Heritage & Archives
Cymru Global are working to ensure that the wealth of information from WCIA’s Heritage projects over 2015-2025 remain intact as a digital archive for future generations.
Whilst most digitised materials have already been migrated, we will be working through the content over time to tie it into our new brand, improve navigation and preserve access for Welsh peace activists and researchers.
The Temple of Peace and Wales’ internationalist movements and organisations have evolved through a number of distinct eras. You can explore our materials by era, organisation or thematic topics; with research resources including archive listings, digitised materials, and hidden history features.
Celebrating our Roots
Wales’ Peace Heritage
Explore the ‘hidden histories’ behind Wales’ inspiring internationalists and movements of the last century.
Remembering for Peace
The Story of Wales’ Temple of Peace
Wales’ beautiful and unique Temple of Peace and Health was founded as Wales’ memorial to the fallen of WW1 by David Davies.
Exploring ‘Peace Archives’ of Wales
Cymru Global is the guardian of Wales’ Temple of Peace and Health, which includes a substantial library, archives and collections on international affairs. We also work closely with the National Library of Wales, Museums and Archives services to identify and signpost collections that illuminate Wales’ Peace Heritage.
Cymru Global’s work is strongly rooted in Wales’ long heritage of grassroots internationalism, and our guardianship of Wales’ National Temple of Peace and Health.
Learning from and building on our heritage remains as relevant now as ever.
Founded in 1938 as Wales’ memorial to the fallen of WW1, and opened on the eve of WW2, the Temple was built to ‘drive a national mission’ to build a better world for future generations – through engaging Welsh people with the League of Nations, United Nations and wider international community cooperation.
1914-18
World War 1
Our roots lie in the ‘Great War’ of 1914-18, in which over 35,000 Welsh were lost to conflict – the rollcall of their names recorded in the Book of Remembrance kept in the Crypt at the heart of Wales’ Temple of Peace.
The generation who survived World War One pledged ‘Never Again’ – and established an organisation, and a building, that would support Wales’ peace movements for future generations.
Wales’ WW1 Book of Remembrance
Father of the Temple: David Davies of Llandinam, the Davies Sisters and Family
Soldiers Stories: from Trench makers to Peace makers
Belief in Action: Conscientious Objectors and the Right to Protest
1920s-30s
Welsh League of Nations Union (WLNU)
WCIA’s predecessor the WLNU was established in 1922, and led campaigns through the interwar era that mobilised Welsh communities by the thousands in the cause of world peace.
The 1923-24 Welsh Women’s Peace Petition to America was signed by 390,296 women; while the Youth Message of Peace & Goodwill continues annually to this day through Urdd Gobaith Cymru, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize to mark its centenary in 2022.
‘Welsh Efforts for World Peace’: Campaigns of the WLNU
Youth Message of Peace & Goodwill
Welsh Women’s Peace Petition to America
A ‘Missionary Nation for Peace’ – Churches Together
The 1935 Peace Ballot: 1 Million Voices against War
1938
Wales’ Temple of Peace & Health
The Temple of Peace & Health opened on 23 Nov 1938, a memorial to the fallen of WW1 that would be a ‘fitting headquarters’ to Wales’ peacebuilding and health movements.
Despite the outbreak of World War 2, the Temple and its supporters played an instrumental role in the post-war creation of the National Health Service (NHS) and the United Nations (UN).
Architect of Peace: Percy Thomas and his ‘Peace Building’
Minnie James, War Mothers of Wales and the World
Opening of Wales’ Temple of Peace & Health
The Temple of Peace in Welsh Public Life – 8 Generations of Regeneration
From Dr Who to Mr Burton – the Temple as a Star of Stage and Screen.
1940s-60s
United Nations Association
As the UN developed, UNA Wales supported European post-war reconstruction through international youth service (IYS) volunteering, pioneered aid through the Freedom from Hunger Campaign (FFHC), and through CEWC built global citizenship in schools.
Wales Uniting Nations: the story of UNA Wales
Temple of Health: from Eradicating Tuberculosis to Founding the NHS
Education for World Citizenship – CEWC and the pioneers of Global Learning
European Reconstruction, International Youth Service (IYS) and the heritage of International Volunteering
1970s-90s
Welsh Centre for International Affairs (WCIA)
The WCIA was founded in 1973 to complement UNA’s campaigns through building policy and advocacy on global issues, linking Wales to the world stage and to Europe.
A Voice on the World Stage: Origins of the WCIA
WCIA’s Founding Decades
The Freedom from Hunger Campaign (FFHC)
CND Cymru – the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Wales & Lesotho – the World’s first Twinning of Nations
2000s
Post-Devolution
As Wales gained its own devolved government with the Natioanl Assembly for Wales, the WCIA played a lead role in supporting Welsh Civil Society Organisations to engage with the Millennium Development Goals to Make Poverty History, building the Wales for Africa programme and latterly, Wales for Peace.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Task Force
Making Poverty History, from Jubilee 2000 to SDGs
Wales for Africa: Evolution from Devolution
Wales as a Nation of Sanctuary
2020s
Present
Having celebrated WLNU’s centenary in 2022, Temple 85 and WCIA’s 50th Anniversary in 2023, our strategy now looks forward to the next 50 years – relaunched as ‘Cymru Global’.
Cymru Global’s work remains firmly rooted in our heritage, and our guardianship of Wales’ iconic Temple of Peace & Health for future generations.
Wales for Peace – the WW1 Centenary
Wales & World Health – Perspectives on COVID
From WCIA to Cymru Global
