by Phil Sweet
“For thirty years Mr. Boots associated himself with every progressive movement in the town and was a zealous and active worker in every good cause.”
This comment, which appeared in the Merthyr Express of November 10th 1923 in an article describing the occasion to honour Mr. Boots that was held three days earlier at the Belle Vue Hotel aptly sums up the contribution to the cultural and civic life of the Borough in the last decade of the Nineteenth and first two decades of the Twentieth Century by H. Harvey Boots.
Born in Aberbeeg and the brother of Welsh Rugby international, George Boots, Boots would embark on a career as a dentist. After being articled to Mr. Gill Williams of Newport Harvey Boots came to Merthyr in 1891 as an assistant to Mr. Musgrove with whom he completed his articles. After gaining further experience as a dentist in Croydon, Southsea and Bristol, Boots returned to Merthyr in 1896 and opened his own dental practice in the High Street.
Aside from his career as a dentist Harvey Boots made a valuable and pioneering contribution to the sporting life of the town. Initially his focus was on the rugby field where he turned out for both Merthyr Thursdays and Merthyr RFC, serving as chairman of the latter organisation whilst still turning out as player.
Boots also served as the first chairman of the Merthyr Athletic Club which had leased Penydarren Park from the Bolgoed Estate and was responsible for converting the site into a sporting arena. With the demise of the rugby union club Boots switched his attention to Merthyr Town AFC becoming their first chairman of directors. A true sporting all-rounder, Boots was also a keen bowls player and golfer being a member of first the Morlais and later the Cilsanws golf clubs, while he was also in great demand as an MC for whist drives.
Away from the sporting sphere Harvey Boots was a keen horticulturalist serving as vice-chairman of the Merthyr Horticultural Society and winning many prizes for his carnations while he also found the time to take an active interest in the Scout Movement in the town.
During the Great War although he was unable to volunteer for the armed forces Boots served as a special constable in the Borough and acted as honorary dentist to the Knighton Red Cross Hospital and travelled to Knighton every week free of charge and at his own expense to attend to wounded soldiers sent home from the front, actions which led to him receiving the diploma of the Red Cross & St. John Society.
In addition to the above Harvey Boots also played a prominent and active part in the public life of the town. After the Great War he was elected as the first chairman of the newly formed Merthyr Ratepayers Association. A lifelong member of the Constitutional Party Boots was one of the original members of the Constitutional Club in Thomastown. Furthermore, he was a devoted churchgoer serving as a sidesman in St. David’s Church and secretary of the Parochial Quota Fund.
A married man with two daughters Boots left Merthyr in the summer of 1923 for Great Yarmouth where he had purchased a large dental practice in the hope that the sea air would prove to be more beneficial for his health.
Over the next few months, various articles written by Harvey Boots will appear in this blog.
We very easily forget people on our own patch who tried to make a difference and to make the world a better place. One of those was Gwilym Davies, who was born in Bedlinog – though in his day (he died in 1955) Bedlinog was not part of the Merthyr Tydfil region patch, as it is now.
Jack Jones was born on 140 years ago today, November 24th 1884 in Tai Harry Blawd, a row of small cottages on a bank of the Morlais Brook, a squalid area of Merthyr Tydfil. His father, David (Dai), was a collier and his mother, Sarah Ann (Saran), was typical of her kind, who, having worked as a young girl in the local brickyard, continued her life of hard labour in the home, struggling to bring up a large family, especially when money was scarce at times of pit strikes and lock-outs. Saran gave birth to fifteen children of whom nine survived. Jack was the eldest. His education at St Davids Church School and Caedraw Higher School was sporadic because his mother often needed him at home. He left school at the age of twelve to become a collier with his father. Always energetic and eager to help the mother he adored, he worked in his spare time as a butcher’s delivery boy and as a pop and orange-seller at the new Theatre Royal, where his love of the stage and the literary life was born. Fortunately, he grew up strong and healthy, surviving to tell and to write countless tales of his life, the working-class life of families particularly in Merthyr Tydfil and in South Wales in general. In his wordy, simply stated recollections of his long and eventful life he presents us with a true social and cultural history of the times of our grandparents and great-grandparents. His writings, first published in 1935, comprise eleven novels, three plays, a biography of David Lloyd George, newspaper articles, radio scripts, speeches and much material that was unpublished. Those considered his best are the novels: ‘Black Parade’, ‘Bidden to the Feast’, ‘Off to Philadelphia in the Morning’; the autobiographies: ‘Unfinished Journey’, ‘Me and Mine’, Give Me Back My Heart’ and the screenplay of the film ‘Proud Valley’ in which Jack also had an acting part.
sadly, lingered – and still lingers! among people who recall what their parents and grandparents had regarded as the author’s treachery. The book, later renamed ‘Black Parade’, is now known as a Welsh ‘classic’. It is an impressive cavalcade of past times and a fine tribute to his people and his hometown. It was not written to shame and scorn his beloved Merthyr, but with great pride and compassion. In book-signings he always used the same two words above his name: Yours sincerely.
& Pastimes in the 18th & 19th Century, Merthyr Tydfil by Geoffrey Evans
1. A Visit to Merthyr Tydfil in 1697 by Brynley F. Roberts
1. Vince Harris, 1904-1987 by Margaret Lloyd
1. Elphin, Literary Magistrate: Magisterial Commentator by Brynley Roberts
1. The Merthyr Tydfil 1835 Election Revisited, Lady Charlotte Guest’s Account by E (Ted) Rowlands
1. Three Generations of a Dowlais Medical Family 1860-1964 by Stuart Cresswell
A prominent Welsh poet who wrote in both Welsh and English was Thomas Jacob Thomas (1873-1945). Born 13th April 1873 near Rhos-yr-hafod, Capel Cynon, Cardiganshire, he was the fourth of the five children of David Thomas (1841-1922) and Mary nee Jacob (1837-1919), David was an agricultural labourer and the family lived in Sarnicol farm cottage.
