Saunders Lewis was a prominent Welsh nationalist, supporter of Welsh independence and was a co-founder of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru, later known as Plaid Cymru.
29 Facts About Saunders Lewis
2.
In 1970, Saunders Lewis was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature.
3.
Saunders Lewis was voted the tenth greatest Welsh hero in the '100 Welsh Heroes' poll, released on St David's Day 2004.
4.
John Saunders Lewis was born into a Welsh-speaking family in Wallasey in the Wirral, Cheshire, in the north-west of England, on 15 October 1893.
5.
Saunders Lewis was the second of three sons of Rev Dr Lodwig Lewis, a Calvinistic Methodist minister, and his wife Mary Margaret.
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When was only six years old, Saunders Lewis's mother died and his unmarried maternal "Aunt Ellen" moved into the manse and helped to raise him.
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Saunders Lewis went on to study English and French at Liverpool University.
8.
Saunders Lewis served in France and was wounded in the Battle of Cambrai.
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Saunders Lewis continued in this post until his dismissal for a political act of arson at Penyberth, Gwynedd, in 1936.
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In 1924, Saunders Lewis founded with a small group of fellow nationalists.
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At around the same time as Saunders Lewis formed, another group of nationalists formed in Caernarfon.
12.
Saunders Lewis insisted on these principles before he would agree to the Pwllheli conference.
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Saunders Lewis wished to demonstrate how Welsh heritage was linked as one of the 'founders' of European civilization.
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Saunders Lewis's assiduous campaigning over the years was to succeed in cementing an ongoing Plaid Cymru influence within the BBC.
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In 1939 Saunders Lewis resigned as president, saying that Wales was not ready to accept the leadership of a Roman Catholic.
16.
Saunders Lewis was the son and grandson of prominent Welsh Calvinistic Methodist ministers.
17.
Saunders Lewis maintained a strict neutrality in his writings through his column in.
18.
Saunders Lewis was selected to contest the seat for Plaid Cymru in the ensuing 1943 University of Wales by-election.
19.
Saunders Lewis's opponent was former Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru Deputy Vice-president Dr William John Gruffydd.
20.
In 1962 Saunders Lewis gave a radio speech entitled in which he predicted the complete extinction of the Welsh language by 2000 unless immediate action was taken.
21.
In 1970, Saunders Lewis was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
22.
Saunders Lewis wrote mostly in Welsh, but he wrote some works in English.
23.
Saunders Lewis's plays drew upon a wide range of material and covered a range of subject matter including Welsh mythology and history, as well as the Christian Bible, although he wrote plays set in contemporary Wales.
24.
Saunders Lewis wrote the libretto for Arwel Hughes's opera, based on Moliere's.
25.
Saunders Lewis published two novels, Monica and and two collections of poems as well as numerous articles and essays in various newspapers, magazines and journals.
26.
In March 1983, at the age of 89, Saunders Lewis was made an honorary Doctor of Letters of the University of Wales at a ceremony specially conducted at his home in Penarth.
27.
The Catholic Herald, reporting the honour, noted that in the previous year Saunders Lewis had made a plea for Mass to be said in Latin in Wales rather than in the "foreign language of English", which he pointed out was "a later arrival".
28.
Saunders Lewis' legacy is reflected by the fact that, even in traditionally English-speaking Welsh colliery and industrial cities, Welsh-medium education is increasingly used as a means of both cultural and language revival.
29.
Saunders Lewis contested the University of Wales Constituency on two occasions, once in the general election of 1931;.