Boys' and Girls' Clubs of Wales/Clybiau Bechgyn a Merched Cymru

The Organisation was founded by Captain J Glynn-Jones and David Davies, later to become Lord Davies of Llandinam - two good friends who made the major contribution to the foundation of the Boys’ Clubs Movement in Wales following the end of the First World War. Capt Glynn, appointed as Welfare Officer of the Ocean Group of Collieries scattered over the South Wales coalfields, was immediately faced with the problems of the adolescent ‘collier boy’. In 1922, Miners’ Welfare Organisations linked with the Ocean Group of Collieries. The United National Collieries and other colliery companies came to the conclusion that welfare schemes would make little impact on the ‘collier boy’ if there were no Boys’ Clubs in which they could be engaged. In 1922 the first Boys’ Club was opened in Treharris, to be followed by the establishment of other Boys’ Clubs at Nantymoel, Ton Pentre & Gelli, Treorchy, Wattstown and Nine Mile Point. These were led by full-time youth workers on a scale unparalleled elsewhere in Great Britain, even during a time of economic depression. Capt Glynn wanted every boy to be a member of a club which provided healthy exercises, cultural activities and discipline. He also believed that the boys had a responsibility to the community to which they belonged.