New collections at the Welsh Political Archive
The Welsh Political Archive at the National Library of Wales has had a busy year and has added a number of new sets of political papers and ephemera to its collections, a couple of which are of direct interest to Society members.
Most importantly is a collection of twenty-two speeches made by Dame Margaret Lloyd George at various events including political meetings, charity functions, the opening of schools, exhibitions, bazaars, an unveiling of a war memorial, and the presentation of awards. Six of the speeches are in Margaret Lloyd George’s own hand, the rest by her private secretary the Congregationalist minister, temperance campaigner, social activist and fund raiser, the Rev. J.T. Rhys. The speeches are mostly in English but with some in Welsh. The collection was kindly loaned for copying by Mr Richard Rhys O’Brien, grandson of the Rev. J. T. Rhys (Rev. J. T. Rhys (Margaret Lloyd George) Papers).
Another significant addition has been the papers of Glyn Tegai Hughes comprising diaries, papers related to his political interests, research files and ephemera related to the Gregynog Press (Glyn Tegai Hughes Papers). Glyn Tegai Hughes, who died in 2017, was formerly a member of the Lloyd George Society and a speaker at weekend schools. He was an academic and literary critic but he was also a Liberal politician, sometime chairman of the Welsh Liberals and parliamentary candidate in Denbigh.
There have been many other additions made to the to the Welsh Political Archive this year including a substantial amount of ephemera from the by-elections in Newport and Brecon and Radnor and from the European elections in June. You can see details of all the acquisitions in the Archive’s latest newsletter at: https://www.library.wales/fileadmin/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/casgliadau/archifau/archif_wleidyddol/cylchlythyr_awg/saesneg/cylch_awg_50.pdf
