This blog post was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

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Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Part of Speakers' Corner UK in Turkey

28th February 2013

St David’s Day: my Welsh great-grandfather

Flag of Wales
Flag of Wales

Here are some things you can do to celebrate St David’s Day, the national day of Wales, on 1 March:

  • read this blog about my Welsh great-grandfather, John Derfel. Includes a beautiful old picture and links to the Welsh- and English-language Wikipedia entries of his Welsh nationalist father, Robert Jones Derfel;
  • check out the Welsh Flag which we plan to fly on the Consulate-General in Istanbul (as pictured above). Surely one of the world’s coolest national flags;
  • research and tell us about links between Wales and Turkey. When I wrote the above blog in 2011, I discovered numerous links between Wales and Ukraine. But none of my Welsh colleagues at the Consulate has been able to tell me of any historic Wales-Turkey links.

All contributions gratefully received! You can add them under “comments” below.

The last time we flew the Welsh flag at the Consulate-General, by the way, was for the Welsh First Minister, The Rt. Hon Carwyn Jones, on his recent trade visit to Turkey.

2 comments on “St David’s Day: my Welsh great-grandfather”

  1. According to the 1861 Census for Wales, there were 5 Turks boarding in Cardiff, all merchant seamen, including a 20 year old, identified as P.M. from Constantinople, who spent the night of the Census in Cardiff Gaol. Not until 1901 do we see a boarding house keeper named Alix Asmile as a permanant resident. He lived at 12 Nelson St, Cardiff. Unfortunately, Alix (Ali) died in 1902 and his Welsh wife, Ellen, remarried in 1911.

    People born in Llanelli are known as ‘Turks’, probably because of the high numbers of Turkish mariners visiting the town.

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About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.

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