William James Tatem, 1st Baron Glanely (6 March 1868 – 28 June 1942), known as Sir William Tatem, Bt, between 1916 and 1918, was a Cardiff ship-owner and thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder.
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Tatem was born in Appledore, North Devon from where he originally went to sea. He moved to Cardiff at the age of 18 and began work at the shipping offices of Anning Brothers. In 1897 he founded the Lady Lewis Steamship Company with a ship of that name and in 1910 this became the Tatem Steam Ship Company. He was a benefactor of Cardiff University Cardiff and donated the money to build the 1904 Chemistry and Physics block. He was created a Baronet in 1916 and raised to the peerage as Baron Glanely, of St. Fagans in the County of Glamorgan, in 1918.[1]
During the Spanish Civil War Glanely was part of widespread Welsh support for the Spanish Republic.[2] In 1937 he helped the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief to open a home at Cambria House, Caerleon for 50 Basque child refugees.[3] He let the Basque Government charter his two oldest steamships, SS Molton and SS Pilton, to bring Republican refugees out of the Republican-held part of northern Spain,[4] which was encircled by insurgent forces. On 14 July Molton tried to enter Republican-held Santander but the insurgent cruiser Almirante Cervera captured her and an insurgent armed trawler took Molton to Bilbao, which by then had fallen to the insurgents.[4] Pilton was more successful, firstly carrying many refugees out of Santander, and then on 27 July 1937 bringing refugees from Avilés to France.[5]
In the interwar period he was one of the leading owners in British flat racing. He bought the Lagrange stables at Newmarket in 1919 and maintained it until it was requisitioned by the British Army in 1939. He was British flat racing Champion Owner in 1919 and 1941, and was elected to the Jockey Club in 1929. His racing colours were black jacket, red, white and blue belt and cap.
His horses won six British Classic Races:
Lord Glanely was killed in an air-raid in Weston-super-Mare in 1942, aged 74, when his titles became extinct.
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New creation | Baron Glanely 1918–1942 |
Extinct |