The free exhibition Petitioning for Peace opens in Amgueddfa Sain Ffagan on 9 March and runs until 24 September. It celebrates the centenary of the remarkable Women’s Peace Petition, which was signed by 390,296 women from across Wales. Laid end to end, its pages would be seven miles long!
The petition was housed in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC until its return to Wales last year. It was created by Welsh women following the horrors of the Great War, to establish a shared intent between the women of Wales and America: ‘never again’. And it was just part of a significant history of Welsh pacifism.
Wales and peace
Many descendants of the women who campaigned so vigorously for peace after the first world war still live in Wales. Sioned Williams MS has spoken eloquently about her personal pride that her great-grandmother and two great-aunts signed this petition.
The peace demonstrations and campaigns we see today are part of an incredible legacy of Welsh people working for peace across the centuries. There are good reasons that the Women’s Peace Petition arose in Wales and was signed by such a significant proportion of the population. Scratch the surface of history, and other examples of Welsh activism and the depths of Welsh pacifism are abundant.
The 12 highest turnouts in the 1934–35 Peace Ballot were all in Wales, and its result was overwhelmingly positive. The Women’s Peace Petition itself was followed in 1925 by the Welsh Church Leaders’ Peace Appeal to America.
But the Welsh tradition is even longer and deeper than this, tracing its roots back to one of the founding fathers of the movements which would culminate in the formation of the League of Nations and United Nations.
An apostle of peace
Henry Richard, the ‘Apostle of Peace’, was an instrumental figure across 19th century Europe and the world as the Secretary of the Peace Society. He can be credited with ensuring that a declaration in favour of arbitration was included in the Treaty of Paris in 1856. Across 40 years as Secretary to the Peace Society he crisscrossed Europe, organising a series of peace congresses, consistently and persistently making the case for peace and negotiation.
It is fair to say that a thread running from the roots of the League of Nations, and ultimately the United Nations, can be traced back to the lifelong campaigning and influence of the Tregaron-born Welshman Henry Richard.
There is a statue commemorating Richard on the square in Tregaron but he is mostly another forgotten figure from Welsh history. In Wales we are demure, modest, and a bit bashful. We do not celebrate our significant global contributions, nor do we sufficiently recognise those to whom we owe so much and from whom we can learn so much about who we were and are.
In the 21st century our culture is impoverished by our failure to build upon and grow our own traditions, to touch our histories and use this connection as the inspiration for our future. Campaigning for peace is a Welsh tradition upon which we need to build.
The Welsh Centre for International Affairs
The continuation of these Welsh traditions today mostly falls to the Welsh Centre for International Affairs (WCIA), formerly the League of Nations Union. They are to be applauded for coordinating efforts to bring the history of the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition back to the people of Wales today. It’s a big step towards restoring our collective knowledge of the depth of Wales’ involvement in and impact on international affairs.
We must build on this. We must look to renew this tradition and make use of our historic influence to reestablish and strengthen our voice today. A Welsh voice for peace can again be powerful. Our history will lend it weight, our geography and stature are strengths. Cymru has no axe to grind, no ambition to influence or control global affairs. And so it can provide an honest, clear voice for peace and reconciliation, for talk and arbitration.
Wales should have the ambition to extend its efforts in the relentless and endless campaign for peace and fairness in the world. The Welsh internationalist tradition is incredibly long and strong. It’s time for it to evolve and grow so that our nation can continue to contribute positively to global affairs. There is no doubt that we have a voice – history makes this clear – and we must use it.
The Temple of Peace
The WCIA has the good fortune to be housed in the Temple of Peace in our capital city of Cardiff. It is a beautiful art deco building, an imposing reminder of Wales’ traditions and history of peace campaigning. It was funded by the Welsh philanthropist, David Davies of Llandinam, and the contributions of individuals across the peace network that spread the length and breadth of Wales. This concrete resource and symbol of our history is well worth a visit.
The Temple crypt in particular is a must. It houses the Book of Remembrance, a beautifully handwritten record of the names of almost 40,000 people who lost their lives in the Great War. For many years the temple hosted the ceremony of the turning of the page. Each day a new page of names would be on show and relatives were invited to attend on the day their lost family member’s name would appear. The Western Mail would print the names in advance, allowing families to organise their visits.
At its peak, around 7000 people a year would attend the morning ceremonies. The crypt is not large; it must have been packed. To turn every page and return to the beginning of the book was almost a four-year cycle.
The Book of Remembrance has been digitised and can be browsed here. The ceremony of the turning of the page has faded into memory. But there will be hundreds of thousands of people alive today, in Wales and further afield, who have relatives listed in the book. Those who find their relatives in the online copy can arrange to visit the crypt and see that name on the page in person.
Raising our voices for peace
The book is a direct way for people to touch and connect with their own personal family history, a poignant reminder of the loss and destruction caused by war. It’s an insightful reminder that such losses continue daily across the globe in today’s many conflicts – in Ukraine, Gaza, Burma, Sudan, and more, an important reminder of the constant need to raise our voices for peace, justice, and fairness. The Women’s Peace Petition provides another such opportunity for people in Wales.
It is past time that we celebrated and trumpeted the very long tradition in Wales of campaigning for human rights, peace, and better international relations. Historically, Wales has had an influence vastly beyond that which our size and prominence would suggest. Let’s remember that every voice makes a difference and, when the voices of a nation are raised collectively, the impact is powerful enough to echo across a century and beyond.
It’s time for us to truly inherit the drive and passion for peace of our ancestors in Cymru. Let’s be prouder and louder as we carry the torch they lit into our future.
The Peace Petition exhibition will play its part in inspiring a new generation of grassroots campaigns like the one by the women of post-war Wales in the 1920s. It may inspire a new generation of future Henry Richardses, and of women’s voices being raised for peace.
Visit Petitioning for Peace at the Museum of Welsh History, St Fagan’s, from 9 March 2024 to 15 September 2024, and find out more about the Temple of Peace.
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