176 Days of 100 Welsh Heroes
"The only poll that matters": BBC Wales Online
Amid the current fashion for lists and polls (all-time favourite singles, greatest sitcoms, most significant lawnmowers) did we really need another one telling us who are the greatest Welsh people of all time? The answer, of course, is yes. 100 Welsh Heroes was partly inspired by another poll, the BBC's "Great Britons". That included just three people of Welsh origin and one of the trio, T.E. Lawrence, spent only a few months in the land of his birth before his family moved away to Scotland.
Surely Wales with its rich culture and long history has produced many people whose achievements have influenced and shaped not just their homeland but the wider world as well? People who have shown that the Scots do not hold the monopoly on innovation, the English on leadership nor the Irish on eloquence? The point was not lost on the Welsh Assembly Government in Cardiff, which gave the order to identify and celebrate these Welsh Heroes. In Culturenet Cymru, the new body set up to promote Welsh culture globally via the Internet, the Assembly had just the tool for the job.
So, on September 8th, 2003, the expectant hubbub of a packed press conference in Cardiff was suddenly hushed by the unexpected arrival of Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta Jones. Not the genuine articles, it transpired, but professional look-alikes enlisted to deliver the theme of the campaign: "Help us find the real Welsh Heroes! ". As a media stunt, it did the trick. The Western Mail devoted a full page to the project and Radio Wales covered the launch live. That evening there were news reports on BBC Wales Today, S4C's Wedi Saith and several local radio stations. 100 Welsh Heroes was off to a flying start. Within a few hours of the press conference, Culturenet's computer screens in Aberystwyth were filling with hundreds of nominations.
Good coverage was crucial because Culturenet Cymru was attempting something unique. Where similar polls have used expert panels or market research techniques to draw up the shortlist, these 100 Welsh Heroes were to be selected entirely by the public. Voters were asked to select their heroes in each of five categories: Leaders, Groundbreakers, Performers, Thinkers and Creatives. The nominations phase would run until the end of November. The top twenty names from each category would form the list of 100 Heroes to go forward to the final vote.
More than just a popularity poll, 100 Welsh Heroes would provide a valuable resource for everyone interested in Wales and the Welsh. To than end, this official website -complete with detailed biographies of each and every nominated hero- would remain online after the project. A specially commissioned book would also follow, along with a "Welsh Heroes" themed concert at Cardiff's magnificent new Millennium Centre. The content of all this would, of course, be dictated by the voters.
By the end of the first week, more than 3,000 nominations had been received- not just from Wales but a staggering variety of countries around the world, including Peru and China. Proof, if it were needed, that the Welsh in far flung places seldom lose touch with the old country. This huge and enthusiastic initial response was summed up by Alun Pugh AM, Culture Minister in the Welsh Assembly Government when he said it was "a measure of the pride we take in the achievements of our fellow Welsh men and women."
What's more, any worries about sustaining press interest over the six months of nominations and voting also quickly evaporated. The media was naturally fascinated by some of the more unlikely names that surfaced among the early front runners. Alongside the predictable threesome of Owain Glyndwr, Aneurin Bevan and Tom Jones -names that would dominate the voting throughout the project - plenty of "cult" heroes were also recognised. Ivor the Engine, for example, was the only fictional character to receive nominations. Mike Peters, singer and former "Alarm" front man, demonstrated his enduring popularity among a band of devoted followers who were to keep him in the top twenty throughout the project.
But it was the presence of a heavy rock guitarist among the early leaders which most excited the tabloid press. The News of the World, renowned arbiter of all matters cultural, was most indignant that Phil Campbell of the mighty Motorhead should be allowed to rub shoulders with the likes of David Lloyd George and Dylan Thomas. "Could Filthy Phil be top Welsh Hero of all time?" blustered the NoW, confusing the popular and mild-mannered Mr Campbell with Phil "Filthy Animal" Taylor, a long-departed Motorhead drummer.
Such high-profile coverage served to persuade even more voters to enter the fray on behalf of their own favourites. And while attention focused on the leaders, plenty of unsung heroes were quietly making their way towards the final 100. Scientist Donald Davies, for example, is hardly a household name. Yet, as the inventor of "packet switching", he paved the way for the Internet and played a major role in a technological revolution. This was just one example of how 100 Welsh Heroes bestowed overdue recognition on a number of highly eminent but overlooked Welsh men and women. Elizabeth Andrews, who brought pit head baths and the first Infants School to Wales, is another.
Interest in the project was further sustained by the excellent support of BBC Radio Wales' Nicola Heywood Thomas programme, which kept listeners updated on the latest movements on the "Heroes" leader board. Nicola also persuaded a stream of nominated personalities to discuss the project on the air- including Colin Jackson, Simon Weston and Neil Kinnock, all of whom named their own heroes. Colin selected his sister, the actress Suzanne Packer, while Simon chose Sir Tasker Watkins- the former judge and winner of the Victoria Cross. Neil nominated Cliff Morgan for "transforming the game of rugby".
As it turned out, none of these "heroes' heroes" were to make the final shortlist. Among other prominent absentees were Shirley Bassey, Barry John and Max Boyce. With only twenty names included from the hotly contested "Performers" section, it was sadly inevitable that some famous personalities would miss out. But 100 Welsh Heroes was never intended to be an exhaustive list of notable Welsh people - merely a snapshot of popular opinion and a stimulus for further argument and debate.
As the evenings lengthened and November turned into December, so the nominations phase drew to close. The Culturenet Cymru team working on the project began the job of researching and writing the biographies of each of the 100 Heroes that appear on this website. This was a fairly straightforward task as far the big names were concerned, with a wealth of published material to be drawn from. For a number of the less famous heroes some original investigation was required. Hughes Hall, Cambridge, for example, provided useful insights into the life of its Welsh founder, Elizabeth Phillips Hughes.
The first people to glimpse the profiles were the production team at S4C's Wedi Saith programme, which entered into the spirit of 100 Welsh Heroes with plans to present short films about all the nominated heroes. For everyone involved, the project was turning into a crash course in Welsh history and culture. Reporter Alun Gibbard will never be again lost for the answers to questions like "who invented the fuel cell?" or "who was the 'working man astronomer' of Bangor?".
The New Year was only four days old when the final list was revealed to the nation. Once again, the Welsh media did 100 Welsh Heroes proud with major features on all of the television and radio news programmes. The press were no less enthusiastic, with the Daily Post, the South Wales Echo and the Western Mail all lending considerable support. With more than 40,000 nominations received, it was unanimously agreed that 100 Welsh Heroes was the biggest and most authorative poll on Welsh "greats" ever staged. By now it had also become the biggest online poll of any kind ever organised in Wales.
The impact of the shortlist was also felt beyond Wales as the London-based media picked up on the story. It was reported in the Times and Independent as well as the free Metro newspaper- which best summed up the eclectic mix of names: "If you are asked to name the greatest Welsh person of all time, the inventor of the microphone does not immediately spring to mind. Not does the pioneer of cremation. But inventor David Hughes and William Price, the Victorian doctor who established the modern practice of cremation, are among 100 Welsh Heroes vying for the title." At last the London press acknowledges the Welsh for something other than singing and coal mining!
The final, or "voting", stage of the project gave everyone another two months to select the final order of 100 Heroes and, crucially, to elect the "winner"- the man or woman voted the greatest Welsh person of all time. A previous poll in 1913 handed that crown to Owain Glyndwr. A BBC Wales phone-in vote in 2000 had also made him "Welsh Person of the Millennium". Could he complete the treble?
Popular figures like Dylan Thomas, Richard Burton and Gareth Edwards-assisted by a useful plug at the Millenium stadium before the Wales v Scotland rugby international- all polled strongly during the closing stages. But it was clear by now that the overall winner would be one of the "big three": Tom Jones, Aneurin Bevan or Glyndwr. The Times Educational Supplement quoted a Culturenet Cymru spokesman as saying the three reflected different strands of Welsh society: "Wales has two historical traditions. There is the Welsh-speaking tradition, and there is the tradition of the very industrialised society that produced Aneurin Bevan. And then there is Tom Jones, who appeals to people who don't care about politics, but just like a good voice."
Politics however were to figure in the closing stages of the vote in a way that nobody had quite anticipated. With Glyndwr and Bevan now trading the lead on a weekly basis, it became clear to the organisers that, in some quarters at least, the poll was being taken very seriously indeed. News of controversy first surfaced in the Western Mail under the headline: "Hero heat is on as Nye leads Glyndwr".
The paper reported how Labour Assembly member Leighton Andrews was complaining that an official of the National Museum and Galleries of Wales had been openly campaigning for Owain Glyndwr - at the expense of Labour hero Aneurin Bevan. The row went on to occupy many column inches in the Welsh press over the following days. Once again, 100 Welsh Heroes reaped a dividend - albeit an entirely unintended one- in terms of media exposure and, perhaps, more votes than would otherwise have been cast. In any event, Nye Bevan had already established a narrow lead over Glyndwr by this point and the gap widened significantly in the closing stages.
By the time polling ended on February 23rd, the 40,505 votes cast exceeded Culturenet Cymru's wildest expectations. When added to the nominations received in the opening stage of the project, a grand total of 81,728 votes and nominations was a fitting reward for six months of dedicated effort by all concerned. What other cultural exercise in Wales has generated such widespread public participation?
Let the last word go to the writer Elaine Morgan, a great friend of the project who summed it all up perfectly in her Western Mail column: "I believe Nye Bevan was the right man to win. It was close-run, and that was excellent. It wouldn't have faithfully reflected Wales if it had been too one-sided, or if there hadn't been some scuffling and jostling as the contenders entered the home straight."
