William Price (physician)

William Price (physician)

William Price (4 March 1800 – 23 January 1893) was a Welsh physician who achieved notoriety for his support of Welsh nationalism, Chartism and his involvement with the Neo-Druidic religious movement. He has been recognised as one of the most significant figures in 19th century Welsh history, as well as being one of the most unusual in Victorian Britain.

Born into a relatively low class household in Monmouthshire, Wales, he subsequently trained as a doctor in London before returning to his homeland, where he became interested in the socialist ideas of the Chartists, a working class movement who were proposing the concept of equal democratic rights for all men. Escaping to France to avoid a government persecution of the Chartists following their failed uprising in 1839, it was whilst in the country that he became convinced that an ancient prophecy indicated that he would liberate his country from English domination.

Upon returning to Wales he tried to revive what he saw as the religion of the ancient druids, the priests of the "Celtic" Iron Age peoples of western Europe. In doing so, he became one of the most prominent proponents of the Neo-Druidic movement, something that had been developing since the Welsh nationalist Iolo Morganwg's activities in the late 18th century. After cremating the body of his dead son in 1884, Price was arrested and put on trial by those who believed cremation was illegal in Britain; however, he successfully argued that there was no legislation that specifically outlawed it, which paved the way for the Cremation Act of 1902. When he subsequently died, he too was cremated in a ceremony watched by 20,000 onlookers.

Known for adhering to such principles as equal democratic rights for all men, vegetarianism, cremation and the abolition of marriage, all of which were highly controversial at the time, he has been widely labelled as an "eccentric" and a "radical". Since his death he has been remembered as "one of the great Welshman of all time" with a permanent exhibition and statue dedicated to him being opened in the town of Llantrisant, where he had lived for much of his later life.