Welsh Journals

Ynyspenllwch, Clydach, described in his Cambria Daily Leader" obituary as the last squire in the Swansea valley .a zealous churchman, an ardent imperialist'. Yeo, who died three years later at the age of 56, was seen to be on the radical wing of the Liberal Party. It was the new Swansea Town constituency that saw most election excitement. The successful Liberal candidate was, unlike his opponent, no newcomer to the hustings. Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn, like Hussey Vivian, was born in Swansea. His father, Lewis Weston Dillwyn represented the County of Glamorgan from 1832 to 1837. The new candidate was elected for the old Swansea seat in 1855. An Anglican of Quaker background, he supported slave emancipation though married to the daughter of slave plantation owner, Sir Henry de la Beche. He was also a keen supporter of Disestablishment. Like the other two MPs he was an industrialist and former Mayor of Swansea. The Boy To the horror of local Liberals, Swansea Town Conservatives imported a candidate from London a young candidate! William Herbert Meredyth was just 22 years (Dillwyn was 71!), the London born son of a distinguished surgeon and member of an important Anglo-Irish family (not a Welsh Meredith) the grandson of Sir Edward Meredyth, Bart. Of Greenhill, County Kildare, cousin of Lord Althemy and Meredyth, and nephew of Major General, Rudolph, Count des Salles. He gained a BA degree at London University and was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. It was said at his adoption meeting that he was the author of a pamphlet, Egypt, the Tory Party and the Coming Dissolution as well as several other works bearing a pseudonym. He spent a couple of years at the Foreign Office and became Secretary of the Welsh Conservative Union around 1888. Clearly he looked forward to the campaign. The Cambrian reported his adoption speech in which he said that 'people had twitted him for standing for a Welsh constituency but he was convinced the borough was one in which the Conservative Party had a great and successful future. He had Welsh blood in his veins It had also been said that he was young. He would not deny that great crime. Outrage Swansea Liberals were outraged by the very idea of a young lad's having the presumption to stand against such a respected patriarch as Mr Dillwyn, years an MP and the son of an MP. The Cambrian of 27 November reports the fiery attack made by Mr Abel Thomas QC (later MP for East Carmarthenshire) at Mr Dillwyn's adoption meeting where he mocked 'a youthful David come to do battle with the giant Goliath of Liberalism', seemingly forgetting what happened in the biblical battle. 'He is young very young'. Abel Thomas and his fellow Liberals were concerned to know who sent Meredyth and who paid his expenses was it the Duke