WCIA were delighted to be contacted in Spring 2024 by David Jones from Newcastle Emlyn, on behalf of his father Willy, who had stumbled across materials digitised by WCIA on People’s Collection Wales that recorded a remarkable ‘Peace Pageant’ , organised by (WCIA’s predecessor) the Welsh League of Nations Union and performed in May 1935 on the windswept headland of Aberystwyth Castle to an audience of thousands.
Willy Jones’ Fishy Memories 90 years later
Every school and school child in Cardiganshire / Ceredigion participated as performers representing nations of the world – including a 5 year old boy called Willy Jones from Aberaeron Primary School, clinging tightly to his home made wooden fish decked proudly in his Breton costume, whose period portrait 90 years later would leap out at his son David – leading to 95-year old Willy sharing his oral history and recollections of the event with us. At the bottom of this post appears the compleetd short film from Willie’s reminiscences.
Unearthing the Archives – and Working Back
In June 2021, WCIA staff researching and digitisding the archives of the Welsh League of Nations Union held at the national libvrary of Wales, uncovered this scrapbook album presented to WLNU Organiser the Rev Gwilym Davies – richly illustrated with images of the participants, the pageant itself, and record of proceedings. From this we have pieced together the back story that led up to this event.
‘Peace Pageants’ in an Imperial World
In the 1920s and 1930s, as the British Empire was at its ‘peak of ascendancy’ – whilst simultaneously under challenge from the very independence forces worldwide that would in post-WW2 successfully engineer the Empire’s dismantling, decolonialisation and reconfiguration into the Commonwealth. The 1920s-30s was marked by a resurgence in and recognition of the cultural identities of small nations, and their rights responsibilities and capacities to influence as ‘soft power’ players within an imperial world. At this point in history, ‘benign colonialism’ (rooted in Christian mission) is still largely viewed in Wales as an unquestioned ‘good thing’ – though with questions starting to be asked particularly among newly empowered women’s labour and workers movements, as to why and whether these assumptions can actually be better for indiginous populatiojns than their own knowledge, cultural systems and solutions.
Reclaiming the Castles for Peace
In this ‘imperial climate’, Pageants were seen as a hugely popular and educatioanlly effective means of engaging young people with learning history and intercultural relations. QUOTE “best education…”. The WLNU had first commissioned ‘a pageant of war and peace’ as early as 1918, the sript for which which was offered to schools Wales and world wide as a curriculum resource. In 1925 a further pageant was written. In 1930 however came the nadir of Interwar Peace Pageatry, as the 10th anniversary of the League of Nations was marked Wales-wide by a ‘Force of Peace’: a series of pageants ‘reclaiming for peace’ the ancient fortresses of Edward II at Harlech, Beaumaris, Gwydir, Conwy, Rhuddlan and Caernarfon. Culminating with a performance by the Welsh bard Cynan in the ruins of Caernarfon Castle.
Influencing the Peace Ballot
The 1935 Pageant intended to mark the 15th annivresray of the League, and shortly preceded (and would therefore likely have positively influenced) the WLNU’s ‘Peace Ballot’ campaign of summer-autumn 1935. Over the course of several months leading up to the pageant, every school in Ceredigion became abuzz with learning and fulfilling their part in. proceedings: learning the culture, traditions, costumes, war and peace issues of the nation they represented.
What’s the Story of the Peace Pageant?
Written by Cynan, building from his
Act 1
Act 2
Act 3
Willy’s Memories of the Peace Pageant