Welsh Journals

Disestablishment was a main concern, perhaps weakening both the cause of social justice and Welsh home rule, until Disestablishment came in 1920, surely to the benefit of Welsh Anglicanism. The Temperance Movement was strong in both the seats contested by Meredyth. Clearly he failed to understand the problem: his wish to 'give fair play to all sections of society' failed to impress the Swansea Temperance delegation8 which waited upon him, whilst his centering his West Monmouthshire campaign in public houses showed his complete inability to understand the ethos of Welsh electorates at the time. Nor was his campaign helped by the providing of free beer to men, who, when made merry, sang songs in support of the Liberal candidate. Candidates and Voting Patterns Two clear points of contrast between then and now are the number of candidates fighting a seat and the turnout. In 1885 Hussey Vivian was returned unopposed. In all the other Welsh seats there was a straight fight. This remained more or less the pattern until 1918.9 In recent time, every Welsh seat has had at least four candidates. 1885 is far removed from the multi-candidate campaigns of our own day. At the same time it is worth noticing that the 1885 turnout in Swansea Town was 81.3%, with 72.6% in Gower, whilst 77.5% of electors voted in West Monmouthshire in 1892. In 2001 the comparable figures were Swansea East 51%, Swansea West 55.5% and Blaenau Gwent, 59.6%. So let us turn to the story of W H Meredyth and South Wales. The Giants The 1885 election saw the election of three giants on the Swansea scene, all of English West Country birth or extraction: Henry Hussey Vivian, Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn and Frank Ash Yeo. The old Swansea District constituency had been represented at Westminster from 1857 to 1885 by John Henry Vivian, 10 the Swansea industrialist, who was succeeded in 1885 by his son, Sir Henry Hussey Vivian, who served as one of the two MPs for Glamorgan from 1857, having represented Truro for the previous five years. Sir Hussey Vivian was returned unopposed for the new Swansea District constituency (at the age of 64) in 1885 and 1886. His opponent in 1892 was Henry Monger, Chairman of the Swansea Liberal Association, who stood as a Unionist but with no support whatsoever from either Conservatives or Liberals. Vivian was elevated to the Lords in 1893 as a reward for returning to the Liberal fold after a brief flirtation with the Liberal Unionists, as the first Baron Swansea. The new Gower seat's first MP was Frank Ash Yeo, coal owner, industrialist and former Mayor of Swansea, of Sketty Hall. He took 76.6% of the vote in his fight with Henry Nathaniel Miers, coalowner, tinplate manufacturer and landowner of