World Professional Darts Champion and also a member of the inaugural World Darts Cup winning team in 1977.  

The Blizzard of 1881 (17–18 January 1881) was one of the most severe blizzards ever to hit Wales.  At least five people froze to death and all transport and industry came to a standstill.

A low-pressure system rapidly developed in the English Channel, causing snowfalls and as the system deepened and moved through the Channel, gale force easterly winds caused blizzards and drifts of snow, tens of feet high.

Born on this day 1909 in Abertillery.

Sandy Griffiths - football referee who was the first Welshman to referee, an international at Wembley,  an FA Cup Final, (the 1953 FA Cup Final, otherwise known as the Matthews Final) and to appear in a World Cup final ( as a linesman, when West Germany beat Hungary in the 1954 final)  

On 17th January 1920, in a 19-5 win over England, Jerry Shea achieved the first international scoring "Full House"; try, penalty goal, conversion and drop goal.

Shea, born in Newport (12 August 1892 – 30 June 1947) was a Welsh international dual-code rugby centre, who was also an accomplished swimmer and professional boxer.

On 16th January 1840, John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones were all found guilty of high treason for taking part in the Newport Chartists Riot and sentenced to hanging, drawing and quartering, the last time such a sentence was issued in the UK.  The severity of the sentences shocked many people and protests led to it being commuted to transportation for life.

When they received a total pardon in 1856. Jones stayed in Australia as a watchmaker and Williams stayed in Tasmania, where he subsequently made his fortune discovering coal.   However, John Frost, who had worked as a school teacher in Tasmania, returned to Britain, where he received a triumphant welcome in Newport and by the time of his death in 1877, the majority the reforms for which the Chartists had campaigned were enshrined in law.  

Cymru Fydd

After years of dormancy Welsh nationalism began to re-emerge in the second half of the nineteenth century and there were calls from Liberals and Welsh Nationalists for specific bills of Parliament for Wales and especially Home Rule.  The Cymru Fydd movement was founded in 1886 by some prominent London Welsh, including J. E. Lloyd, O. M. Edwards, T. E. Ellis, Beriah Gwynfe Evans and Alfred Thomas, with the main objective of self-government for Wales.

 It also became the vehicle for the political ambition of Lloyd George but collapsed after an unsuccessful attempt by him to merge with the South Wales Liberal Federation on 16th January 1896 in Newport, at which he was howled down and refused permission to speak.  After the collapse, Lloyd George became disillusioned and switched his attention to the British matters and as T.E. Ellis had already joined the Government, Cymru Fydd lost most of its impetus.   

Born on this day 1958 in Pill, Newport.

Tony Pulis former professional soccer player, but best known as a manager. Pulis has a reputation for the long ball style of play and achieving results on small budgets. He is best known for taking Stoke City to the Premier League in the 2007–08 season and is currently the head coach of West Bromwich Albion.  

Born on this day 1929 in Brecon 

Walley Barnes - former Welsh soccer international and manager 

Barnes played his club football mainly for Arsenal and was part of their Championship-winning side in 1947-48 and FA Cup winning side in 1949-50.  After retiring from playing, Barnes worked as a presenter for the BBC, covering FA Cup finals and along with Kenneth Wolstenholme in 1964, was one of the commentators for Match of the Day.  He also provided expert opinion to Wolstenholme during the famous live commentary to the 1996 World Cup final of England versus Germany.  

Born on this day 1741 in Bodvel, Caernarvonshire

Hester Thrale - a prolific and versatile writer, remembered primarily for being a biographer and friend of the famous writer Samuel Johnson and Brecon-born actress Sarah Siddons.  She was also the author of works on English grammar and European history,  one of the first women to attempt these genres, 

Hester who was descended from Henry VII was described as being only 4 feet, 11 inches tall, with an animated face, touched with rouge.   She was clever, vivacious, independent, with a sensitive nature and a good horsewoman.  Her handwriting was delicate and was skilled in languages reading Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish.  In 1763, she married a wealthy brewer named Henry Thrale and was able to enter London society and as a result became celebrated for her connections with eminent men including Samuel Johnson, becoming closest friend and confidante.  Johnson visited Wales in Thrale's company on several occasions.  In 1781 Thrale died, and his wife was left a wealthy widow. To Johnson's dismay, she married Gabriel Piozzi, an Italian singer and composer and set off for Italy.  Johnson openly disapproved and the resulting estrangement saddened his last months of life.

Born on this day 1862 in St Pancras, London (of Welsh parents)  

Leifchild Stratten Leif-Jones, 1st Baron Rhayader - MP and member of the Privy Council, best remembered as a temperance leader and as such he was often  referred to as 'Tea-leaf Jones'. He was President of the United Kingdom Alliance (UKA), the leading British prohibitionist organisation, between 1906 and 1932.

     

On 16th January 1909 Tannatt Edgeworth David led the first expedition which successfully reached the Magnetic South Pole.  David, who was born at St. Fagan’s rectory, near Cardiff in 1858 was also a geologist noted for his monumental study of the geology of Australia.

Born on this day 1893 in Cardiff

David Ivor Davies, who was better known as Ivor Novello - composer, singer and actor who was one of the 20th century's most popular entertainers.

 The songs that he is best remembered for, are "Keep the Home Fires Burning", enormously popular during the First World War and ‘ We'll gather lilacs’, written as World War II drew to its close.

After the war, Novello wrote music for several successful musical comedies and briefly went to Hollywood, but after falling out with the director, D.W Griffith, he returned to Britain where his success continued, with him writing his own West End musicals.

Novello died in 1951 and the Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting were established in 1955 in his memory.  In St Paul's, Covent Garden, known as the actors' church, a panel was installed to commemorate him and to mark the 21st anniversary of his death, a memorial stone was unveiled in St Paul's Cathedral.  

Born on this day 1810 in Brecon  

John Evan Thomas,  sculptor, notable for his sculpture in Brecknock Museum of the Death of Tewdrig, which is associated with the Welsh national revival of the 1830s and 1840s and  depicts the dying fifth-century king Tewdrig, saint of Glamorgan and for his two bronze statues in the House of Lords, of Henry de Loundres and William, Earl of Pembroke, both signees of Magna Carta. 

Thomas studied in London and Europe, before returning to Brecon and becoming High Sheriff of Brecknockshire, his many works include those in Wales, such as the Duke of Wellington in the centre of Brecon, his statuary in Brecon Cathedral, Sir Charles Morgan at Newport, the John Henry Vivian at Swansea, the 1865 Prince Consort on Castle Heights, Tenby and the Second Marquess of Bute in Cardiff city centre.  

In January 1870, Francis Kilvert began his famous diary, 

Francis Kilvert was an English clergyman, who became a rural curate in Langley Burrell, Wiltshire and Clyro, Radnorshire, before becoming Vicar of St Harmon, Radnorshire and Bredwardine, Herefordshire.  During this time he kept a diary, which when published over fifty years after his death, give an enchanting portrait of rural Britain in the 19th century.

There is now a Francis Kilvert Society, which visits places mentioned in the diaries and also places where he lived.  A John Betjeman BBC television documentary on Kilvert, called Vicar of this Parish, was shown in 1976 and led to Kilvert's Diary being dramatised on British television between 1977 and 1978.  

Born on this day 1918 in Newport

Billy Lucas - Welsh international football player in the late 1940s and 1950s, who made in excess of 400 appearances for Swindon Town, Swansea Town and Newport County.  After his retirement from playing, he managed both Newport County and Swansea Town.  

Born on this day 1946 in Cardiff.

Roger Davis - county cricketer who played for Glamorgan for 13 years as an all-rounder, scoring over 7,000 runs and taking 241 wickets in first-class cricket. In 1968, at Swansea, he fell over the boundary rope, whilst catching the ball, during Gary Sober's breaking  six sixes in one over and became headline news in 1971 when he survived being hit on the head by a ball, which caused his heart and breathing to stop.