The National Patriotic Front emerged from the
Anti-Sais Front () in 1964, a Welsh nationalist organisation founded by Gethin ap Gruffydd to appeal to the predominantly
English-speaking
working-class communities of south Wales. Gruffydd believed that established Welsh nationalist organisations such as
Plaid Cymru and were too focused on
Welsh-speaking communities while neglecting English speakers. As was the case for many in
Wales during the 1960s, Tony Lewis and Gruffydd became radicalised by the events surrounding the
flooding of Tryweryn by
Liverpool Corporation. Despite the name of the NPF’s parent organisation, Gruffydd maintained that it was not
anti-English in terms of hostility toward the
English people, but rather opposed to the perceived
anglicisation of Wales. The organisation’s flag consisted of a horizontal Welsh republican
tricolour, adjoined on the left by a black bar bearing a gold
Awen — a symbol rooted in
Druidism and attributed to
Iolo Morganwg. Gethin ap Gruffydd claimed that the symbol was referred to as (), as Morganwg's symbol was originally depicted as red. Gruffydd's interpretation of the symbol was that the three strokes represented love, truth and justice. Another symbol commonly associated with the group was
Harri Webb’s "White Eagle of
Snowdonia", known in Welsh as (). Adopted by the FWA, variations of the symbol also appeared on the flags and uniforms of the Patriotic Front, and Tony Lewis was responsible for adapting it into metal insignia worn on the caps of members of the paramilitary. Lewis also helped the Patriotic Front establish its own headquarters and social club in the
Pontnewydd area of Cwmbran, named "The Patriot’s Rest", which led to the creation of the organisation’s
youth wing, the Young Patriots’ League (YPL). Other branches of the organisation were formed across the
valleys of south Wales, notably in
Aberdare and the
Rhondda. There was a significant degree of cross-membership between the Patriotic Front and the FWA, with Tony Lewis and Gethin ap Gruffydd belonging to both organisations following their first meeting with
Julian Cayo-Evans at the
Llyn Celyn opening protest in 1965. Over time, tensions emerged between Gruffydd and Cayo-Evans over political strategy, as Gruffydd favoured operating as a pressure group on the fringes of Plaid Cymru rather than engaging in the more militant displays of the FWA. One difference that was of less contention was that members of the Patriotic Front were generally
left-wing in their political orientation, in contrast to the more
right-wing politics of Cayo-Evans and Coslett. However, claimed that, excluding Cayo-Evans and Coslett, the bulk of the FWA’s membership was left-wing and that members generally got along well despite their ideological differences, noting that Cayo-Evans’
anti-communism stemmed from his experience fighting against the
MNLA in
Malaya during his
National Service. Disagreements over strategy culminated in the Patriotic Front publicly disassociating itself from the FWA in 1966, although the groups continued to cooperate with each other. During a search of Cayo-Evans’ Glandenys estate in
Silian, police uncovered lettered correspondence between the leaders of the two organisations, in which Gruffydd’s frustrations were made clear, writing:''The trouble is Cayo, you out in the west are totally out of touch with things, not only in the south but outside nationalist circles. I have nothing against Coslett as a nationalist or a man but when it comes to FWA affairs it is a different matter. He is making the Army look stupid, Cayo; wake up to the fact. Without the uniforms and Press and TV dancing around him, would Coslett still be in this game? Probably, yes, he's that much of a patriot but that does not get us away from the fact he is still fucking things up... We must remember, the FWA is living on a legend of news-paper cuttings.'' While the party’s president,
Gwynfor Evans, was reportedly impressed by the large contingent of uniformed NPF members who attended an earlier conference in
Maesteg, other senior figures in the party were less receptive. After Plaid Cymru’s breakthrough victory in the
1966 Carmarthen by-election in July of that year, sentiment within the party turned against the more radical elements on its fringes. The party’s decision to blacklist the Patriotic Front was further influenced by a series of disputes over the group’s use of funds generated by The Patriot’s Rest in Cwmbran, which at one point even prompted police involvement following complaints from Plaid Cymru officials. In the months following the Dolgellau conference, a skirmish unfolded in the media between representatives of Plaid Cymru and more radical nationalist groups, with Barrie Cox of the Cwmbran party branch decrying the FWA and NPF for involvement in "knife-carrying" and “
psychedelic activities” involving
LSD. Responding to the accusations in the media, Julian Cayo-Evans responded "We have never condemned Plaid Cymru as such. All we have condemned is their incapacity of doing anything other than passing resolutions which get them nowhere." Following the May 1967 announcement that
Prince Charles would be
invested as
Prince of Wales in an official ceremony in
Caernarfon on 1 July 1969, the Patriotic Front launched the first organised anti-investiture campaign. was formed in September 1967 by the NPF to oppose the investiture. The group held its first protest in
Cilmeri on 11 December that year, marking the anniversary of the death of
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd at the hands of
English forces in 1282. Attendees marched to the memorial stone near the village, which is said to mark the site where Llywelyn was ambushed and killed during the
conquest of Wales, earning him the
epithet (). The protest became an annual commemoration of Llywelyn that continues to the present day, with the FWA becoming a regular participant; this culminated in a clash between police and members of both the FWA and NPF in December 1968. In the lead-up to the investiture, the Patriotic Front actively protested against events associated with the ceremony’s preparations and sought to organise a unified opposition with other nationalist organisations, including Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg. In November 1967, the two organisations protested the arrival of
Lord Snowdon and the investiture preparation committee at the
Temple of Peace in
Cardiff, which had been targeted by a (MAC) bombing the previous evening. Gethin ap Gruffydd was dragged away and arrested by police during the protest after being caught throwing eggs at members of the committee. The organisation was effectively dissolved in 1969 after its leaders were arrested and charged for their involvement with the FWA. On 26 February 1969, police carried out dawn raids against nine senior members of the FWA, including Gruffydd and Lewis, following Julian Cayo-Evans’ decision to surrender the group’s weapons cache concealed in the shallow lake Maes-llyn. The decision followed intensified scrutiny by the “
Shrewsbury Group”, a joint police and
MI5 task force led by
Jock Wilson, in the aftermath of a bombing at
RAF Pembrey. The trial was held in
Swansea and concluded on the day of the investiture, at which Gruffydd was found not guilty of public order offences but pleaded guilty to organising the FWA and received a nine-month prison sentence. Tony Lewis was also convicted for organising the FWA at the trial but avoided a prison sentence, and the incident marked the end of his involvement at the forefront of Welsh nationalist politics. Sentences were reduced for most of those convicted after they agreed to give undertakings renouncing paramilitary activity, illegal weapons handling, and the advocacy of political violence. Gruffydd alone refused to make any such declaration, and would continue to be actively involved in Welsh nationalist organisations with his partner, Sian Ifan, for much of his life. In the following decades, he founded nationalist organisations such as () and the Welsh Socialist Vanguard, which led to further police attention, culminating in another dawn raid in 1980 as part of
Operation Tân's
Palm Sunday arrests in the midst of the arson campaign. == See also ==