MY NATIONAL anthem calls Wales “The land of my fathers” but the century old Welsh Women’s Peace Petition shows that our mothers shaped Wales as a global player, as well as giving me an emotional connection to my own family history.
The story of the petition itself is remarkable. In February 1924, four Welsh women — Annie Hughes Griffiths, Mary Ellis, Gladys Thomas and Elined Prys — landed in New York, holding a bouquet of daffodils, a leather-bound memorial containing an appeal for peace and a petition signed by 390,296 Welsh women.
Their goal was to present them to the ordinary women of the US, asking them to use their influence to encourage the US government to join the League of Nations as a means of avoiding future conflicts such as the recently endured Great War.
