Grim day when swastika hoisted above City Hall
It was the disturbing moment, 80 years ago, when a swastika flew high over Cardiff. Nathan Bevan looks back at a shocking incident that provoked public outcry
IT WAS a dark moment in Wales’ history – 80 years ago this month a swastika flag was hoisted high above Cardiff’s City Hall.
Raised upon the orders of the then Conservative Lord Mayor, less than a year before World War II broke out, it was a scene that caused a public outcry.
It eventually led to a small group of angry councillors perilously scaling the building and clambering across rooftops to tear down the Nazi emblem.
The flag’s appearance came after the September 1938 signing of the Munich Agreement – the treaty drawn up between Germany, Britain, France and Italy that sought to appease Hitler by allowing him to annex parts of western Czechoslovakia.
It was the policy which prompted UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s famous “I hold in my hand a piece of paper” speech; a policy which he hoped had assuaged the demands of the fascist dictator and ensured “peace for our time”.
It would all be in vain, however, as six months later Hitler went back on his promises and ordered his armies to march on Prague.
But while the ink was still fresh on that agreement, some clung to the belief that keeping Hitler happy was indeed the best way to avoid international conflict.
And among them was Oliver Cuthbert Purnell, Cardiff’s then Lord Mayor, who decreed that the flag of the Nazi party should fly from the rooftops of City Hall, along with those of Britain, France and Italy.
Purnell’s decision was, in his own words, to “symbolise the joy of the Welsh people at the signing of the pact” and “to show the world that we are anxious for the friendship of Germany”.
Many disagreed with the view, though, not least a small band of Labour councillors who decided to take matters into their own hands and remove the flag themselves.
But after failing to locate a key to grant them access to the locked roof space, their journey would not prove to be an easy one.
One even attempted to shin up a nearby drainpipe, but this proved impossible, but luckily another pair of saboteurs – Alderman McGale and Councillor Hegginbottom – stumbled across the whereabouts of an emergency staircase soon afterwards.
The two, both in their sixties at the time, then made their way up through a skylight and along the roof, edging precariously along a narrow walkway before using a set of roofing ladders to access the flagstaff itself.
The swastika was torn down and hidden by the men, to cheers from the gathering crowds below.
Despite this, the Lord Mayor ordered that a hastily sewn replacement be made and then put in place the next day – the rushed nature of the request perhaps indicated by the fact this second attempt was positioned upside down and the wrong way round.
Nevertheless, it was a decision for which Purnell remained unapologetic, saying the gesture had been one of goodwill only, with no political or religious undertones.
But after a few days the growing disquiet among the city’s residents eventually became too loud to ignore.
Once again the flag was removed, except this time for good.