DJ Williams (Left) Lewis Valentine (Centre) and Saunders Lewis (Right)
On day 8 September 1936, in what is now recognised as one of the most defining moments in modern Welsh history, 3 respected middle aged men, pillars of their local community, a Baptist minister, a University lecturer and school teacher took part in the symbolic burning of a RAF aerodrome at Penyberth, near Pwlhelli in Gwynedd, North Wales.
The Fire represented the final act in an unsuccessful eighteen months battle to prevent the building of an RAF bombing school on a site of particular importance in Welsh literary culture, the site of a culturally significant farmhouse affiliated with centuries of patrons of Welsh language poetry, and also a way-station for pilgrims to Bardsey Island.
The UK government settled on Llŷn as the site for its new bombing school after similar locations in Northumberland and Dorset were met with protests.Opposition to the presence of the bombing school in Penyberth was widespread at the time, with many objecting on pacifist and environmental grounds, however, UK Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin refused to hear the case against the bombing school in Wales, despite a deputation representing half a million Welsh protesters. Protest against the bombing school was summed up by Saunders Lewis when he wrote that the UK government was intent upon turning one of the 'essential homes of Welsh culture, idiom and literature' into a place for promoting a barbaric method of warfare.For Saunders Lewis, D.J.Williams and Lewis Valentine, the bombing school represented the oppression of the English over the Welsh and the imposition of English warmongering and violence on the peaceful Welsh countryside.
The three men after deliberately torching the buildings, then calmly presented themselves calmly at Pwllheli police station to tell the confused police officer on duty at the time, what they had done and . to accept responsibility. for their actions.They were subsequently put on trial at Caernarfon on 13 October 1936. At that time (and up until the “Welsh Language Act” of 1967), a Welsh person had no right to give their testimony in Welsh in a court in Wales. Ever since the “Laws in Wales” acts of 1535-1542, English had been made the only language of legal proceedings in Wales. The only exception allowed to this rule was if one could prove that one’s English was inadequate. All three wished to give their testimonies in Welsh, but Lewis Valentine was the only one allowed to do so, as no evidence could be provided that he was anything like fluent enough in English.
As for the other two, Saunders Lewis had a degree in English from Liverpool University (the city where he was born and brought up); and D.J. Williams also had a degree in English from Aberystwyth (University of Wales, Aberystwyth), and had done post-graduate studies at Jesus College, Oxford! Additionally, at the time of the trial, Saunders Lewis was lecturing in English, and D.J. Williams teaching English at Fishguard Grammar School. Not surprisingly, their English was deemed to be good enough, and they were not allowed to testify in their own language.
The largely sympathetic jury however were unable to reach a decision or find them guilty and the trial was transferred to the Old Bailey in London, this decision to move the case to London, and the judge’s scornful treatment of the case at the Old Bailey angered many in Wales, but despite this the three men were sentenced to nine months in prison.They served 8 months in prison at Wormwood Scrubs. Saunders Lewis was, controversially, dismissed from his job at Swansea University before he had been found guilty of the crime. He was subsequently hired as a lecturer of English at Cardiff University.
Following their release from prison on 27 August 1937, Lewis, Williams and Valentine were greeted at Caernarfon pavilion to a hero's welcome by a crowd of around 15,000. Such displays of support were seen across Wales, demonstrating the impact the event had on contemporaries, particularly the Welsh-speaking community.
RAF Penrhos survives today as a single strip civilian airfield and is today the site of the annual Wakestock music festival and home to the Penrhos home for Polish refugees, one of the last remaining WW2 displaced persons camp, but this incident is known in the Welsh language as Llosgi'r ysgol fomio (The bombing school burning) or Tân yn Llŷn (Fire in Llŷn), and has since attained iconic status in Welsh nationalist circles.Today, Penyberth ranks alongside Tryweryn https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2015/10/cofiwch-dryweryn-remember-tryweryn.html in its significance in the fight for the Welsh language. The stance of Lewis, Valentine and Williams was an inspiration to Welsh language campaigners for decades and their continued efforts to advance Wales and the Welsh and made them three of Wales’ most notable political activists. Dafydd Glyn Jones wrote of the fire that it was "the first time in five centuries that Wales struck back at England with a measure of violence... To the Welsh people, who had long ceased to believe that they had it in them, it was a profound shock."
Saunders Lewis went on to broadcast the famous ‘Tynged yr Iaith’ speech in 1962, https://morris.cymru/testun/saunders-lewis-fate-of-the-language.html giving rise to the formation of the Welsh Language Society which campaigns for the rights of the Welsh language to this day.
A Plaque at the site of the arson of the bombing school in Penyberth today
