history
-
The Wales This Week special ‘The Bullseye Killer’ has won a British Academy Cymru Award (Bafta Cymru). The hour-long documentary won a Bafta in the Current Affairs category of the awards at the Wales Millennium Centre. The programme documented the crimes of John Cooper, one of the most notorious criminals in British history. Cooper burgled, raped and murdered…
-
In early 1942 a courageous band of Welshmen found themselves fighting side by side against the all-conquering Japanese army. The men, who had joined up to provide air defences for Cardiff, Newport and Barry, had been sent to the Far East as the Japanese bore down on Britain’s “impregnable fortress” at Singapore. But the battle-hardened…
-
A few years ago while working on a book called ‘Airman Missing’, a short biography of RAF evader John Evans (no longer in print!), I became intrigued with those who had helped him evade capture in occupied Belgium. John, who was originally from Goodwick, Pembrokeshire, evaded the Germans for 114 days after his Halifax was…
-
‘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…
-
“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…
-
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…
-
The man who advises both the Crown and the UK Cabinet on the law has expressed his “huge regret” at the collapse of the Lynette White police corruption trial. The UK Solicitor-General Edward Garnier QC was answering questions from MPs about the collapse of a trial of eight police officers accused of perverting the course of justice during the…
-
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…
-
There will be no action taken against witnesses in one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice from the 1980s. The Crown Prosecution Service has been considering action against a number of civilian witnesses who gave evidence in the hunt to find the killer of Cardiff newsagent Philip Saunders in 1987. Three men, Michael O’Brien,…
-
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 