queerwelsh

[queerwelsh]

🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 2025 Prides in Wales - Digwyddiadau Balchder 2025 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Again, so many Prides happening in Wales this year! Here's a list of them, with more details to be added and updated once they're revealed by the Pride! Sut cymaint o Balchder yng Nghymru eto! Dyma rhestr - wnai adio mwy pan bydd mwy o fanylion yn cael eu datgelu! May - Mai 11 - Colwyn Bay Pride Bae Colwyn @togetherforcolwynbay 17 - Balchder Machynlleth Pride @balchder_mach_pride (with other events in the week before) 17 - Swansea Pride Abertawe @swanseapride 18 - Swansea Family Pride / Abertawe Pride Teuluol at the National Waterfront Museum @museumwales 24 - Blaenau Gwent’s 1st Pride! From 12:30pm at @bedwelltyhouse @blaenaugwentcouncil June - Mehefin 7 - Bridgend Pride @bridgend.pride 7 - Llanelli LQC Mardi Gras @llanelliqueercollective 7 - Monmouth Pride Trefynwy @monmouth.pride.trefynwy 7 - Porthcawl Pride Party @ The Beachcomber Porthcawl (on Facebook) 7 - Torfaen Pride (on Facebook) 14 - Barry Pride Y Barri @barry.pride 14 - Pontardawe Pride (on Facebook) 21 - The Big Queer Picnic Cardiff @thebigqueerpicnic 21 - Pride Cymru Cardiff @lgbtpridecymru 28 - Abergavenny Pride Y Fenni @abergavennypride 28-29 - Towyn Pride Weekend @knightlysbar 29 - Cowbridge Pride Y Bont-faen @cowbridgepride July - Gorffennaf 4-6 - Pembrokeshire Pride Sir Benfro, Dewsley Farm @pembspride 5 - Caerffili Pride @pridecaerffili 5 - Caldicot Pride / Balchder Cil-y-coed @caldicotpride 5 - North Wales Pride Balchder Gogledd Cymru, Bethesda @northwalespride 19 - Flint Pride 26 - Brecon Pride Balchder Aberhonddu @breconpride 26 - Wrexham Pride Balchder Wrecsam @pridewrecsam August - Awst 2 - Llandovery Pride @heartofwaleslgbtq 9 - NPT Pride (NPT Pride 2025 on Facebook) @nptpride 17 - Glitter Pride @glittercymru 22-24 - Trans Pride Cardiff @cardifftranspride 30 - Carmarthen Pride / Balchder Caerfyrddin @carmarthenpride + Pride in Aberystwyth @prideinaber will return on the 25th of April 2026 Anything left out? Let me know in the comments or in a DM please! Diolch! 🌈

Full post (with images) on Instragram

[queerwelsh]

Kathleen Freeman was born on the 22nd of June, 1897, in Yardley, Birmingham. By 1911, she and her parents, Charles H Freeman, a commercial traveller, and Catherine Freeman (née Mawdesley) had moved to Conway Road, Cardiff. Kathleen attended Canton High School and University of South Wales and Monmouthshire (Cardiff University).

After graduating with a BA in Classics, Kathleen stayed on at the University as a Greek lecturer, being awarded an MA and D.Litt. During the Second World War, she lectured for the Ministry of Information and HM Forces in South Wales. In 1946, having become a senior lecturer, she resigned from Cardiff University to focus on her writing and research.

As well as publishing academic texts on Classics and Greek translations, Kathleen was a mystery and detective writer. She was admitted into the Detection Club in 1951, a group of mystery writes which included Agatha Christie. Mary Fitt was her most used and well-known pseudonym, under which she published 27 novels and short stories from 1936, but she also wrote as Stuart Mary Wick, Clare St Donat, Caroline Cory and ‘T’other Jane Austen.’

From the 1930s until her death on the 21st of February 1959, Kathleen lived with her partner Dr Liliane Clopet, a GP and writer, at Lark Ride, Druidstone Road, St. Mellons (outside Cardiff). Several of her books were dedicated to Liliane. Liliane died in Newport in 1987, aged 86.

Sources:

‘FREEMAN, KATHLEEN (‘Mary Fitt’; 1897 - 1959), classical scholar and writer,’ The Welsh Biography

‘Inspirational People: 3. Kathleen Freeman – Classicist and Fiction Writer,’ Judith Dray, Cardiff University Blogs

‘How to Conceal a Female Scholar; or, the Invisible Classicist of Cardiff,’ Edith Hall, The Edithorial

Kathleen Freeman, A Brief Biography & Bibliography, M. Eleanor Irwin, University of Toronto

[queerwelsh]

Kate Roberts (1891-1985) was born on this day, 13th February, 1891 in Rhosgadfan, Caernarfonshire.

Known as ‘Brenhines ein Llên’ (Queen of our Literature), Kate published novels such as Traed Mewn Cyffion (Feet in Chains) in 1936, which depicted poverty and the hardships of women in the slate quarries in North Wales. She was also known for short stories such as in the collection ‘Ffair Gaeaf a storïau eraill’ (’Winter Fair and other stories’), published in 1937.

Through her political activism with Plaid Cymru, she met Morris T. Williams, who she married in 1928. They bought the Gwasg Gee publishing house in Denbigh by 1935, which published books, pamphlets and Y Faner (The Banner). Kate and Morris both were close to the editor of Y Faner, E. Prosser Rhys, a poet who broke ground in 1924 by winning in the Eisteddfod with ‘Atgof’, which depicted heterosexual sex, masturbation and gay sex. Morris and Prosser’s relationship was particularly close, and they are thought to have had an affair.

Morris died in 1946 (Prosser Rhys in 1945) but Kate continued at the press for another decade. Her later short stories reflected her isolation and her autobiography was published in 1960. Kate is also known for her politics, carrying on a correspondence with the Welsh Nationalist Saunders Lewis for 40 years and herself contributing to Y Faner. Kate retired to Denbigh and died in 1985, at the age of 94.

The image of Kate Roberts is that of a powerhouse of a Welsh novelist, writer and political campaigner, but also of a lonely and childless widow later in life. This image is sadder if her husband was gay, had an affair, and died from his alcoholism in his 40s. The traditional images of Kate Roberts can be challenged, however. Morris’s sudden death was devastating - in an interview with Lewis Valentine, Kate told him how her world had fell to pieces, leading to write of ‘the struggle of a woman’s soul’ in Stryd y Glep (Gossip Row). The affair, however, she understood.

Kate’s own literature has more recently been analysed as itself having examples of homoerotic writing between women. Relationships between women can be intense, erotic, such as in the 1929 short story ‘Nadolig’ (’Christmas’), which explores a relationship between two teachers with coded queer subtext, and the 1972 short story ‘Y Trysor’ (’The Treasure’). Not only did lesbian relationships seem to appear in her short stories (similarly to the writer Margiad Evans, who is thought to be bisexual, who Kate also corresponded with) but in Alan Llwyd’s biography, he writes that her letters to Morris hint at her own feelings for women:

“Yr oedd gwraig y cigydd lle’r arhoswn yn un o’r merched harddaf y disgynnodd fy llygaid arni erioed. Dynes lled dal, heb fod yn rhy dew nac yn rhy denau, gwellt gwineu - real chestnut a thuedd at donnau ynddo. Croen fel alabaster a’r gwddf harddaf a welais erioed - llygaid heb fod yn rhy brydferth ond yn garedig. Yr oedd yn hynod gartrefol ei ffordd - Cymraes iawn. Bore trannoeth, hebryngai’r mab fi mewn cerbyd i Gastellnedd - cychwyn tua 7.15a.m. a hithau’n oer. Mynnodd y wraig roi clustog o’r ty odanaf, a lapiodd rug am fy nhraed, rug arall am fy nghorff, a rhoes glamp o gusan ar fy ngwefus. Nid oedd dim a roes fwy o bleser imi. Os byth ysgrifennaf fy atgofion, bydd y weithred hon yno, a’r noson ar lan afon Ddyfi.”

“The butcher’s wife where we stayed was one of the most beautiful girls I have ever laid eyes on. A broad, tall woman, not too fat or too thin, brown(?) hair - real chestnut, with a tendency to waves. Skin like alabaster and the most beautiful neck I’ve ever seen - eyes not too beautiful but kind. She was very homely - a real Welshwoman. The next morning, the son escorted me in a vehicle to Neath - starting at 7a.m. and it cold. The wife insisted on putting a cushion from the house under me, wrapped a rug around my feet, and another on my body, and put a clamp of a kiss on my lips. There was nothing that gave me more pleasure. If I ever write my memoir, this deed will be there, and that night on the banks of river Dyfi.”

The implication is she was aware of Morris’s homosexuality before they married and felt comfortable her own sexuality to him, and, as she was in love with Morris, was bisexual. This interpretation of her writing, both personal and published, was treated as controversial however - the ‘sensational’ ‘claim’ of the biography, rather just one part of Llwyd’s portrayal of Kate’s life. The queer readings of her writing already existed and certainly are not so far-fetched or shocking. Kate’s history does not generally include her queerness, so have these interpretations been entirely dismissed as unbelievable?

Through her writing and her personal life, if not through her own sexuality, Kate Roberts certainly is a part of the LGBT+ history of Wales - she already is a part of the LGBT+ literature of Wales. So what makes a historically queer view of Kate Roberts so far unacceptable? For some, it’s still to unbelievable that figures in Welsh history may be queer - for others, too disrespectful to repeat that ‘Brenhines Ein Llên’ was attracted to women. The image of her is respectable, does same-sex attraction not fit in with that? Or does same-sex attraction not fit in with her Welshness even?

It is however not a slur on her legacy to believe her to be queer. When it’s treated as such, by ignoring the queer interpretation, by not speaking of it (like we for so long did not speak about queer people in our society, through shame) - it sends the message to LGBT+ people in Welsh society today that a Welsh identity and LGBT+ identity are still mutually exclusive. This puts Welsh LGBT+ people in the position of needing to choose between the two identities, needing to compartmentalize these two parts of themselves. That Welsh historical figures, Welsh heroes even, could have been queer validates our identities  - when even the possibility is dismissed, Welsh LGBT+ people are dismissed. When LGBT+ people do exist in our history, when Kate Roberts (such a Welsh figure) is a part of a Welsh LGBT+ history, this needs to be recognised, to recognise that Welsh LGBT+ people are a permanent part of Wales, and even of Welsh-speaking Wales.

Sources: -‘“A queer kind of fancy”: Women, Same-sex Desire and Nation in Welsh Literature’ by Kirsti Bohata in Huw Osborne ed. Queer Wales. - ‘Coded Sexualities and Outside Views’ by Gwen Davies. - Kate Roberts (Writers of Wales) by Katie Gramich. - Kate: Cofiant Kate by Alan Llwyd. - ‘From Huw Arwystli to Siôn Eirian: Representative Examples of Cadi/Queer Life from Medieval to Twentieth-Century Welsh Literature,’ by Mihangel Morgan in Queer Wales. - ‘Cultural Translations: A Comparative Political Study of Kate Roberts and Virginia Woolf,’ PhD thesis by Francesca Rhydderch.

[queerwelsh]

Nina Hamnett (1890-1956) was born on the 14th of February, 1890 – on St Valentine’s Day in Tenby, as it says on the plaque marking the place of her birth.

Like Gwen John, who also grew up in Tenby, Nina was bisexual - openly, unlike many other queer people of the time. Affairs with women such as Vanessa Bell are rumoured (rumours possibly started by Nina) while she also had affairs with male artists who she modelled for, such as Roger Fry and Modigliani. As well as portraits by Fry, and one portrait by Modigliani, she was painted by Walter Sickert with her husband and posed for a sculpture of her nude torso by Gaudier Brzeska.

Her autobiography published in 1932 was named in reference to this sculpture: The Laughing Torso. The tale of her bohemian life was a bestseller in the US and UK, where her reputation was growing. In it she recounts growing up in Wales, unhappily - of her birth, she writes:

“Everybody was furious, especially my Father, who still is. As soon as I became conscious of anything I was furious too, at having been born a girl; I have since discovered it has certain advantages.”

In her adult life, she writes of her own becoming an artist, the people she met, from members of the Bloomsbury Group to other Welsh artists and writers (Dylan Thomas, Augustus John, Cedric Morris), and of her many love affairs. Though Nina and Norwegian artist Edgar de Bergen married in 1914, she was relieved when their relationship ended three years later- they never saw each other again but did not get a divorce. Nina continued to be prolific in Parisian society, dancing on a Montparnasse cafe table for the ‘hell of it.’

Her bohemian life, and infamous autobiography depicting it, would overshadow her art, however. Nina was an extremely talented artist, and successful too, as one of the most respected women artists of her period. Other artists saw her talent but Nina was more drawn to the bohemian life of Paris and London. Her life, however, went downhill after she was sued by Aleister Crowley for having written in Laughing Torso that he was involved in black magic.

Nina died on the 16th of December, 1956, after falling from her apartment window. Whether accidental or intentional is unclear - her last words are said to be ‘Who don’t they let me die?’ On the last page of The Laughing Torso, she had written, ‘I wish I could have jumped out of the window.’

Nina Hamnett was known as the 'Queen of the Fitzroy’ in her life and is now also known as the 'Queen of Bohemia.’

[Images: 1. Portrait of Nina Hamnett by Roger Fry, in a dress designed by Vanessa Bell, made at Omega Workshops, 1917. 2. ‘Dolores’ by Nina Hamnett, 1931.]

[queerwelsh]

LGBTQ+ HISTORY MONTH 2025 IN WALES - MIS HANES LHDTC+ 2025: 1st February/1af Chwefror - 'Draig Fest' Queer Lunar New Year Festival, Butetown Community Centre, Cardiff 3pm @yteuluteg 1- 'Rainbowing Merthyr' with @NorenaShopland at Cyfarthfa Museum @cyfarthfacastle 1 - Iris on the Move starts at Pontypridd @munipontypridd then tours Wales through Feb to Abertillery, Bangor, Porthcawl, Maesteg, Swansea, Caernarfon, Wrexham, Aberystwyth & Carmarthen @irisprize 2 - Hiraeth Film online showing of documentary 'Coch Bach y Bala' at 6pm on Youtube @hiraeth.films - Watch on Youtube now! 2 - Queer Emporium LGBTQ+ Tours of Cardiff EVERY SUNDAY 2pm @thequeeremporium 3 - Queertawe events restart @Queertawe Check the whole programme on their page! 3 - National Waterfront Museum 'One Stop Info Shop' with @fasttrackswanseabay, @swanscenequeer & more 3 - Byth Bythoedd Amen at Ffwrnes Llanelli (then tours Wales through Feb) @theatr.cymru 6 - Viva LGBTHM events at Rhyl & Wrexham @vivalgbtplus 6 - 'The Fight for Our Rights in Wales: LGBTQ+ Activism in Wales from the 1950s' Norena Shopland, Cardiff Library + ONLINE 6pm @lgbtpridecymru 7 - Tir Cwiar exhibition opening 7pm @onyourfacecollective @elysiumswansea 8 - LGBTQ+ Writing Workshop & Film Screening from 11am @museumofcardiff @norenashopland - I'll be there translating! 8 - Flower Power workshop at Cyfarthfa 1pm by @klarasrokart_ @cyfarthfacastle 11 - LGBTHM ANARC Lecture Cardiff University 13 - Tales of the City with @racheldawsonwrites @thequeeremporium 7:30pm 13 - Queer Storytelling & Activism, Ty Pawb Wrexham 7pm @lgbtpridecymru 15 - LGBTQHM visit at St Fagans 11am @museumwales @lgbtpridecymru

19th February/19 Chwefror - '40 Years of Fun: How LGBT+ People Partied from 85-25' (40 Mlynedd o Hwyl) by @lgbtpridecymru at @goldencrosscardiff from 7pm! 20 - 'Llechi'r Enfys,' Llety Arall, Caernarfon 6:30yh @lletyarall @mikeparkerwales @norenashopland @arwelgruffydd @kristofferdruid & mwy! 21 - Ceredigion LGBTQ+ History Month chat by Ceredigion County Council at the National Library of Wales Education Room from 6pm @caruceredigion @librarywales 22 - Queer Book Club Swansea - discussing 'Nevada' by Imogen Binnie from 3pm at @elysiumswansea @queerbookclubswansea 23 - LGBTQ+ History Tour of Cardiff at 2pm from @thequeeremporium 26 - LGBTQ+ History Night in Neath @ymcalgbtqia 6-8pm with @swanscenequeer 26 - Zoom workshop by Morgan Dowdall @mdoodlee @onyourfacecollective 26 - Llyfrau Lliwgar yn darllen Cymru. Balch. Ifanc', 7yh, Caffi Blue Sky Bangor @llyfraulliwgar @blueskycafebangor 27 - Llyfrau Lliwgar ABERYSTWYTH Time TBC at Gayberystwyth Books 27 - Barry Pride Speaks Out - LGBTQ+ History Month Discussion with @thatlisapower @alex_arkeonerd @lisacorderybruce & more! @barry.pride 28 - Aberration LGBTQ History Month night @aberrationcymru at @amgueddfa_ceredigion_museum from 6:30pm

ALSO continuing exhibitions: -Tir Cwiar (Queer Land) at @elysiumswansea until the 22nd of March -PERMANENT LGBTQ+ exhibition at St Fagan's @museumwales by @markretheridge

Via @ QueerWelshStories

[queerwelsh]

Steve Strange (1959 - 2015) was born Stephen John Harrington in Caerphilly on the 28th of May, 1959. His early life was spent in Hampshire and Rhyl, before moving back to Newbridge with his mother, where he went to Newbridge Grammar School, which then became Newbridge Comprehensive School.

By 1976, Steve and others were known as the ‘first punks in Wales’. Steve left for London, where he formed the band ‘The Moors Murderers’ with Soo Catwoman - other members were Chrissie Hynde (later of The Pretenders), Vince Ely (later of Psychedelic Furs), Topper Headon (later of the Clash), Mark Ryan (formerly of Adam and the Ants) and Anthony Doughty (later of Transvision Vamp). They recorded the bootlegged ‘Free Hindley’ - with a B-side of The Ten Commandments to show they did not condone murder. The band were obviously still controversial and disbanded when Steve Strange and Anthony Doughty were beaten up in 1978.

Steve Strange was then briefly vocalist of The Photons, before forming the synthpop supergroup Visage. Steve Strange was frontman, until their break up in 1985, while other members included Rusty Egan, Midge Ure and Billy Currie, amongst others. It was through Visage that Steve became linked with the New Romantic movements of the 1980s, after appearing in the Bowie video ‘Ashes to Ashes,’ which also helped lead to the success of Visage, and their second single ‘Fade to Grey.’

Again with Rusty Egan, Steve Strange became a nightclub host in the late 1970s, organising ‘Bowie Nights’ on Tuesdays at Billy’s (later Gossips) in Soho, and then in the ‘Blitz’ club in 1979. Strange was essential to the New Romantics movement, a luxurious and androgynous fashion movement particularly popular in the 1980s, as he only admitted the ‘weird and the wonderful’ to his nightclubs. Strange and Egan fronted the “Club for Heroes” on Tuesdays and Thursdays in 1981, then ‘Camden Palace’ from 1982 to 1984, then one of the most famous nightclubs, and then ‘The Playground.’ Later, he was part of the trance club movement in Ibiza.

From 100 Ideas that Changed Fashion, by Harriet Worsley:

When Steve Strange and Rusty Egan designated Tuesday nights as Bowie Nights at a club in London’s Soho in 1978, it attracted a new fashion following. Consisting largely of former punks, these were young people who had enjoyed the sartorial aspect of punk but shied away from the movement’s violent and anarchistic lifestyle. They formed a glamorous, colourfully dressed crowd, whom the press first dubbed the Blitz Kids (after the Blitz nightclub, a favourite haunt), and then the New Romantics. Other clubs sprang up to cater for the movement’s growing popularity, playing music from the new electronic pop/synthesizer bands such as Duran Duran, Adam and the Ants and Spandau Ballet.

Steve Strange fronted a new version of Visage in the 2000s, was portrayed in ‘Taboo’ for his part in the New Romantics movement (along with other New Romantics figures such as Marilyn), released the autobiography ‘Blitzed’ and appeared in tv show ‘Ashes to Ashes’. Strange also, in the 2000s, publicly discussed his sexuality, being openly bisexual. Visage released their first new album in 29 years, ‘Hearts and Knives’ in 2013, then the third, and final, incarnation of Visage.

Steve Strange died of a heart attack, aged 55, on the 12th of February, 2015.

[queerwelsh]

Mark Ashton died on this day, the 11th of February, in 1987.

Mark was born on the 19th of May, 1960 in Oldham, but grew up in Portrush, Northern Ireland. He moved to London in 1978, where he worked in a bar in King’s Cross, in drag as a barmaid with a blonde beehive.

In the 1980s, he volunteered for London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard, campaigned for CND and joined the Communist Party, becoming the first gay secretary of the Young Communist League. Though Mark transformed the Party’s approach to LGBT rights, he and Mike Jackson, who he’d met through Switchboard, wanted to be active as openly gay people. They formed Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) when they collected donations for miners on strike at 1984 Gay Pride.

In the evening of 1984 Pride, a miner spoke at a rally, and they were struck by the similarities between the two struggle, of LGBT rights and the Miners’ Strike. Having collected about £150, they advertised a meeting in Capital Gay. 11 people turned up and from the meeting they made a leaflet to launch LGSM - the leaflet was accepted except with an amendment to ‘one in ten miners is gay.’

As LGSM, they supported the miners as lesbian and gay people. At the second meeting, they decided to focus on one community, of the Dulais Valley, as one of the members, Hugh Williams, was from there. They then met David (Dai) Donovan, who also had thought through the similarities of their struggles and how LGSM could help. A month later, 27 lesbians and gay men, arrived at Onllwyn village in Dulais Valley.

Other than some hostility (and confusion towards vegetarianism), they experienced warmth, friendship and solidarity. LGSM raised £20,000 for families of miners on strike, and based on The Sun writing that “a group of perverts” were “supporting the pits,” they organised the Pits and Perverts concert in December, 1984, headlined by Bronski Beat. The miners marched with LGSM at Gay Pride in 1985.

Mark was admitted to hospital on 30th January, 1987, and died 12 days later from pneumonia, aged 26. At his memorial, there were banners from the Communist Party, Anti-Apartheid, anti-nuclear, Caribbean and community groups, as well as from LGSM. The Mark Ashton Trust was created to support individuals diagnosed with Aids; Mark is also remembered on the UK Aids Memorial Quilt and by Terrence Higgins Trust, with the Mark Ashton Red Ribbon Fund and a plaque at their London headquarters. In 2017, on what would have been his 57th birthday, he was honoured with a blue plaque above Gay’s The Word bookshop.

[Images: 1. Mark Ashton at Gay Pride 1981. 2. Mark Ashton at Gay Pride 1985, wearing a LGSM t-shirt and holding a pink “Communist Party” banner with the words “pinko commie queers.” 3. Blue plaque reading: “Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. Mark Ashton 1960-1987. Political and Community Activist. LGSM met at Gay’s the Word bookship on this site 1984/5.”]

[queerwelsh]

'Queer Welsh Women in Art' - including Ladies of Llangollen, Cranogwen, Gwen John, Nina Hamnett, Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, Jan Morris and me!

[queerwelsh]

Marged ferch Ifan was a harpist and wrestler from Snowdonia, born in 1696 in Beddgelert. She became a legendary figure after featuring in Thomas Pennant’s Tours in Wales and in others’ stories and ballads. Known as “Queen of the Lake(s),” she apparently made her own harps, shoes and boats and could wrestle any man well into her 70s.

Though stories about her say she lived to over a 100, she was buried in Llanddeiniolen on the 24th of January 1793.

The story above, by Theatr Clwyd and North East Wales Archives, interprets Marged Ferch Ifan as Queer, like Living Histories Cymru and Norena Shopland’s ‘Forbidden Lives: LGBT Stories from Wales.’

[queerwelsh]

Marged ferch Ifan - or Marged uch/vch/ych Ifan or Margaret/Peggy Evans - was a harpist and wrestler from Snowdonia.

Marged’s story written by Thomas Pennant in 1778 and in other tales and stories, making her a mythologized figure, but who was a real woman.

Mae gan Marged fwyn ach Ifan Grafanc fawr a chrafanc fechan, Un i dynnu'r cŵn o'r gongol, A'r llall i dorri esgyrn pobol. Fair Margaret daughter of Evan has A large claw and a small claw, One to drag the dogs from the corner, And the other to break people’s bones.

-an example of one ballad written about Marged ferch Ifan.

She was born possibly in 1696 in Beddgelert, having been baptized at St Mary’s Church in that year, where she also married Richard Morris in 1717. The two ran a pub for copper miners in Llandwrog, where they would play the harp in the evenings. She is thought to have beat her husband for drinking, after which he gave up drinking and became a Methodist.

However, Marged left eventually, deciding to make her own living - she could make her own harps, shoes and boats, with which she would ferry copper on the  Snowdonia lakes of Llyn Peris and Llyn Padarn, which led to her being known as “Queen of the Lakes.”

One of the most well-known stories of her may also make her Queen of the Lakes, in which she throws a man into the lake, who did not pay his fare after she ferried him across. In another story, she knocks a man out for throwing one of her many hunting dogs into the lake after he stole her dinner. Until her 70s, Marged was purpotedly feared, as she could wrestle any man.

Stories of Marged say she lived 100 years, but she most likely died in Pen Llyn in January 1793, when she was buried in Llanddeiniol, Gwynedd.

Marged ferch Ifan is one of several figures in Welsh histories of seemingly very masculine women, who challenge the traditional images of Welsh women and of traditional gender in Welsh history. Marged especially has been seen as possibly queer by Norena Shopland in Forbidden Lives: LGBT Stories from Wales and in ‘Queer Tales from Wales’ by Living Histories Cymru.

Sources and Further Reading:

Image from Merched Cymru 2: Marged Arwres Eryri by Siân Lewis. Illustration by Giles Greenfield of Marged throwing a man into the lakes.

Marged ferch Ifan (bap. 1696, d. 1793), Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan, Oxford DNB.

‘Marged ferch Ifan’ on ‘Interesting Women’ blog by Cary B.

‘Marged ferch Ifans: Queen of the Lakes’ on Merched Chwarel.

‘Marged vch Ifan (Margaret Evans)’ on Dictionary of Welsh Biography.

[queerwelsh]

Portrait of John Gibson by Penry Williams, 1845 (via Tate) & John Gibson by Charles Edward Wagstaff, after Penry Williams, 1845 (via NPG).

John Gibson was a sculptor and Penry Williams an artist. Both were from Wales and both settled in Rome in the early 19th century and became famous there. It is believed they had a relationship in Rome, until Gibson’s death in 1866.

[queerwelsh]

Sculptures by John Gibson at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; ‘The Wounded Amazon,’ ‘A Bacchante diverting the Attention of a Tiger,’ ‘Aurora,’ and ‘Nymph and Cupid.’ @museumwales

John Gibson was born on the 19th of June, 1790 in Conwy and died in Rome on the 27th of January, 1866. Welsh lesbian sculptor Mary Charlotte Lloyd and the American lesbian sculptor, Harriet Hosmer both studied at Gibson’s studio in Via della Fontanella, which was also a tourist spot for a number of other lesbian and feminist women.

John Gibson is thought to have had a relationship in Rome, until his death, with the Welsh artist Penry Williams.

[queerwelsh]

Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies was an actress of the screen and stage whose career spanned decades.

Born Gwen Lucy Ffrangcon-Davies on the 25th of January, 1891, her parents were Welsh baritone David Ffrangcon-Davies, who was born David Thomas Davies, and Annie Francis Rayner. The surname ‘Ffrangcon’ came from ‘Nant Ffrancon,’ a valley in Snowdonia.

Her career began on the stage in 1911 - she played roles such as Juliet, Queen Anne and Lady Macbeth, and appeared in ‘Henry V’ with Ivor Novello. When she retired from the stage in 1970, her career continued on TV and radio. She also appeared in films such as ‘The Tudor Rose’ in 1936, ‘The Witches in 1966′ and ‘The Devil Rides Out’ in 1968.

In London, Gwen met actress Marda Vanne (born Margaretha van Hulsteyn in Pretoria in 1896). They became partners - professionally, they toured a theatre company around 44 towns in South Africa and personally, they were life partners until Marda’s death in 1970.

Gwen’s final role was at the age of 100, in a teleplay of the ‘The Master Blackmailer.’ She also received a damehood at the age of 100, the oldest at the time to have received the honour. Gwen died, aged 101, on the 27th of January, 1992, and is buried at Stambourne, Essex.

Sources:

Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies by Harold Knight @museumwales (of Gwen’s portrayal of Etain in ‘The Immortal Hour,’ possibly from 1923) 

National Portrait Gallery - portraits of Gwen by Yvonne Gregory, 1923, plus other portraits by Gregory and by Angus McBean

Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, Twentieth-Century Actress by Helen Grime, Routledge, 2016.

‘The Private Life of Gabrielle Enthoven’ by Eva Smith, V&A Blog, 2015 - article on Gabrielle Enthoven’s lesbianism mentions Marda Vanne as ‘the long-term partner of fellow actress Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies’

[queerwelsh]

Dydd Santes Dwynwen Hapus! Dyma delweddau i gael dathliad bach LHDT+ o’r diwrnod cariadon Cymraeg.

Happy St. Dwynwen’s Day! Here are images I’ve seen and wanted to share to queerly celebrate the Welsh day of lovers.

1. Gwnewch Bopeth yn Gymraeg. (Do Everything in Welsh) O’r gylchlythyr ‘Draig Binc’ gan CYLCH, 1994, wedi liwio yn diweddaraf. From ‘Draig Binc’ (Pink Dragon), the newsletter of the Welsh gay group CYLCH, 1994, colourized later.

2. Llwy Caru / Welsh lovespoon. O’r Amgueddfa Genedlaethol - “Efallai taw enw'r gwneuthurwr oedd John, neu a gafodd ei wneud gan ddyn i ddangos ei gariad at ddyn arall?” From the National Museum of Wales - “Was the maker called John? Or was it made by a man to show his love for another man?” @museumwales

3. Efa G. Blosse-Mason. (Instagram) Gyda gymeriadau o’r ffilm fer ‘Cwch Deilen.’ With characters from her short film ‘Cwch Deilen’ (Leaf Boat).

[queerwelsh]

The Relationship of Frances Power Cobbe and Mary Charlotte Lloyd

Mary Charlotte Lloyd [1819-1896] and Frances Power Cobbe [1822-1904] met in Rome, where Mary was a sculptor and, from the 1860s, were life partners until Mary’s death.

Mary was born on the 23rd of January, 1819 in Llanbedr-Dyffryn-Clwyd, Denbighshire, to Edward Lloyd and wife Frances Maddocks, an old family in North Wales, who owned over 4000 acres of land. Little is known of Mary’s childhood, or indeed much of her life outside of her life with Frances, but she may have lived with the ‘maiden’ aunt, Margaret Lloyd, from whom she inherited gifts from ‘Lady Eleanor Ponsonby and Miss Ponsonby,’ The Ladies of Llangollen, and letters to her aunt from the poet Felicia Hemans.

By her 30s, Mary was sculpting in the studio of John Gibson, a sculptor also from North Wales who Norena Shopland writes possibly had a relationship with Welsh artist Penry Williams. Harriet Hosmer studied with Gibson also and she and Mary became friends - Mary had also studied with Rosa Bonheur in France.

Mary met Frances Power Cobbe in the winter of 1861 in Rome, when they were 39 and 43 years old, respectively. Sally Mitchell writes that they were both ‘mature, single women’ who ‘had private income, lived alone, and were fond of animals’, who were both establishing a professional identity, but were opposites in personality. Frances was good humoured, witty, a ‘jolly Irishwoman,’ but Mary was much more introverted, and was even written as ‘Pessimist, unsociable, gloomy,’ but still devoted to Frances.

Frances was born on the 4th of December, 1822, in Newbridge House, Ireland, to Charles Cobbe and Frances Conway. She had a similar family background to Mary, born to old English-speaking, Anglican gentry in a Celtic country. She was a writer, social reformer, Suffragette and anti-Vivisection activist. She was associated with Charles Darwin, among other intellects of the time, and travelled to Rome to socialise with like-minded Suffragette and other lesbian women, such as Charlotte Cushman and Mary Somerville.

Frances and Mary’s relationship developed over the next 2 years, with Frances returning to visit Mary in Rome, even when Frances had suffered an injured to her foot that affected her health for the rest of her life. From 1864, however, Mary and Frances both returned to England, living together in South Kensington, London from 1865, which Mary had paid for with her inheritance, though they split the bills between them.

Mary’s pessimistic image may have been due to her desire to return to Wales, where she often returned to visit, such as to help care for her dying brother. Frances wrote her works while in London, though a sculpture by Mary, Horses and Play, was exhibited in 1865 by the Royal Academy of Arts, in the National Gallery. Mary also planned to build a studio in their garden, with Rosa Bonheur visiting her in 1869.

They continued to travel separately, Frances also visiting Ireland, and Mary returning to Rome, such as when John Gibson suffered a stroke which he died from in 1866. Mary also supported Frances in her suffrage endeavours, such as with the NAPSS and in signing petitions, though she was not heavily politically involved. They continued to share an interest in animal activism also - 2 paintings by Mary appeared in an exhibition of women artists in 1868, which were paintings of her nephew’s dogs, Mary was an executive for the Home For Lost Dogs, which became Battersea Dogs Home, which Frances and Mary raised money for by mortgaging their own home.

Of Mary’s travelling, Frances wrote to Mary Somerville in 1869; ‘I thought ere this you would have had my better half with you… Poor old darling, I am comforted by knowing she is happy & enjoying her little fling. Her life can ever have too much of that to make up for the part - but I am very lonely & sad without her.’ Frances also wrote to Mary Somerville of Mary (Lloyd) returning to her like a ‘truant husband.’ In Frances’s own published writing, she wrote of their relationship; ‘Of a friendship like this, I shall not be expected to say more.‘ In the Duties of Woman, Frances writes of marriage and of ‘friendship,’ which certainly seems to mean same-sex partnership in the context, where marriage and partnership are seen as equal.

Mary’s own sense of privacy may have been behind this, but we can also see that despite claims that lesbian relationships and partnerships were perfectly accepted in the 19th century, even celebrated or fashionable, and though Frances was in a way quite open that Mary was her partner, they could still not go into explicit detail on the nature of their relationship. Even with as much writing of Frances’ that survives, including her own autobiography, we don’t know enough about their relationship to know more about Mary herself.

They moved to Wales in 1884, where they had often visited together over the years, staying in a rented cottage, and where Mary had continued to long for. The continued to rent a cottage at first in Wales, before they could afford to live in the house Mary had partially inherited in Hengwrt, which was helped by Frances inheriting from a friend in 1892. Frances called themselves ‘The Ladies of Hengwrt,’ after the Ladies of Llangollen, and like the Ladies, they received letters addressed to ‘you and Miss Lloyd.’ Here they flourished, where Frances wrote of as one of the most beautiful parts of the kingdom.

Mary passed away in 1896, from heart disease, and was buried in Llanelltyd churchyard, where Frances could see from her windows and visited early every morning. Frances and Mary’s partnership had been ‘thirty-four years of a friendship as nearly perfect as any earthly love may be - a friendship in which there never was a doubt or break - or even a rough word - and which grew more tender as the evening closed.’

Frances died on the 5th of April, 1904, in Hengwrt, and both are buried at Saint Illtud Churchyard, Llanelltyd. 

Sources: Sally Mitchell, Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. Norena Shopland, Forbidden Lives: LGBT Stories from Wales. Frances Power Cobbe’s and Mary Charlotte Lloyd’s graves. Living Histories Cymru. The photo of Mary Charlotte Lloyd was published by Frances in the Abolitionist in 1900 and was taken in 1864 or 1865, possibly by her brother John Lloyd.

[queerwelsh]

Mary Charlotte Lloyd was a sculptor born 23rd January 1819 in Corwen, Denbighshire. Mary studied with French artist Rosa Bonheur, and in the studio of Welsh sculptor John Gibson in Rome, where she found like minded feminist and lesbian circles, and met Frances Power Cobbe.

Mary’s partnership with Frances, the Irish suffragette, social reformer and anti-vivisection activist, began in about 1860 and lasted for the rest of Mary’s life. Later in the 1860s, they settled in South Kensington and enjoyed ‘many social pleasures of a quiet kind.’ Mary was often the more introverted of the couple, especially as she longed to return to Wales, where they only spent the summers when they lived in London.

In 1884 they moved permanently to Wales, to the Hengwrt estate. Though Mary inherited Hengwrt in 1858, Frances describes in her autobiography how an inheritance from an old friend allowed them to continue to live in the Hengwrt estate. She also noted that their Welsh home should lead them to be confused with the Ladies of Llangollen, and described herself and Mary as the ‘Ladies of Hengwrt.’ This famous ‘romantic friendship’ certainly had an influence on Frances and Mary, with Mary’s family being closely enough connected to the Ladies of Llangollen to have inherited gifts from them.

In Frances’ letters and other published writings, Frances described Mary as her ‘friend,’ her ‘life-friend,’ her ‘wife’ and her ‘husband.’ Unfortunately, we mainly only see Mary’s life through Frances’ view, through her many writings, as Mary requested that her own writings be destroyed on her death - a request to which Frances obliged.

When Mary died in 1896, the ‘joy’ in Frances’ life had gone. This had been to Frances ‘a friendship as nearly perfect as any earthly love may be.’ Frances died in 1904, still in Hengwrt, and Frances and Mary are buried together in Saint Illtud Church Cemetery in Llanelltyd.

[queerwelsh]

"Editorial note 2019:

Ivor Novello was openly gay, and the actor Robert 'Bobbie' Andrews (1895-1976) was his partner for 35 years."

Ivor Novello was born David Ivor Davies on the 15th of January, 1893, in Canton, Cardiff to parents David Davies and Clara Novello Davies.

Yn Gymraeg: https://bywgraffiadur.cymru/article/c4-NOVE-IVO-1893

Photo of Ivor Novello by Angus McBean.