Making Owen Rhoscomyl (1863–1919): Biography, Welsh Identity and the British World

Through the life of Owen Rhoscomyl, this biographical study explores the construction and interaction of personal, national and imperial identities in the 'British world' during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in England, raised by a Welsh grandmother and running away for a life of overseas adventure as a young man, Owen Rhoscomyl carefully created his identity as a popular Welsh author, patriot and hero. His experience as a cowboy, mercenary and soldier on the colonial frontier coloured his vision of the Welsh and informed his belief that imperial service provided the fullest means for the Welsh to declare, defend and promote their nationhood. Through his writing and activism, he defined Welsh nationalism within the broader context of the 'British world' that had shaped his own identity and life. Often at odds with Nonconformist images of the peaceful gwerin (folk), Rhoscomyl was determined to overcome the apparent disconnect between his martial vision and more conventional ideas of Welsh national identity and its relationship with the empire. This study of the 'making' of Owen Rhoscomyl's personal identity establishes that the construction of Welshness was in many senses a global project concurrently undertaken across Wales, Britain, the colonies and the world beyond.