History
History of The Welsh Budgerigar Society
(2018) saw the Welsh Budgerigar Society achieving its 80th Anniversary.
Most of the Area Societies are proud of their history and origins and the Welsh Budgerigar Society is no different in this respect.
The Welsh BS is one of ten Area Societies around the Country affiliated to the parent body, The Budgerigar Society. and covers the following areas:-Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire,Neath & Port Talbot, Newport, Pembrokeshire, Powys, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Swansea, Torfaen and Vale of Glamorgan. This was assumed to be the History of the formation of the Welsh Budgerigar Society
The formation of the Welsh BS dates back as far as the mid 1930's , only a few years after the formation of the parent body, The Budgerigar Society in 1925, and a look through the records indicate that the society was first called Cardiff Budgerigar Society, then the Welsh Budgerigar Society and first became affiliated to The Budgerigar Society in early 1939.
The exact date is unknown but the date of 1939 was shown in the 1985 Budgerigar Society Convention Publication of that year, written by Barbara Moizer, (formerly Perry from Barry) , who was originally the editor of the Welsh Budgerigar Society before moving to Somerset to marry Stan Moizer
We now know the following after research into the old Budgerigar Society’s publication ‘The Budgerigar Bulletin’ by the Budgerigar Society Vice Chairman Ghalib Al-Nasser that the history needs to be rewritten as follows.
1. Budgerigar Bulletin No 45, March 1938 issue, page 10 report of the BS AGM held on 22/1/1938 – The B.S. to assist in the formation of a society in Wales.
2. Budgerigar Bulletin No 46, June 1938 issue, page 51 in May 1938 Capt. V. Dilwyn Jones chairman of Llandrindod Wells & District CBS passed a motion to change the name of that society to “Central Wales National CBS” which became Welsh Budgerigar Association.
3. Budgerigar Bulletin No 48, December 1938 issue, page 114 states that Welsh BS was formed at an inaugural meeting that took place on 22/10/1938 at Llandrindod Wells with the following senior officials elected: President, Viscount Tredegar; Chairman, Capt. V. Dilwyn Jones; Secretary, S.F. Everiss.
It was some time later, because of some difficulty with boundary problems and a question as to whether Monmouthshire was in fact English or Welsh that the society became known as "The South Wales and Monmouthshire Budgerigar Society", and the first President of this newly named society was Alderman R G Robinson JP. Getting Mr Robinson to become the first President was an achievement in itself, as he was obviously very much involved in the local politics of the area, going on to become Lord Mayor of Cardiff from 1947 to 1949. We have the Certificate awarded to Mr Robinson at the time. This was found by a non member in an attic in Newport and passed to one of our members from Newport, former Chairman Sybil Hammett
Boundary problems once again came to the fore in 1994, and a unanimous decision by the Annual General Meeting that year made the decision to change the society name back to "The Welsh Budgerigar Society".
Since the beginning of the Society there have only been two Welsh BS members who have become President of the parent body ‘the Budgerigar Society’. They are Carl Fulgoni from Barry who was President in 1976 and Bob Francis, Briton Ferry, Neath in 2009.( The current Secretary).
In its 80 years the Society, as for over half that time only had three Secretaries. Mrs Gwen Carter from Cardiff did it for many years, followed by John Blackey from Swansea and then Bob Francis from 1992 to the current time (2018).
Similarly we are lucky to have had only a few Chairmen in that time. We have had Dennis Silver, Sybil Hammett (Newport), Dave Taylor ( Pontypridd), Bill Searle ( Bridgend), Dominic Avo (Swansea) and current Chairman Vince Avo (Swansea)
For many years the Society held meetings on a Wednesday twice a month at the Oddfellows Hall, Newport Road, Cardiff, now redeveloped into flats. One was a Council meeting and the other a General meeting, now there are approximately 5 Council meetings held in Briton Ferry with 3 General meetings, taken around the Area, each of which incorporate a show or speaker in an attempt to attract members.
Open shows were popular, being held in the early years in the Temple of Peace, Cardiff, and later in Barry at the Memorial Hall, then moved to a school in Barry, For several years we were lucky enough to hold the Area show in the Holiday Inn, Newport just up the road from the present location, Llanwern High School Newport ( formerly Hartridge high school)
Smaller shows then were held in Tremorfa Church hall, Cardiff.
Nowadays we generally hold a stand alone talk in April in the Heads of the Valley area, with our Joint Convention and Specialist & Rare show held at the Morriston Memorial Hall in Swansea in June, which is also the venue of the Young Stock show in conjunction with our AGM usually in October.