On 8 September 1936 – in what is recognised as one of the defining moments in modern Welsh history – a Baptist minister, a university lecturer and a schoolteacher set fire to the partly built RAF aerodrome at Penrhos on the Llŷn Peninsular, then calmly reported their actions to the police at nearby Pwllheli.
The 'Fire' represented the final act in a high profile, passionate, yet ultimately unsuccessful eighteen-month campaign to prevent the destruction of Penyberth, the renowned farmhouse which had iconic cultural and religious significance in Wales, in order to construct a training facility, a bombing school, for the RAF.
Pleas from eminent literary and religious figures, backed by over half a million people, were dismissed by British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin – who had earlier agreed to divert the bombing school away from sites in Northumberland and Dorset due to local protests – incensed Welsh public opinion resulting in a resurgence in nationalist sentiment and increased support for the recently established Welsh Nationalist Party, Plaid Cymru.
In a sensational outcome to the court case held in Caernarfon, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. The case was then controversially transferred to the Old Bailey in London where Lewis Valentine, Saunders Lewis and D. J. Williams were convicted, merely seconds after the prosecution concluded, and imprisoned for nine months at Wormwood Scrubs: their place in Welsh political folklore assured.
Penyberth - A Nation on Trial, Ann Corkett’s meticulous and engaging translation of Prof. Dafydd Jenkins’ study, Tân yn Llŷn, was first published in 1998 with an updated Introduction by the author sixty years after his original edition and is now republished to mark the 90th anniversary of the ‘Fire on Llŷn’.
“This is the first government that has tried to put Wales on trial” David Lloyd George
“the first time...since the days of Owain Glyndŵr that charges of lawbreaking have been brought against the protagonists of Welsh Independence.” Western Mail, 1937
Professor Dafydd Jenkins (1911-2012) was Emeritus Professor of Law and Welsh Law at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
