Times obituary to SAS pioneer claims description of Wales as lacking ‘signs of civilisation’ has ‘stood the test of time’
An obituary in the Times has claimed that a man’s description of Wales as lacking “the normal signs of civilisation” has “stood the test of time”.
The obituary for Major Stuart Perry described how he had chosen the Brecon Beacons as the training base for the SAS.
The article quotes his fellow SAS officer Major Clarence Newell who said that the location had been chosen because the recruit would “be divorced from his normal surroundings and placed in an area where he can obtain little or no help from the inhabitants and no encouragement from the normal signs of civilisation”.
The Times obituary adds that this was “a somewhat bleak assessment of Wales and the Welsh, but one that has stood the test of time”.
Defence chiefs revealed last year that as many as 20 soldiers had died in the Brecon Beacons, where twice a year regular military personnel try to pass Special Forces selection.
Figures going back to 1984 reveal almost one soldier has died every two years during fitness and endurance test there. The figures were revealed in a Freedom of Information Request.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said last year that: “Our deepest sympathies remain with the families and friends of those who have tragically lost their lives.
“The health and safety of our personnel is a priority and we continually review training environments and methods to ensure they are as safe as possible.”
Stuart Perry is described in the obituary as having “helped devise the famed selection test for how recruits coped with, among other things, loneliness and tiredness”.
The obituary adds that selection for the SAS “has remained remarkably true to the founding principles and method”.
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Brecon Beacons – from city play ground to army training ground but both offering locals little in the round
Yeah, little or no help from the local inhabitants…having cleared them out of their homes and community on the Epynt
Ie, cofiwch Epynt, cofiwch Dryweryn.
So the in-house paper of the British ruling class is basically saying that the Welsh arent ‘civilized’ 😡. Imagine if the Times had levelled this outrageous slur at say the Irish or Jamaicans or Bangladeshis? There would quite rightly be uproar and the paper would quickly be forced to retract and apologise. But alas, and not for the first time, it seems that a mouthpiece of the British establishment thinks it’s acceptable to paint the Welsh as little more than modern day neanderthals. When will the Welsh be protected under hate speech laws? 🤔
To get back at these Conservative cretins must reject the idea of British Unionism by becoming an independent nation like Scotland thus rejoining the world family leaving little England an isolated insular backwater.
The Neanderthals were the good guys, if they had prospered there would not be a Climate Crisis or a Tory Party…
May all those invoked with this assessment of Cymru be consigned to Hell as their final resting place and supporter of this can join their fascist friends the Russians in Ukraine!
Uncivilised as evidenced by the fact that the area regularly returns Tory MPs and AMs.
Great point so when they redraw the boundaries, this ‘uncivilised’ constituency patch might as well be abolished.
And all because 44% of those of voting age in Powys were born in England.
Lowers the tone they does, honest.
Makes you think who the real enemy is. Perhaps they were on our doorstep all along.
They are not on our doorstep.
They are among us.
SAS aren’t the only ones to train in the area, we’ve also had small groups of ISIS making use of our remoteness,
And your evidence is?
Special Branch produced evidence of this at Old Bailey trials.
Nothing happens around here without someone seeing you, the hills have eyes🥸 plus its what came out during their court case😘
I don’t know which is worse.
Yes by rustling 🐑😂 for there so called fast food establishments..🐑
“placed in an area where he can obtain little or no help from the inhabitants and no encouragement”
I was going to call him a t**t, but realised that if I had met him, he would not have had reason to change his opinion.
Colonial b*****d!
It’s not about the locals who are few in number and as the Brecon Coroner pointed out years ago regularly make up search parties to look for the bodies of failed SAS candidates at great personal risk and with little or no help from the Army.
I find it bizarre that elite soldiers die in the hills of Brecon. Imagine if they had to go up some mountains! Just wear decent boots, dress for the weather and take a packed lunch. If you get lost, pick a direction and keep going. You will find a road within 5 miles. If you meet a river you can’t cross, just follow it downstream. You’ll come to a road, a bridge or some houses before too long. It’s not like it’s hard.
You need to pop over to Hereford. Might get a coaching job teaching some basic skills to the “killer elite”. Sadly most of the deaths have been down to men trying to beat a time limit in extreme conditions. There were deaths from heat a few years ago when the tests were held on hot dry summer days.
😂 I doubt they would listen to me unless I was asking them what they wanted in their sandwich 🙄. I don’t know that “calm down and take your time” is a strategy much prized in the imperial forces. Now you mention it, I remember the news stories. Such an avoidable waste of life.😢
Reading of the S.A.S and all that endurance stuff in a remote hostile area makes one proud to be British, just not me !!
Who wants to have what the English consider “normal signs of civilisation”? I’d rather be a Cymraes with our own culture than adopt some anachronistic identity left over from the time of imperial criminals.
Why would you expect ‘civilization’ in a National Park. It’s an Oxymoron.
No cities.
Just imagine if a Welsh person had made these comments about England and the English. The Times and other right-wing rags would be in uproar, complaining about “Welsh Nationalist racism!!” Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.
weird take, my question is why was the UWC Atlantic College sited 60 miles “The UWC movement was founded with the vision of bringing together young people whose experience was of the political conflict of the cold war era, offering an educational experience based on shared learning, collaboration and understanding so that the students would act as champions of peace.
if Wales is such a back water?
Many years ago I came to the conclusion that ‘The Times’ was just an awful waste of wood. I believe this opinion has also” stood the test of time”.
More words from another clown.
Does he know how many Cymry died in the Falkland Islands.
Mossad are harder than that lot! 😜
In fairness the Major’s words are obviously in reference to the wilderness in which they train, it’s the Times that have weaponised them. The day these any of these Fleet Street rags get a Hebdo surprise, I’ll probably laugh.