Dic Penderyn

Dic Penderyn was the name by which Richard Lewis, a young Welsh labourer from the Aberavon area, became known during the aftermath of the Merthyr Rising of 1831. He was convicted of stabbing soldier Donald Black during the disturbances, although the evidence against him was disputed and later testimony suggested another man may have been responsible. Penderyn was hanged at Cardiff on 13 August 1831.

His execution acquired a powerful place in Welsh political memory. Supporters regarded him as a victim of a government determined to make an example after an unprecedented working-class uprising, and later accounts strengthened the belief that his conviction had been unsafe. He became associated with the wider history of labour protest and demands for justice in industrial Wales.

In Alexander Cordell’s The Fire People, Dic Penderyn is a central historical figure. Cordell uses the Merthyr Rising and the disputed case against Penderyn to connect fictional working-class lives with the violence, trials and political consequences of the 1831 revolt.