Helena Charles

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Note: Helena Charles is also the name of a character in the play "Look Back in Anger".

Helena Charles (1911-1997), was a Cornish humanitarian, cultural activist and poet.

She was a member of Gorseth Kernow under the Bardic name of Maghteth Boudycca ('Daughter of Boudyccs')^[1]. She organised residential courses in the Cornish language, where Richard Gendall and Tony Snell met. She wrote poetry in the language.

In January 1951, she became the first leader of the Cornish political party Mebyon Kernow. She led the party for the first four years and was also the first person to put MK policies to the electorate, winning a seat on Redruth-Camborne Urban District Council in 1953, fighting under the slogan 'A Square Deal for the Cornish.' She was succeeded as Chairman of MK by Major Cecil Beer in the late 1950s.^[2].

In 1950, she organised a group of actors to perform the play Bewnans Meriasek in Cornish at the Celtic Congress. It was performed in several places in Cornwall and was Cornwall's entry to the Festival of Britain ^[3].

She organized assistance for displaced members of the population of Heligoland, and later on went to Venice to work for the welfare of the feral cats there.

[edit] Publications

• What is home rule? (Series: New Cornwall pamphlet No.1 )Publisher: Redruth, Cornwall : New Cornwall, [ca. 1953]

• New Cornwall - Political magazine. Founded by Richard Gendall in 1952. Edited by Helena Charles and from 1956 edited by Richard and Ann Jenkin..

[edit] References

1. ^ Gorseth Byrth Kernow: Bards of the Gorsedd of Cornwall 1928-1967, Penzance, 1967.
2. ^ History of MK - the 50s and 60s (Accessed 24 March 2008)
3. ^ The Cornish Language and Its Literature By Peter Berresford Ellis, p.172 (Accessed on Google Books 24 March 2008).