History
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‘I Fought Them All’, the biography of Irish prizefighting legend, Tom Sharkey, has been shortlisted for a Wishing Shelf Award. The book is nominated in the adult non-fiction category. The winner is due to be announced in April. Top major boxing website, Max Boxing, said of the book: “It emits quality from the first opening…
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“We hear from the guards that one bomb blew up Nagasaki.” Les Spence writes in his diary, August 1945 For more than three years during World War II, Les Spence was a prisoner of the Japanese. Spence, who would later go on to become president of the Welsh Rugby Union, had been captured in early March…
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He is one of Wales’ greatest explorers – but few remember his name and there is no national monument in his honour. There is a story behind why Wales may have tried to forget Edgar Evans – but it concerns a sense of misplaced shame. ITV Wales’ Wales This Week has turned the clock back…
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Welsh serial killer Peter Moore will be kept in jail for the rest of his life, judges at the European Court of Human Rights have ruled. Moore and two other convicted killers – Jeremy Bamber and Douglas Vinter – had asked the court to rule on whole life sentences. The murderers said condemning them to…
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The 77th HAA (Heavy Anti Aircraft) Regiment was created to provide air protection for Cardiff, Newport and Barry, and surrounding districts. Many of its members were local sportsmen who joined up together, such as Les Spence, who been Cardiff Rugby Club captain during the 1936-37 season, and his team-mate Wilf Wooller. Other sports stars in…
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Welsh miner Tom Jones survived a death sentence to be repatriated from Franco’s Spain after the UK government paid a massive ransom. Jones, from Rhosllanerchrugog, Denbighshire, travelled to Spain in 1937 to fight for the International Brigades. He was wounded during the fierce battle on the River Ebro, in July 1938, and captured by Franco’s troops.…
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Seventy-five years ago this month a group of military officers led a coup in Spain. But when the cities of Madrid and Barcelona held firm, the failed coup d’etat became a bloody civil war which would last from 1936 until 1939. The far-right governments of Germany and Italy supported the right wing rebels of General…
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Prize-fighting legend Tom Sharkey led a most remarkable life. He served in the US Navy before fighting all of the first four heavyweight champions under the Marquis of Queensberry rules. He mixed with characters like Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Theodore Roosevelt and the Tammany Hall politicians who ruled New York. Sharkey’s epic 25-round encounter with Jim…
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The UK Government yesterday claimed that the post mortem examination report into the death of biological weapons expert Dr David Kelly was being kept secret to protect his family.Campaigning MP Norman Baker asked Justice Minister Michael Wills who had made the decision that medical reports and photographs connected to the death of Dr Kelly should…
Greg Lewis 