Australian Prime Minister’s boyhood home, 16 Abbey Road, Llandudno

link to French translation

Bryn Rosa was probably built in the late 1840s, for Miss Mary Hughes. She ran it as an apartment house.

photo_of_billy_hughesIt was the boyhood home of William Morris Hughes, born in London of Welsh parents in 1862. After the death of his mother, Jane Hughes, he was sent at the age of seven to live with his Aunt Mary in Llandudno. He attended the grammar school in Cwlach Street and later became a pupil teacher at St Stephen’s School, Westminster.

He emigrated to Australia in 1884 where he became a trade union organizer and was elected to the New South Wales Parliament in 1894. After the formation of the Australian Federation in 1901, he was elected prime minister in 1915. He was one of only two Welsh prime ministers in history, the other being David Lloyd George. He is pictured right as a young man, and below in old age.

As part of Lloyd George’s War Cabinet, Billy Hughes visited Bryn Rosa and his former school in Llandudno in 1916. His last visit was in 1921, when he looked again at his childhood home and unveiled Lloyd George’s statue in Caernarfon.

photo_of_billy_hughesThe proprietors of Bryn Rosa guesthouse fly the Australian flag in his memory each year on Anzac day, 25 April, which marks the anniversay of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces in the First World War.

Billy Hughes was best known as The Little Digger in Australia, the nickname referring to his wartime leadership. He used to take the salute at the annual Anzac Day parade in Sydney, wearing the distinctive Australian soldier’s slouch hat given to him by the Gallipoli veterans.

As he aged, a chair was provided for him by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. After his death in 1952, the chair was still brought out and his hat hung over the back adorned with a sprig of rosemary. The custom continued until 1974, when the area was pedestrianised. His hat is preserved in the bank’s vaults and a plaque has been has been placed on the bank wall to commemorate the ceremony. He was commemorated by being featured on an Australian postage stamp in 1972.

With thanks to Pam Wilkinson and John Lawson-Reay, of the Llandudno & Colwyn Bay History Society

Postcode: LL30 2EA    View Location Map

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Footnotes: More about Bryn Rosa

In 1873 James Hindle, a retired surgeon from York, bought Bryn Rosa and lived here with his wife Lucy and two unmarried daughters, Edith and Inez. James died in 1893, Lucy in 1901, Inez in 1931 and Edith (aged 103) in 1953. The Hindle sisters are in the photo of Bryn Rosa on the left. Edith comissioned a stained glass window in the nearby St George’s Church in memory of her parents and sister.

Byrn Rosa was then bought by Rowland and Annie Pritchard, who had been housekeepers for the Hindles. It changed hands again in 1967, 1976 and 1999.