Congratulations to Julia Gillard, new leader of the Australian Labor Party and Australia’s first woman Prime Minister.
Welsh pride can also take a boost as Gillard was born in Barry Island, near Cardiff, where she lived until moving to Australia the ripe old age of four.
When it comes to furnishing the world with Prime Ministers, Wales has yet to fulfil its potential. In the UK we had David Lloyd-George (born in central Manchester but undoubtably Welsh) and so nearly had Neil Kinnock. We’ve had a Canadian born PM (Bonar Law) more recently than a Welshman.
Could this be a turning point, ushering in a period of Welsh political dominance across the globe? The world is waiting.
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The Joy of Six 1559
Clacton ad infinitum
Which is the most unworkable policy?
paul barker
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Peter wrigley
13 Comments
Kinnock is best forgoten about methinks.
Barry Island, you say? Tidy.
Does New South Wales count as Welsh?
William Morris Hughes – the Little Digger from LLANDUDNO was Prime Minister of Australia during World War One – and he spoke Welsh !!
Thanks Roger – I didn’t have time to research other Welsh PMs of outside the UK. Any others anyone knows of?
Welcome Julia Gillard.What a nice information. Please carry up. And take best wishes from Bangladesh.
A good quiz question is which Manchester born Prime Minister did not have English as his first language.
U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican, 1801-09) and James Monroe (D-R, 1817-25) both had Welsh blood, says my Book of Presidents by Tim Taylor (New York Times, 1972), which naturally stops with Richard Nixon. I don’t know about Nixon’s successors.
In a BBC clip I saw, Julia Gillard said she grew up idolising Aneurin Bevan.
Now there would have been a Welsh premier for you!
@Kevin
That one is easy: he was the last Liberal Prime Minister up to the present.
Don’t foget the greatest president of them all – Abraham Lincoln. Greatgrandmother from Ysbyty Ifan in the Conwy Valley 1
I was particularly touched to hear that Julia Gillard’s parents took her to Australia because she was not well and needed a warmer climate. Her parents must of arrived wondering if they would raise her; they certainly did that.
Sorry to correct my friend the noble Lord of Llandudno, but wasn’t Billy Hughes born in London?