A statue of the Welsh rugby league players Billy Boston, Clive Sullivan and Gus Risman was unveiled in July 2023 in the Cardiff Bay area of the Butetown district of Cardiff. [1] [2] The ceremony, in Landsea Square, took place in the presence of 88-year-old Boston and relatives of Sullivan and Risman. [3]
It was the first statue in Wales to depict named, non-fictionalised black men, [1] although Boston is also represented by statues in Wembley and Wigan. [1]
Boston, Sullivan and Risman had left Wales in the 1950s to join the professional rugby league after being ostracised by the amateur rugby union - it was another 30 years before a black man was picked to play rugby for Wales. [3]
The project behind the statue, One Team. One Race: Honouring the Cardiff Bay Rugby Codebreakers, was set up in 2020 after calls from the Butetown community. [3] Boston, Sullivan and Risman were chosen as representatives of the 13 local rugby players who had switched code to play rugby in northern England. [2]
Thirteen Welsh rugby ‘codebreakers’ were recognised by the statue in Cardiff Bay, as all thirteen nominees grew up within a three-mile radius of the spot. While Billy Boston, Gus Risman and Clive Sullivan are depicted on the statue, Frank Whitcombe, Jim Sullivan, Roy Francis, Colin Dixon, Dennis Brown, Gerald Cordle, Joe Corsi, Johnny Freeman, Dave Willicombe and William 'Wax' Williams all have named plaques on the monument.
The BBC's Matt Lloyd noted, "It has taken more than half a century for Wales to celebrate what the rest of the world recognised a lifetime ago". [4]
Cardiff is the capital and largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of 372,089 in 2022 and forms a principal area officially known as the City and County of Cardiff. The city is the eleventh largest in the United Kingdom. Located in the southeast of Wales and in the Cardiff Capital Region, Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan and in 1974–1996 of South Glamorgan. It belongs to the Eurocities network of the largest European cities. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a port for coal when mining began in the region helped its expansion. In 1905, it was ranked as a city and in 1955 proclaimed capital of Wales. Cardiff Built-up Area covers a larger area outside the county boundary, including the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth.
Tiger Bay was the local name for an area of Cardiff which covered Butetown and Cardiff Docks. Following the building of the Cardiff Barrage, which dams the tidal rivers, Ely and Taff, to create a body of water, it is referred to as Cardiff Bay. Tiger Bay is Wales’ oldest multi-ethnic community, with sailors and workers from over 50 countries settling there from the mid-19th century onwards.
Cardiff Bay is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it is the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of water was converted into a 500-acre (2.0 km2) lake as part of a pre-devolution UK Government regeneration project, involving the damming of the rivers by the Cardiff Bay Barrage in 1999. The barrage impounds the rivers from the Severn Estuary, providing flood defence and the creation of a permanent non-tidal high water lake with limited access to the sea, serving as a core feature of the redevelopment of the area in the 1990s.
The Wales national rugby union team represents the Welsh Rugby Union in men's international rugby union. Its governing body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), was established in 1881, the same year that Wales played their first international against England. The team plays its home matches at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, which replaced Cardiff Arms Park as the national stadium of Wales in 1999.
Butetown is a district and community in the south of the city of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. It was originally a model housing estate built in the early 19th century by the 2nd Marquess of Bute, for whose title the area was named.
The Wales national rugby league team represents Wales in representative rugby league football matches. Currently the team is ranked 17th in the IRL World Rankings. The team was run under the auspices of the Rugby Football League, but an independent body, Wales Rugby League, now runs the team from Cardiff. Six Welsh players have been entered into the Rugby Football League Hall of Fame.
The Butetown branch line, also known as the Cardiff Bay Line, is a 1-mile-6-chain (1.7 km) commuter railway line in Cardiff, Wales from Cardiff Bay to Cardiff Queen Street. The service pattern formerly comprised a mixture of shuttle services along the branch and through trains along the Rhymney Line to Caerphilly, or the Coryton Line to Coryton, but after December 2005 was a shuttle service from Queen Street station. However, in May 2024, direct trains to Pontypridd were restored alongside shuttle services. The normal journey time is four minutes.
William John Boston, MBE is a Welsh former professional rugby league footballer who played as a wing or centre. Born in Cardiff, Wales, Boston started his career as a rugby union player before joining Wigan in 1953. He spent the next 15 years at Wigan, where he scored a club-record 478 tries in his 488 appearances for the club. He finished his career at Blackpool Borough before retiring in 1970. He also represented Great Britain in 31 Test matches, and was part of the team that won the 1960 Rugby League World Cup.
Clive Anthony Sullivan MBE was a Welsh rugby league footballer. A Great Britain and Wales international winger, he played for Hull FC and Hull Kingston Rovers in his career, winning Challenge Cup medals with both clubs, and also played for Oldham and Doncaster. Captaining Great Britain in 1972, he was the first black captain for Great Britain in any sport. He was part of the Great Britain team which won the 1972 Rugby League World Cup. His son, Anthony Sullivan, had a successful career with Hull Kingston Rovers, St. Helens, Wales in both rugby league and union, and Cardiff RFC.
Cardiff Bay railway station, formerly Cardiff Bute Road, is a station serving the Cardiff Bay and Butetown areas of Cardiff, Wales. It is the southern terminus of the Butetown branch line 1 mile (1.5 km) south of Cardiff Queen Street.
Augustus "Gus" John Ferdinand Risman was a Welsh professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1920s through to the 1950s, and coached in the 1940s through to the 1970s.
Rugby is played in Cardiff in both rugby league and rugby union forms.
The timeline of Cardiff history shows the significant events in the history of Cardiff which transformed it from a small Roman fort into the modern capital city of Wales.
Colin J. Dixon was a Welsh rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and coached in the 1970s. He played club level rugby union (RU) for Cardiff International Athletic Club, and representative level rugby league (RL) for Great Britain and Wales, and at club level for Halifax (captain), Salford and Hull Kingston Rovers. He played as a centre, second-row or loose forward, and coached club level rugby league (RL) for Salford, and is a Halifax Hall of Fame Inductee.
Emlyn Jenkins was a Welsh cinema manager, trainee teacher, landlord of a public house, rugby union, and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1930s and 1940s, and coached rugby league in the 1950s. He played club level rugby union (RU) for Treorchy RFC, and Cardiff RFC, and representative level rugby league (RL) for Great Britain, Wales and England, and at club level for Salford, Wigan and St Helens, Leigh, as a fullback, wing, centre, stand-off, or scrum-half, and coached club level rugby league (RL) for Leigh and St Helens.
Lloyd Williams is a Wales international rugby union player. A scrum-half, he plays club rugby for the Cardiff Rugby. He attended Cowbridge Comprehensive School and Ysgol Gyfun Bro Morgannwg and he is a fluent Welsh speaker.
Black Welsh people are inhabitants of Wales who have an African or an Afro-Caribbean background and are black. Wales is home to one of the United Kingdom's oldest black communities, and Tiger Bay in Cardiff has housed a large Somali population since the development of the port in the 19th century. The 2011 census reported that there were more than 18,000 Welsh-African people in Wales.
Betty Campbell was a Welsh community activist, who was Wales' first black head teacher. Born into a poor household in Butetown, she won a scholarship to the Lady Margaret High School for Girls in Cardiff. Campbell later trained as a teacher, eventually becoming head teacher of Mount Stuart Primary School in Butetown, Cardiff. She put into practice innovative ideas on the education of children and was actively involved in the community.
A statue of Betty Campbell sculpted by Eve Shepherd was unveiled in Central Square, Cardiff, Wales, in 2021. Betty Campbell had been the first black head teacher in Wales.
Events from the year 2023 in Wales.
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