Amy and her dog Pango
Photo credit: West Glamorgan Archive
Together at the unveiling of the Amy Dillwyn purple plaque at the Green Room, Swansea, are, from left: Senedd Member Julie James, Purple Plaque Wales chair Sue Essex, Amy’s great great niece Susan Morris, Amy’s great great great nephew David Morris, Swansea Council joint deputy leader Andrea Lewis and council cabinet member Elliott King. Photo: Swansea Council

Wales’ 19th Purple Plaque was unveiled in Swansea to mark International Women’s Day 2025 by celebrating Author and Industrialist Amy Dillwyn.

Amy was born in 1845, when women had no voice, no money and no vote, and their career was getting married. She was brave, intelligent and enthusiastic, speaking 3 languages, and was the daughter of the local Liberal MP.

Presented in court as a wealthy debutante at 17, her life changed when her fiancé died, and she was left without a role. She became very ill yet began to write novels – The Rebecca Rioter for example, seen now as a new politicised feminist literature for Wales. It was published in Russia at the same time as in London and is now reprinted by Honno Press, along with her other novels.

In 1892 her father died, leaving Amy the Llansamlet Spelter (Zinc) Works and its debts of £100k, (about £8 million today). Amy became a ‘man of business’, the only woman in a man’s world, saving 300 jobs. By 1900 she had paid off all the creditors, while treating her workers fairly.  

After the business was sold at a profit, she continued to support workers, for example 25 dressmakers for the Ben Evans store. She was an early suffragist, ‘signing cheques every week for the 300 men in the spelter works, who all had a vote when she did not, had given her a strong sense of injustice and made her a suffragist’. She helped raise money for the Convalescent home above Cwmdonkin Park, and for the home for fallen women there.

She was one of the first women industrialists of the 19th century. Throughout her life she challenged exploitation and oppression although the newspapers at the time focused on her ‘Rational Dress’ and her penchant for a cigar.

The Diary of Amy Dillwyn, 1863-1917, edited with an introduction by Kirsti Bohata (South Wales Record Society, 2025)

Her diaries record her passionate love for the woman she called her ‘wife’ as well as her unconventional attitudes to gender.

Dadorchuddiwyd 19eg Plac Porffor Cymru yn Abertawe i nodi Diwrnod Rhyngwladol y Menywod 2025 wrth ddathlu’r Awdur a’r Diwydiannydd Amy Dillwyn.

Ym 1845, pan aned Amy, doedd gan fenywod ddim llais, dim arian personol a dim pleidlais, a’u gyrfa oedd priodi. Roedd Amy’n ddewr, yn ddeallus ac yn frwdfrydig, yn siarad pedair iaith, ac yn ferch i’r AS Rhyddfrydol lleol.

Yn 17 oed cyflwynwyd hi yn y llys fel debutante cyfoethog, ond newidiodd ei bywyd pan fu farw ei dyweddi, a gadawyd hi heb rôl pendant. Er iddi ddioddef salwch, dechreuodd ysgrifennu nofelau. Mae un ohonynt,  The Rebecca Rioter, erbyn hyn yn cael ei hystyried fel llenyddiaeth ffeministaidd wleidyddol newydd i Gymru. Fe’i cyhoeddwyd yn Rwsia ar yr un pryd ag yn Llundain, ac mae bellach wedi ei hadargraffu gan Wasg Honno, ynghyd â’i nofelau eraill.

Ym 1892 bu farw ei thad, gan adael Gwaith Sinc Llansamlet a’i ddyledion o £100mil (tua £8 miliwn heddiw) iddi. Daeth Amy yn ‘ddyn busnes’, yr unig fenyw mewn byd o ddynion. Erbyn 1900 roedd hi wedi talu’r credydwyr i gyd ac wedi arbed 300 o swyddi.

Ar ôl gwerthu’r busnes a gwneud elw, parhaodd i gefnogi gweithwyr, er enghraifft, y 25 o wniadwragedd a weithiai yn siop Ben Evans, Abertawe. Roedd hi’n swffragydd cynnar. Dywedwyd ei bod ‘ yn arwyddo sieciau bob wythnos ar gyfer y 300 o weithwyr sinc gwrywaidd a fedrai bleidleisio a hithau heb bleidlais’ a bod hyn ‘wedi rhoi ymdeimlad cryf o anghyfiawnder iddi, a’i gwneud yn swffragydd’. Bu’n helpu i godi arian ar gyfer y Cartref Ymadfer uwchben Parc Cwmdoncyn, a hefyd ar gyfer cartref i fenywod mewn angen yno.

Hi oedd un o’r ychydig fenywod yn y 19g a fu’n ddiwydianwyr. Ar hyd ei hoes heriodd ecsploetiaeth a gormes er bod y papurau newydd ar y pryd yn canolbwyntio mwy ar ei ‘Gwisg Resymegol’ a’i hoffter o smygu sigâr.

Cyhoeddwyd ei dyddiaduron gan Gymdeithas Cofnodion De Cymru yn 2025. Gweler:

The Diary of Amy Dillwyn, 1863-1917, edited with an introduction by Kirsti Bohata (South Wales Record Society, 2025).

Mae ei dyddiaduron yn cofnodi ei chariad angerddol tuag at y fenyw a alwai’n ‘wraig’ iddi, yn ogystal â’i hagweddau anghonfensiynol at rywedd.