The Cymru Fydd movement was founded in 1886 by some of the London and Liverpool Welsh. Some of its main leaders included David Lloyd George (later Prime Minister), J. E. Lloyd, O. M. Edwards, T. E. Ellis (leader, MP for Merioneth, 1886–1899), Beriah Gwynfe Evans and Alfred Thomas. Initially it was a purely London-based society, later expanding to cities in England with a large Welsh population.
The founders of Cymru Fydd were influenced by William Ewart Gladstone, who himself lived in Hawarden, Wales, and the nationalist movement in Ireland, although the movement also drew upon other ideas, including a sense of imperial mission as preached by John Ruskin and a programme of social and political reform promoted by Robert Owen, Arnold Toynbee and the Fabian Society.