Welsh Missionaries and British Imperialism

The book Welsh Missionaries and British Imperialism, by Andrew J May, was launched, appropriately, on St David’s Day, 1st March. Drew Hopkins reports: 

It was a great pleasure for the Côr Bach to sing at the launch of this important book dealing with the Welsh missionary influence in north-east India in the nineteenth century.

The book, entitled Welsh Missionaries and British Imperialism, was written by University of Melbourne historian, Associate Professor Andrew May, and examined the work of his ancestor, Thomas Jones, who was sent by the Welsh Missionary Society in 1841 to evangelise the tribal peoples of the Khasi hills. A notable feature of Thomas Jones’ work was his contribution to recording and  preserving the Khasi language  – a task a Welshman would realise the importance of, given the threat to the survival of the Welsh language during the nineteenth century.

The choir sought to capture the flavour of the music that the Welsh missionaries took to the world. Accordingly, the first bracket of songs opened with Men of Harlech (in Welsh – Gwŷr Harlech), followed by enthusiastic singing of some fine hymns – Calon Lân, Amazing Grace and Cwm Rhondda (with the audience joining in the chorus in English).  The choir then sang All Through the Night, featuring the rich voice of second tenor Rushan Hewawasam singing the first verse.

Then there was a break for speeches and the launching of the book, followed by a second bracket of songs. Our Musical Director had planned some soft a capella singing for this bracket. However, by 6:30 pm, the noise from the jazz bar next door, and the Friday evening traffic meant a somewhat less subtle musical program was required. So the choir swung into its medley of rock/pop songs from the 1960s – House of the Rising Sun, He Ain’t Heavy He’s my Brother, Yesterday, Little Deuce Coupe and Da Do Ron Ron. We completed the evening with the concluding segment of our Welsh-Australian version of Waltzing Matilda.

So it was an enjoyable evening for both the choristers and the book-launch audience, and several of us purchased copies of the book and set off home for a good read.