Article in LGBT's Shout Magazine About The Abergavenny Gay Witch Hunt

30 August 2014 ; Author's Blog The Abergavenny Gay Witch Hunt of 1942 Newport-based author, William Cross, writes about attending Cardiff Pride and describes his controversial new book “ The Abergavenny Witch Hunt: An account of the prosecution of over twenty homosexuals in a small Welsh town in 1942. ” ISBN 978-1905914-22-7 Book Midden Publishing ( 2014). A time to tear down……..and a time to build up After watching the colourful parade marching through the streets of Cardiff it was a pleasure to take part in Cardiff Pride on 16th August, 2014 in Cooper’s Field slap bang in the middle of the Welsh capital. The atmosphere was buzzing from the word go. At the entrance gates I discovered throngs of happy, smiling pilgrims of all ages who had descended from almost every nook and cranny of South and West Wales. As I waited to get into the ground I greeted a few strangers with my customary innocuous chat-up line of “ Have you come far?” I learned some folk had travelled from nearby Newport, Pontypool, Bridgend , and Swansea. Later I met others who has ventured from as far a field as Leeds, London and Bristol; I even encountered two excited visitors from Blackpool in Lancashire ( on holiday at Penarth) and several attendees from places overseas. Thanks to the excellent pre-publicity given by the Swansea Unity website about my book signing event on their stall, in the end a dozen people turned out to buy copies of this new book “The Abergavenny Witch Hunt” ; scores more were almost certainly drawn in by curiosity over the very distinct mauve coloured banner and the large headline that was attached to the pitch of “ HOMOSEXUAL WITCH HUNT “ ( see photograph ). Many folk ( and this included a impressive stream of young people passing by) were interested in knowing something more about the tale but understandably had earmarked their precious funds for other more instant pleasures of the day than buying a book. However several took away an information leaflet containing the book’s synopsis ( see below), which sets out a sad and grim story involving the prosecution of over twenty homosexuals in the small Welsh town of Abergavenny, in 1942: “In 1942, the Welsh town of Abergavenny was scandalised by disclosures after the arrest of over twenty youths and men on charges relating to homosexual activity and corrupting boys. George Rowe, the 40-year-old manager of Abergavenny’s Coliseum cinema was at the centre of a Police enquiry after one of the page-boys complained about being molested. The boy’s complaint turned into a witch-hunt of ‘queers’ across Britain revealing an oddball mix of abused and abusers; a farmer, a clerk, two chefs, a fireman, several serving soldiers, a hairdresser, an actor and others were arrested and brought back to Abergavenny, where almost all the offences were committed. Before the case reached a Judge at Monmouthshire Assizes, three men attempted suicide, one young man succeeded in taking his own life. In the years that followed rumours persisted that several people had got away scot-free, including one notable public figure. Others went on the run to escape capture and disgrace, since all homosexuality was illegal in Britain until the changes started by the Sexual Offences Act, 1967. William Cross the biographer of Almina, Countess of Carnarvon, and of salacious tales about the Morgans of Tredegar House, Newport, South Wales, is no stranger to controversial histories. Cross examines the facts in the Abergavenny case and sets out details from contemporary newspapers including closed files at National Archives, now released under the Freedom of Information Act. Here for the first time is the unvarnished truth, the background, the preliminary proceedings, the trial and the aftermath of a grisly, but sad tale from Abergavenny’s past that some would prefer to see buried forever.” Of those poor sods arrested, charged and jailed several went to prison for up to ten years serving their time in Cardiff Prison, a stone’s throw from the Pride location that day; during the Second World War Cardiff was one of Britain’s worst penitentiaries. Those would-be punters at Cooper’s Field trying to escape the hard sell for the book were spared nothing including the horrific details about the suicide of Lewis Matthews a nineteen- year- old Abergavenny lad – who could not face his fate and threw himself under a train. Moreover potential customers did not get off without also making me a solemn promise. It was that those accepting a leaflet must pop into their local library to get the book on loan, and if they should find it was not yet available they persuade their local librarian to order it to grace the branch’s LGBT book shelves. I was insistent on this saying that the book filled a missing chapter about an important ( but forgotten) episode from Welsh history and these monstrous homosexual persecutions, nothing short of a ‘ witch hunt’ of ‘queers’ ( the latter was the emotive word more often used than ‘gays’ in 1942). The Abergavenny case was one of Wales’s most notorious scandals. This quiet Welsh town ( only otherwise famed in the social sub-culture for a pop song in the 1950s from the rock and roller Marty Wilde ) found itself in the limelight. But the whole place rocked in a different way when it became centre stage of this purge of gay men and youths and subsequently the glaring, show trial involving the savage prosecution of twenty-four of these individuals for their participation in homosexual vice. “ An orgy of perversion”, reported the News of the World. The local South Wales newspapers carried headlines a little less sensational but which were equally marked out by the nature of the case. There were almost two hundred offences cited in the indictment sheets, with uncompromising references to unnatural and illegal acts, deeds of buggery, attempted buggery and gross indecency. In 1942 all sexual activity between males was against the law. Until the reforms began by the great Welsh politician Leo Abse in 1967 gay men and youths hid their activities behind a veil of secrecy. How times have changed when now, thank heavens, everyone over sixteen can choose how they live and who they take to bed. It has to be said that amongst those “caught” in 1942 a few of the participants in the case deserved apprehension, evidence was found of the corruption of underage teenage boys by the manager of the local YMCA in Abergavenny. Another blackguard was the manager of one of the local cinemas in the town who preyed on his youthful employees. But few of the others rounded up like stray animals were offenders ( in today’s terms). Of the twenty- four arrested only a handful molested boys. But the remaining men and youths who were simply engaged together in consensual sex were swept into the same furnace as the peodophiles. That mud stuck as did the hostility from the town’s people of Aberagevnny who tarred everyone with the same brush. That was the way it was at the time. In the decades since with grief, remorse, gossip, backtalk, sneering, sniggering and much rumour, including countless dark stories that are simply untrue, one might hope that the publication of a book charting the full, albeit uncompromising history of the circumstances surrounding the event might provoke some interest from the populace of Abergavenny and that it might also inspire some intelligent discussion. The book has began well and has sold copies in The Abergavenny Book Shop in High Street ( the very last remaining bookshop in the town selling new books). The local newspaper The Abergavenny Chronicle has been supportive and carried a full page in it’s edition of 24 July 2014 ( please e-mail me if you would like a copy of this). The LGBT Unity group in Swansea has been most kind in its support for the book and I must acknowledge the always encouraging Norena Shopland ( who very nearly wrote up the tale herself a few years ago). Unity’s pitch at Cardiff was a perfect place to offer the book and I am most grateful to Andrews Davies and his colleagues for letting me gate crash at Cooper’s Field. One kind reader remarks about the book “ I would like to thank you for writing the book about the Abergavenny event as it reflects the cruelty and prejudice of society at the time and brings knowledge of it to a new audience.” Another commenting on the harrowing tale said “ the trials in Abergavenny are particularly awful. You certainly feel for the wretched individuals who were up in court. Thank God we live in more enlightened times.” The title of this article includes a uplift from the Bible about “ time”. This is taken from the well known lines that for everything there is a season etc… ‘ a time to born and a time to die’ etc. Here I refer to the lesser known fragment of the epistle viz “ a time for tearing down” and then “a time [ usually later] for building up” again. In 1942 the ruling authorities, comprising the Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Magistrates and the Judge in the case did the “tearing down” I dearly hope Abergavenny in 2014 is a mood to offer the “building up” again. That answer remains unclear. The story is damned, the wounds run deep, some individuals in local families remain shamed; there are still survivors of those abused ( NB none of the ‘victims’ are named in the book) who must still be protected by silence. Profits from the sale of the book ( available at The Abergavenny Book Shop at 1, High Street, Abergavenny, or direct from the author @ £12.00 ) will go to a charity in memory of Lewis Matthews, the nineteen-year- old lad who killed himself. William Cross can be contacted by e-mail williecross@aol.com