Investiture bomb campaign plotter dies aged 87
THE man who orchestrated a 1960s bombing campaign in Wales has died, aged 87. John Barnard Jenkins led Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Movement to Defend Wales) or MAC in the 1960s which did its utmost to disrupt the Investiture of Prince Charles, held in Caernarfon Castle in July 1969.
From 1963 to 1969 MAC set off bombs and devices to damage water pipes and government buildings throughout Wales.
Two of the group members were killed when a bomb they planned to plant in the evening before the royal event exploded: another which exploded in Caernarfon badly injured a 10-year-old boy.
Jenkins, who headed up the terrorist group, died at Wrexham Maelor Hospital on Thursday night.
Dr Wyn Thomas, who wrote a biography about the former British Army officer, said he had lived an “incredible life”.
He said: “For all the apparent and debated success of the MAC protest, it soon became clear to me during our many and often frank discussions, as I researched and wrote John’s biography, that no one regretted the tragic repercussions of MAC’s militant campaign more than John. The fact lives were lost, and others harmed, affected him deeply.
“Nonetheless, whether as a means of dealing with the guilt he felt, John repeatedly and steadfastly placed the blame for MAC’s militant campaign at the door of the British State.”
He added: “There will be some who will baulk at the suggestion that no one, other than John Jenkins himself, was responsible for MAC’s militant protest.
“And it is unlikely these people will react to John’s passing with anything other than indifference.
“Yet, to others, John Jenkins is a hero. A man of fierce principle, who suffered much for a cause he believed in, and for a country he loved dearly.”
Gwynedd councillor Owain Williams, one of the founders of MAC, who was himself jailed for bombing the Tryweryn dam in 1963, described Jenkins as one of Wales’ great heroes.
He said: “I can honestly say, hand on my heart, that he was the greatest patriot to have lived in the last century, there’s no question about that.
“John took the ultimate step by throwing the first stone. For that, he has been ostracised from his own country. John was an embarrassment to [the establishment]. His actions and his words meant they didn’t want anything to do with him.
“They didn’t realise that but for the actions of John and a handful of others in the MAC, they would not be masquerading in Cardiff Bay today in the Welsh Parliament.””
Gwynedd county Cllr Craig ab Iago added: “John Bernard Jenkins joins the short list of Welshmen that both lived by, and fought for, their principles. That he never got to see Wales taking its place on the world stage as an independent country is a tragedy.”
Jenkins insisted their intention in the bombing campaign had been only to attack infrastructure and not to injure anyone.
Jenkins was arrested, tried and convicted and jailed for 10 years in April 1970. After being released from prison, he became a social worker.
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