International Women's Day

 


Every year on 8th March we celebrate International Women’s Day. It’s a global celebration of social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

This short article will look at some of the achievements of two ladies from Swansea’s history.

The first person, Mary Dillwyn will be known to many.

    Mary Dillwyn (left) was born in 1816, daughter of Lewis Weston Dillwyn and younger sister of John Dillwyn Llewellyn.

Photograph pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot was related by marriage to the Dillwyn Llewellyn family. Fox Talbot was a scientist, inventor and photography pioneer who invented the salted water and calotype processes, which were precursors to the photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries.

    Mary is considered to be the earliest female photographer in Wales. Her subject matter was flowers, animals, family and friends. She is credited with taking the first person to photograph a snowman, in 1853 (above right).

    Mary married the Reverend Montague Earle Welby, Rector at Uffington, Lincolnshire in 1857. After their marriage, Mary ceased to produce any further photographs. Mary died at Arthog, Meirionnydd in 1906 aged 90. She’s buried at St. David’s churchyard, Penllergaer, the church that her brother John founded, in 1838.

The second person we’ll highlight is Mary De la Beche Dillwyn (bottom left). Mary De la Beche Nicholl (nee Dillwyn) was born in 1839, daughter of Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn and Elizabeth De la Beche. Mary was the elder sister of novelist and industrialist Amy Dillwyn and Sarah who went on to become an actress. She was niece of the aforementioned Mary Dillwyn.

Mary De la Beche Nicholl married John Cole Nicholl in Swansea in 1860. They went on to have six children. Mary was best known for her lepidoptery and she published a number of papers on her re-search on butterflies including ‘Bulgarian Butterflies’ in The Entomologist’s Record and Journal of Variation in 1899 and ‘Butterflies of Lebanon’ published in The Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London in 1902. Mary died in 1922 aged 83 and is buried at St Teilo’s Church in Bridgend.

Copyright - The Bay Magazine, March 2023

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