Dr William Price was undoubtedly eccentric but many of his ideas are commonplace today. Helen Morgan from Abergavenny Local History Society reports
As a vegetarian who believed in free love and herbal remedies, he would probably have felt at home in a 1960s hippy commune. But William Price was a child of the 1800s.
He learnt basic medicine as an apprentice in Caerphilly before studying at The London Hospital in Whitechapel and at St Bartholomew’s in the City of London. In 1821, aged 21, he was made a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, one of the youngest students to enjoy this privilege.
Two years later he returned to Wales, opened a surgery near Pontypridd and became chief surgeon for the Brown Lenox (Ynysanghard) works where he devised an embryonic national health system; workers paid him when they were well and he treated them for free when they were ill. He soon became a strong advocate of good food, clean living, fresh air, exercise and natural medicine, refusing to treat patients who smoked. He regarded most other doctors as quacks.
In 1839, he joined the Chartists, and was forced to flee to France after a £100 bounty for him, dead or alive, was proclaimed. While in exile, he pronounced himself Archdruid of Wales and took to wearing bright red and green suits with an entire fox pelt on his head.
He married Gwenllian Llewellyn in a ‘druidic’ ceremony on his 81st birthday when she was just 22. She gave birth to a son in 1883 and they scandalised his Methodist neighbours by naming him Iesu Grist (Jesus Christ). Five months later Iesu died and his father determined to have him cremated in the Celtic manner. On 13 January 1884, villagers returning from chapel were greeted by the sight of the burning pyre above Llantrisant. Dr Price was arrested and committed for trial. Luckily for him the judge declared that cremation, while unusual, was not illegal.
Upon his death in January 1893 the first pre-arranged cremation in Wales took place. Tickets were issued for the main event and the pubs ran dry as an estimated 20,000 people thronged the streets.
“His greatest legacy must be the passing of the Cremation Act of 1902,” says Dean Powell. “But history will also remember him as one of the most extraordinary individuals ever to have lived.”
Dean Powell’s talk at the Borough Theatre on November 27 starts at 7.30pm. Non-members are welcome to join on the night. For details go to: abergavennylocalhistorysociety.org.uk
