1 March is St David’s Day, named after the patron saint of Wales who died in 589. The Consulate in Istanbul and the Embassy in Ankara are flying the terrific Welsh flag:
I’m part-Welsh: my great-grandfather John Derfel (photo below) came from the the town of Llanderfel in north Wales and was the son of the Welsh poet and political writer Robert Jones Derfel (for the Welsh-language Wikipedia entry, click here). According to family lore, Robert Jones Derfel took the name “Derfel” because the winner of the Bardic poem at the national Eisteddfod, a Welsh festival of literature, music and performance, was encouraged to take his birthplace as a last name as a distinction. The name “Derfel” continues in our family to this day.
When I blogged about St David’s Day in 2013, I asked readers for connections between Wales and Turkey. A lady named Maria contributed this: “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.” I’d welcome any other contributions.
Finally, to anyone who has not visited Wales on holiday, I can recommend it, having spent my summer holidays there in 2009. A couple of photos illustrating the beauty of North Wales are below. It’s worth a visit.
