From The Vaults

In 1905, Cardiff witnessed some fantastic rugby from a Wales side on the cusp of global pre-eminence and Welsh printers found a humorous way to commemorate the historic victories. This month, we are highlighting some "mourning cards" from our collection.

The day that kick-started a glorious year for Welsh rugby was 14th January 1905, when England were heavily defeated at Cardiff Arms Park. Welsh winger Teddy Morgan scored a try after just three minutes, and another soon followed from captain Willie Llewellyn on the opposite wing. By half time, another try and conversion saw Wales sitting comfortably at 11 points, with England left at nil. Another four Welsh tries in the second half completed the whitewashing of England, 25-0. It was, at the time, Wales' highest winning margin against England. Wales went on to win the 1905 Home Nations Championship, with victories over Scotland at Inverleith, and Ireland at Swansea.

Deploying a bit of twisted humour to make light of England's misfortune, a mourning card was produced by Welsh supporters. Beneath an image of a funeral carriage, the card mockingly reads:

Produced in quantity from the 1860s, mourning cards were sent by the family of the deceased to their friends and wider relatives in memory of their loved one. The examples in our collection are printed in black ink on card, but more elaborate mourning cards were sometimes embossed or might include a photograph of the deceased. The sport analogy had also been at play for some time, perhaps the most famous example being the mock obituary printed in The Sporting Times following Australia's defeat of England in an 1882 cricket match, which ultimately led to the naming of The Ashes series.

In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET WHICH DIED AT THE OVAL ON 29TH AUGUST, 1882 … The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.

It seems that Welsh supporters developed a taste for these satirical forms of commemoration. Later in 1905, memorial cards were printed again to celebrate Wales' famous victory over the Original All Blacks. New Zealand had had won all 27 matches on the tour so far, but Wales had been undefeated at home since 1899 and the match on 16th December at Cardiff Arms Park was considered the best chance of preventing an All Black clean-sweep. An unconverted try from Teddy Morgan was the only score of the match, with a New Zealand try controversially disallowed in the second half.

Wales would be the only team to beat the All Blacks during the tour and the match was dubbed 'The Game of the Century'. On that occasion, a mourning card read:

A match that no Welshman wanted to forget, other mourning cards featuring alternative rhymes in the same style and typeface were distributed to celebrate the historic victory. "Gallant little Wales" had become one of rugby's giants.