The Cardiff Book of Days (26 page)

1894:
‘Sir – It has been my misfortune to have been an eye-witness to several street accidents, undoubtedly due to careless or furious driving. I have seen in Queen Street a bus, a tramcar and a milk-cart racing down the street abreast. Unfortunately there is no novelty about bus and tramcar racing but the authorities should undoubtedly put a stop to it. Bus and tramcar racing in a narrow thoroughfare like Working Street is a daily occurrence. Only tonight I saw a man driving through Church Street, which happened to be crowded at the time, at the rate of eight to ten miles an hour. He only knocked one man down but that was one man too many. I would feel safer in crossing a busy London thoroughfare than I would in crossing many a street in Cardiff. It is certainly full time that this sort of thing should be looked more sharply into. W. Jesse Williams, Park Hall Buildings, Cardiff, July 2.' (
Western Mail
)

1882:
‘An extraordinary and sensational occurrence took place at No.43, John Street, Roath. A young man named Richard Barry, who has been under medical attendance for some time past, has given evidence of failing intellect, which has threatened to develop into actual insanity. He seems to have been seized with a fit of violent madness. His mania took a very dangerous form. Without giving any warning of his conditions or intentions he walked into a backroom, which is occupied by a tailor named John Tobin and his wife, with a table knife in his hand. Mrs Tobin was on her knees washing the floor. He deliberately raised the knife and stabbed her on the side of her head, severing the lobe of her ear. Mr Tobin, who was sitting at his work, came to the protection of his wife, and the madman immediately turned on him with the ugly weapon he held raised to strike … He will, we understand, be brought before the magistrates.' (
Western Mail
)

1932:
The German airship
Graf Zeppelin
was watched by many as she cruised over Porthcawl, Barry, Penarth, Cardiff and Newport at a height of no more than 1,500ft. The sound of her engines was clearly audible. (Roy Thorne,
Penarth: A History
, Starling Press, 1975)

1849:
A Public Enquiry into the state of Cardiff began at the Town Hall. It was reported that the town had no piped water supply and that the drains were frequently blocked with sewage. They overflowed in wet weather, flooding cellars and ground-floor rooms. In his subsequent report the government inspector, Mr Thomas Rammell, wrote that ‘nothing can be worse than the accommodation provided for the labouring classes. The overcrowding is fearful, beyond anything I have ever known of.' (William Rees,
Cardiff: A History of the City
, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

1940:
Home Guard volunteer Frank Morgan, sent from Penarth to Queen's Dock with a message, refused to pay the toll demanded for travelling along the road via Grangemouth. He maintained this stance on 274 subsequent occasions and eventually in 1942 was summoned to appear at Penarth Magistrates Court where he was fined 10 shillings. This led to a long drawn-out dispute with the owners of the toll road, which dated from 1867. It was not until January 31st 1954 that tolls ceased to be levied. Frank Morgan was the first to drive through for nothing – legally! (Roy Thorne,
Penarth: A History
, Starling Press, 1975)

1945:
The General Election, held less than two months after VE-Day, resulted in a defeat of Winston Churchill's Conservative Party. It was nicknamed the ‘Khaki Election' because it was widely believed that it was the servicemen's vote that brought about the unexpected victory for Labour under Clement Atlee. Elected for the constituency of Cardiff South was a young James Callaghan, who was to go on to have a most distinguished political career, culminating in serving as Prime Minister from 1976 until his defeat by Margaret Thatcher in the 1979 Election. In 1945 Callaghan defeated the sitting Conservative MP, Sir Arthur Evans, by 17,489 votes to 11,545. He had campaigned for the rapid demobilisation of servicemen and an ambitious programme of house building. One the hopefuls Callaghan defeated for selection as candidate was George Thomas (later Lord Tonypandy, the former Speaker of the House of Commons) who stood instead for the Cardiff Central seat. (
Dictionary of National Biography
, OUP)

1903:
Twenty-two thousand people crowded into Sophia Gardens for the first performance of ‘Buffalo Bill' Cody's spectacular ‘Hero Horsemen of the Nations which ran twice-nightly for a whole week. It featured Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in full war-paint and up to a hundred horses in the arena at the same time. Cody had first brought his Wild West Show to Cardiff in 1891 when the attractions included the legendary sharp-shooter Annie Oakley, and a seven year-old Indian boy believed to be the only survivor of the Battle of Wounded Knee. He returned again in 1904 which included re-enactments of Custer's Last Stand and a raid on the Deadwood Stage. Cody had earned his nickname long before when it was said that in just one year he killed 5,000 buffalo to provide fresh meat for Irish navvies building the transcontinental railways in the 1880s. He came to a sad end, dying penniless in 1917. (Andrew Hignell,
From Sophia to Swalec: A History of Cricket in Cardiff
, The History Press, 2008)

1860:
‘Cathays, a suburban district situated about a mile north of the station and in the neighbourhood of which in the last few years a small town has sprung into existence. The situation is a pleasant one.' So wrote the
Cardiff Times
on this date. However, its growth was perhaps too rapid because on January 15th 1870 the same paper stated that ‘the state of Cathays is a reproach which has been hurled at the Board of Health for years past. The alarming prevalence of fever there is unequalled in any other quarter of Cardiff. The dismal condition of the place for want of proper lighting is of the gloomiest and most discreditable nature. Its neglect by, or want of, police – especially on Sundays – is at all times alarming. There are at present scores of houses in Cathays the neglect of whose drainage is known to be the cause of a vast amount of prevailing sickness. The sluggish and dilatory progress of the drainage works is in itself a source of danger.'

1960:
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan visited Cardiff to unveil a statue to his eminent predecessor David Lloyd George outside the National Museum of Wales. Mr Macmillan was accompanied by Conservative MP Anthony Berry, destined to be killed in the IRA bomb attack on the Grand Hotel, Brighton, in 1985. (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1966:
Despite protests from local people, the Secretary of State for Wales, Mr Cledwyn Hughes, gave Cardiff Council the go-ahead to compulsorily purchase and demolish houses in the Newtown area of the city (known as its Irish quarter) and redevelop the area. He reached this decision following a Public Enquiry at which Mr William Bate, the Chief Public Health Inspector, had stated that 88 per cent of the houses were in a state of disrepair. Only 7 per cent of homes in the area had fixed baths with a hot water supply. (
Western Mail
)

2009:
The start of the first-ever Test Match to be played in Cardiff (
see
July 12th).

1617:
Death in Cardiff of Sir John Herbert following a duel with Sir Lewis Tresham two months earlier. Lawyer, diplomat and accomplished linguist, he had been used to interrogate foreign prisoners and on trade and political missions in Europe. In April 1600 Queen Elizabeth I appointed him her Secretary of State and he was knighted in 1602. He continued in office under James I. (T.D. Breverton,
The Welsh Almanac
, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)

1940:
Cardiff suffered its first air-raid casualties when a bomber scored a direct hit on a cargo ship. The bomb exploded in the hold, killing seven men. Dock worker Tim O'Brien from David Street earned the title ‘Hero of the Docks' in this incident. Three times he went down into the hold to bring up injured colleagues. He was given a medal for his bravery but many people felt it should have been the more prestigious George Cross. Already well known locally as a rugby player, he later became steward at the Glamorgan Wanderers club and landlord of the Royal Hotel, Cadoxton near Barry. (Matthew Cragoe and Chris Williams,
Wales and War
, 2007)

1896:
Thirty-five-year-old David Thomas was murdered at Fairwater. He had been shot twice in the chest. His body was found lying across a path near the forge. Despite the extensive publicity given to the case, his killer was never identified. (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)