Census Factsheet for Wales

The government undertook a census of everyone living in England and Wales on Sunday 2 April 1911, including those living in institutions such as workhouses and prisons, in military establishments and on Navy and merchant vessels, in order to monitor population trends and changes. This was also the first census to record how long women had been married and how many children had been born into the marriage.

 

Demographics

·      The estimated population in Wales in 1911 was 2.42 million people. Today’s population in Wales is an estimated 2.97 million people (Welsh Assembly Government).

·      The Welsh population in 1911 consisted of 1,231,739 males and 1,189,182 females (Office for National Statistics).

·      Life expectancy was 54 years for women and 50 for men in the UK in 1911. By 2011 life expectancy is predicted to be 82 for women and 74 for men (Actuary’s Department).

·      In 1911 43.5% of the Welsh population spoke Welsh; in 1971 this was 28.6%. (Office for National Statistics).

 

Economy

·      Approximately 175,000 people worked in the Welsh coalmining industry in 1911 (one tenth of the population). Nowadays less than one per cent of the Welsh population work in the mining industry. (Office for National Statistics).

·      Approximately 5% of the Welsh population worked in agriculture in 1911 (Office for National Statistics).

 

Politics

·      The Liberal Party was in power – although the popularity of the Labour Party was on the rise in this period.

·      The future king Edward VIII was created Prince of Wales by his father, King George V.

·      King George V and Queen Mary laid the foundation stone of the new National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.

·      The ‘Great Unrest’ saw a series of strikes across the UK in key industries such as the docks, railways and coal mines. Welshmen James Griffiths, Aneurin Bevan, Ness Edwards and others formed the Unofficial Reform Committee in Rhondda in 1911, which led to a series of strikes for miners’ right

 

 

 

 

·      Ivor Novello

David Ivor Davies (aka Ivor Novello) appears on the 1911 census aged 18 living with his father David Davies, an assistant overseer for Cardiff Corporation, at 11 Cathedral Road, Cardiff. David Ivor is described as a musical student, as are two boarders living with them in the 13 room house. They had two servants. David spoke only English, while his father spoke both Welsh and English.

 

David’s mother, the famous singer and teacher Clara Novello Davies was absent from the property on census night, but David’s father mistakenly completes details of their marriage on his line, telling us that he’d been married for 27 years and has had two children, although one had died. Clara can be found on the census at 60 New Bond Street, London, where she is described as Head of the Household and a teacher of singing, living with 2 boarders – a vocalist and a doctor. Interestingly, she declares she has only been married for 26 years.

 

·      George Thomas

1^st Viscount Tonypandy and the former Speaker of the House of Commons appears on the 1911 census aged 3 and living with his parents Zachariah Thomas, a coal mine repairer, and Emma Jane Thomas, along with two brothers and a sister at 62 Gower Street, Cwmavon, Port Talbot, Glamorganshire.

The form indicates that George’s father spoke both Welsh and English, while his mother and siblings just spoke English.

 

·      Dylan Thomas (b. 1914)

On the 1911 census, taken 3 years before his birth, Dylan’s parents were living at Clovelly, Sketty Avenue in Swansea. His father David John Thomas (aged 34) is working as an assistant secondary master for the County Borough Council.  In 1911 he had been married to his wife Florence Hannah for 8 years. Dylan’s older sister Nancy, then aged 4 is not on the census for their house as she is staying at her uncle and aunt’s house on the Gower. The form indicates that she only spoke English, whereas all the rest of Nancy’s family spoke both Welsh and English.

 

·      Aneurin Bevan (b. 1897 – d.1960)

Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, the  Welsh Labour politician and Minister of Health responsible for the formation of the National Health Service, is recorded on the census as aged 13 years old living with his parents, 2 brothers, 4 sisters and an uncle at 7 Charles Street, Tredegar in Monmouthshire, in a house with 6 rooms.  He, like his 2 brothers, is already listed as working as a “coal miner (hewer)” in the local Tytryst Colliery, responsible for hewing or cutting the coal.  The form has been completed and signed by his father David Bevan, who describes himself as a “timber drawer underground”, responsible for removing the timber props.

 

 

·      Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978)

The Wales-based architect and creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion appears on the 1911 census aged 28. The census records Clough as an “architect working on his own account”. He is single at that time and was a visitor to the home of Hannah Davies, a 63 year old widow of private means in Plas Brondanw, near Llanfrothen in the Snowdonia National Park. Williams-Ellis owned the Plas Brondanw estate, but we assume he was visiting a smaller property on the estate on the evening of the census.

 

 

 

As this is the first census where the householders’ original completed schedules have been retained, you can see all their personal comments, mistakes, anecdotes and sketches that enumerators omit from their summaries, providing greater insight into the lives and minds of the occupants. The following examples have been found:

 

·      Robert Lloyd Morris of Liverpool leaves a detailed description of his time working in Merionethshire prior to 1911 as a tour guide for people looking to visit Cader Idris and the surrounding areas, and his time as a Census enumerator in the district for the 1881 census, leaving a detailed account of his life for his decedents.

 

·      Under the column occupation “Bricklayer labourer when I can get a job but owing to me having had my eye took out nearly a year since it is very hard to get a job. I have a good character in the trade and could get a good job any were (sic) but they will not let me carry no bricks on to the scaffold now because they say I am not safe…”

 

·      A primitive ink drawing of a face, probably by a child

 

·      A sheet of paper pasted over half a form saying “No Votes for Women No Census” alongside the handwritten comment “No persons here only women!”

 

·      The inclusion of a pet cat in the list of occupants, with the nationality “Persian”

 

·       A handwritten notelet addressed presumably to an enumerator: “Dear Mr Judd, Thank you for your courteous and kindly note asking me if it is not possible to reconsider my decision in reference to my census form. Let me assure you that on my part I do not wish to cause distress either to yourself or anyone else. My protest is of course not directed to you but the Government…”

 

·      Written by the enumerator in the age column: “Mrs Conde declines to give age – approximately 55 years”

 

·      Written in the name and surname column: “Why don’t you make this column wider”

 

·      Comment scribbled on top of census form: “Put some charge on goods coming from abroad”

 

·      Added by enumerator to a form already completed by the lone male householder: “Found dead in chair in house Monday 3rd April”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home News

Great amount of industrial unrest in 1911 Wales, especially among the miners, dockers and railwaymen

 

June - King George V’s coronation at Westminster Abbey

 

Political News

Coal Mines Regulation Act passed in parliament

 

February 1911 - The suffragettes unsuccessfully attempted to disrupt the state opening of Parliament. On 17 June there was a procession of 40,000 women from the Thames Embankment to the Albert Hall where a demonstration was held in favour of women’s suffrage.

 

August - 1911 Official Secrets Act introduced to combat spies

 

November - National Insurance Act is passed to provide unemployment benefits to workers for first time. The Welsh National Insurance Board created

 

August - MPs vote to receive salaries for the first time

 

Religion

In 1911 the movement for disestablishment of the Anglican Church of Wales was at its height, and the Anglican Church of Wales was disestablished by the Welsh Church Act of 1914

 

Military

Sir John French was appointed Chief of Staff of the British Army

 

April - The Royal Engineers Air Battalion was formed, soon to be turned into the Royal Flying Corps in 1912.

 

October - Winston Churchill was appointed 1^st Lord of the Admiralty and Admiral Jellicoe appointed as Second in Command of the Grand Fleet, deputy to George Callaghan, the Commander of the British Home Fleet

 

The Territorial Force, in its third year of existence, struggled to find enough recruits

 

Sport

Wales win their third Rugby Union Grand Slam