CWA’s Herstory Walk — Leg 3
Continuing our virtual tour of Cardiff’s historical feminist sites.
By Ellena Jenks (volunteer at Cardiff Women’s Aid)
Welcome to the next instalment of our virtual walking tour of Cardiff. This month we are just stopping at one location, but we’ve got plenty to tell you.
Stop number five is…
The Temple of Peace, Cathays Park, City Centre.
Did you know?
You may know that this impressive building is for the community to promote peace, but did you know the stories of the women who campaigned for peace in the aftermath of the First World War?
In 1924, one hundred years ago, four women from Wales sailed to America with a petition for world peace. Their names were Annie Hughes-Griffiths, Gladys Thomas, Mary Ellis and Elined Prys. This was a huge undertaking to work towards world peace by calling on women in Wales and America. They undertook a two month peace tour of the US to encourage American women to persuade their leaders to join the League of Nations. 390,000 Welsh women signed the petition:
‘There are forms smudged with ink because they were taken from house to house in the rain. There are forms which are not so clear as we should like them to be, but they were handled from door to door, and there are signature forms which the canvassers took out to lonely places, where the signatures were obtained after a walk of a dozen miles.’
(Annie Hughes Griffiths, one of the organisers)
Around the same time, ‘Daffodil Days’ were also held across Wales, becoming a symbol of hope for a peaceful future. Managed by the Women’s National Daffodil Day Committee in the 1920s, people could purchase a daffodil and the funds would go towards the Welsh League of Nations Union. The funding for this also raised money for building the Temple of Peace and sparked the plans for the Field of Remembrance by the castle.
Mrs Minne James, dubbed ‘Wales’ most tragic mother’, gave a speech at the opening of the Temple of Peace on 23 November 1938 on behalf of the women of Wales, speaking of their determination for ‘a world of justice and peace’. She herself had lost her three sons in the First World War. Years later, a plaque was found at the Temple of Peace which highlighted the women’s petition mission, bringing it back into the public memory. As a result, the petition travelled back from the US to be stored at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. This briefly brought to light the voluntary work of women across Wales to strive for peace.
Although their efforts may have been largely lost to history, it is an inspiring reminder of what can happen when women raise their voices together.
If you’d like to read more about the Temple of Peace, please check out this article.
This post is the third in a series focusing on different feminist and historically relevant sites around Cardiff to mark Cardiff Women’s Aid’s 50th anniversary. Follow our blog to see where we visit next.
