Aberystwyth Pacifists ~ Part Three

Waldo Goronwy Williams (1904 – 1971)

If you travel around various towns and cities in Wales, you are sure to see round blue plaques affixed to building walls, many of which are dedicated to Waldo Williams – it’s as if everyone wants to acknowledge his time with them, no matter how short. A far cry from the recognition gained by either T. Gwynn Jones or Thomas Parry-Williams!

Aberystwyth is one of these towns. The blue plaque below reads: “Here the poet, pacifist, Quaker, and patriot lived from 1923 - 1927 when he was a student”, and references his connection to Idwal Jones. 

Blue plaque to Waldo Williams and Idwal Jones in Aberystwyth affixed to the house in which Waldo lived as a student. Photo: R. Bertz

Waldo’s connection (apparently it is usual to refer to him by his first name) to Aberystwyth has two brief chapters, but his firm belief in pacifism was life long. Waldo’s life is well-documented with a reverence awarded similar to that of mystics and magicians. Born in Haverfordwest in 1904, Waldo only learned Welsh once his family moved to Mynachlog-ddu in Preseli in 1911, and from then on he expressed his heart through the medium of Welsh, reserving English for his satirical and humorous writings.

During his childhood he was exposed to various family discussions about socialism and pacifism; his father used to read poetry to Waldo’s mother and Waldo, towards the end of his life, remembered his father reading an anti-war poem by T.E. Nicholas, Gweriniaeth a Rhyfel (Republicanism and War), in 1916.

The Peacemakers was written by Waldo in 1941 – the same year he married Linda Llewellyn and officially registered as a conscientious objector. I was introduced to this translation during one of my Welsh mentor sessions – it is from a biography of Waldo written by Alan Llwyd (Gomer Press, 2010). Here is an excerpt:

The Peacemakers/ Y Tangnefeddwyr

Rose-red sky above the snow
Where bombed Swansea is alight,
Full of my father and mother I go,
I walk home in the night.
They are blest beyond hearing,
Peacemakers, children of God.

What is their estate tonight,
Tonight, with the world ablaze?
Truth is with my father yet,
Mother with forgiveness stays.
The age will be blest that hears them,
Peacemakers, children of God.

More like T. Gwynn Jones than Thomas Parry-Williams, Waldo was a somewhat rebellious pacifist – he was incarcerated twice because of his refusal to pay tax during the Korean War and his stand against war and exploitation came from his feeling that “we were living by killing and devouring. It was endemic within us, and a poison to us all.” And yet, in his poems it is clear that he believes in the inherent nature of good and that one day this goodness would unite ‘the families’ of the world.

In 1941, he could see Swansea in flames after the German bombing, and was moved to write The Peacemakers in order to convey that in the midst of the mayhem and destruction of WWII, peacemakers are the children of God. This inspired the title of a wonderful drawing including Waldo, by artist Aneurin Jones.

But what of Waldo’s connection with Aberystwyth...?

In September 2021, the Department of Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystywth University launched a bursary, funded by Waldo’s family, to aid two or more students (annually) with their learning of Welsh. To gain the award, it is necessary to write an essay with a focus on Waldo and/or the subject of pacifism. 

Between 1923 and 1927, Waldo was himself a student at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth – studying English before undertaking a teacher training course. During this time he formed a close friendship with dramatist, Idwal Jones – renowned for his sense of mischief and delightful humour. They shared lodgings together in a house on Cambrian Street. Given the age difference (Jones was born in 1897 in Aberystwyth and seems to have remained there throughout his life), it is likely that Jones owned the house, which now sports the blue plaque in their honour.

Waldo was a social creature who figured prominently in student life on campus – he was an editor of The Dragon, the same student magazine to which both T. Gwynn Jones and T. H. Parry-Williams contributed. He is also mentioned in the Welsh Gazette as a frequent participant in open debates – with themes including"'trade unions are a menace" and “that the doctrine of class war is detrimental to the best interests of the community.”

It appears Waldo was more effective in his debates than in his studies, although he graduated on 22 July 1926. His frequent appearances in Welsh newspapers show him in good company: he is mentioned as a participant in a 1924 discussion about the ‘late’ government – referring to the Conservative party loss in December 1923, leading to the first Labour government in Britain. On the same page, T. Gwynn Jones advocates for separate Welsh government while the League of Nations Union advertises an upcoming talk on the “Method of Peacemaking”.

 After leaving Aberystwyth the first time, Waldo taught in Pembrokeshire and regularly competed with his two good friends, Wil Glynsaithmaen (W.R. Evans)  and Ernie Lan (Rev. E. Llwyd Williams) in the Eisteddfodau – the trio were often referred to as three legs of the tripod. He was a firm believer in meditation and that it heightened his belief in pacifism. Since he didn’t own a car, he was a frequent sight on a bicycle on the country roads.

Although he was too old to be conscripted for the Second World War, Waldo registered as a conscientious objector to make a point; however, because he believed he would lose his job as a result, he left his temporary post as headmaster of Puncheston (Cas-mael) School soon after marrying Linda in 1941, and  moved to Pwllheli to teach at Botwnnog School. He was the adjudicator for the Solva Eisteddfod in 1943. Sadly, Linda died of TB the same year and Waldo spent most of the next five years teaching near Cambridge and Swindon in England.

In 1946, Waldo wrote Preseli as a direct response to the proposal put forward to use the Preseli hills as a permanent military exercise range. “To the wall! We must keep our well clear of this beast’s dirt” became a rallying cry to protect the environment and the Welsh identity from being defiled in any way. Waldo’s use of landscape to convey an anti-war message was not limited to Preseli or The Peacemakers. 

 

Carreg Waldo in the Preseli Hills, Pembrokeshire Photo: R. Bertz, plaque in public domain

The Second World War inspired a great welling up of creativity for Waldo. While poems composed prior to 1938 were mainly light-hearted (his children’s poetry book was published in 1936 with friend E. Llwyd Williams), the long strict-metre poem Y Tŵr a’r Graig (The Tower and the Rock) of 1938 was a turning point. This poem was written directly in response to conscription and used imagery drawn from Pembrokeshire to compare the militaristic state with the sense of independence still felt by the common people of the land.  

It is no wonder that the most evocative memorial to Waldo took the form of a large standing stone with a plaque (which necessitated an explanatory plaque due to the number of visitors who believed the stone commemorated an extremely old welsh pony – I believe this misinterpretation would have delighted Waldo.)

Waldo returned to Pembrokeshire in 1951, coming back to Aberystwyth in 1953, to lecture in the Extra Mural Department on and off for the next decade. During this time, he was not based in Aberystwyth. Instead, he lived a nomadic existence in various lodging houses all over the country. The bailiffs caught up with him during a stay near Milford Haven, which was where he was also introduced to and joined the Quakers.

It is during this period that his pacifism had serious consequences – his possessions were seized by bailiffs in lieu of tax debts to theh Inland Revenue, and he endured two stints in jail.  Even in prison, he found the peaceful path – he was given a job in the garden, and found a sense of comradeship with other inmates, who described him as a good man; a man who led by example. 

 

Waldo in the early 1960s, part of the Julian Sheppard collection Source: National Library of Wales

 

The most recent link between Aberystwyth and Waldo is the appointment of Eisteddfod-Chaired poet Mererid Hopwood as Professor of Welsh and Celtic Studies. Dr Hopwood is one of the honorary presidents of the Cymdeithas Waldo Society, which has a tri-partate mission to sustain the memory of Waldo, promote his contribution to the literature and culture of Wales, and to appreciate and promote his contribution to pacifism.

His enduring sense of peace came from the people of Preseli – where he saw communities living and benefiting from “the earth’s help with their skill”. The idea that enduring peace comes from treating the earth in a sustainable manner, with respect not greed, is reflected in many of his poems. The acknowledgement of Waldo’s reputation is clear in the title of the biography by Alan Llwyd - Stori Waldo Williams Bardd Heddwch/ The Story of Waldo Williams Poet of Peace.

 

Cover of the Waldo Williams biography Source: ABEBooks

There is a Welsh word ‘awen’ which doesn’t translate into English very well. It is close to ‘spirit’ or ‘life force’, or 'muse'. According to Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, awen is a merging of the imaginative force with primordial energy, and in his lecture ‘Poetry and Peacemaking’ based on the poems of Waldo, he expressed a belief that awen, as part of Waldo’s wisdom, turned poetry into an act of peacemaking by being a form of reconciliation above political agenda.

In 2021, to mark the 50th anniversary of Waldo Williams’ death on 20 May - in a reflection of his single published volume of adult poetry – Dail Pren (Tree Leaves) - the public was encouraged to hang a line of Waldo poetry in a tree.  Like the Bob Dylan song, it was hoped that the wide assortment of poetical leaves would be blowing in the wind all over Wales and beyond.

“How many deaths will it take ‘til [one man] knows that too many people have died?”

To bring this full circle back to The Peacemakers, and hear a beautiful and rousing performance of the poem Y Tangnefeddwyr by Côr Llanddarog (Llanddarog & District Choir), please follow this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN4qaJbPCwg   

Dove of Peace (former bell tower for Siloh Chapel, Aberystwyth) Photo: R. Bertz

Blog by Rasma Bertz

 Sources:

 BENNETT, G. 2014. What’s the Context? 22 January 1924: Britain’s first Labour government takes office. History of Government  22 January 2014 [Online]. Available from: https://history.blog.gov.uk/2014/01/22/whats-the-context-britains-first-labour-government-takes-office-22-january-1924/.

CRITCHLEY, P. 2018. In the World of Waldo Williams. Being and Place  25 January 2018 [Online]. Available from: https://pcritchley2.wixsite.com/beingandplace/post/2018/01/25/in-the-world-of-waldo-williams.

CYMDEITHAS WALDO SOCIETY. (2010). Waldo [Online]. Available: http://www.waldowilliams.com/?page_id=36&lang=en [Accessed 13 March 2022].

CYMDEITHAS WALDO SOCIETY. (2021). Poems blowing in the wind to remember Waldo Williams. Llenyddiaeth Cymru Literature Wales [Online]. Available at: https://www.literaturewales.org/lw-news/poems-blowing-in-the-wind-to-remember-waldo-williams/ [Accessed 13 March 2022].

PRIFYSGOL ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY. (2021). Aberystwyth University Launches Waldo Williams Bursary [Online]. Aberystwyth: Aberystwyth University Available: https://menter.aber.ac.uk/en/news/archive/2021/09/title-247542-en.html [Accessed 13 March 2022].

RHYS, R. (2017). WILLIAMS, WALDO GORONWY (1904-1971) [Online]. Aberystwyth: Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Available: https://biography.wales/article/s11-WILL-WAL-1904#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=13&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F4635361%2Fmanifest.json&xywh=28%2C735%2C3918%2C3381 [Accessed 13 March 2022].

WELSH ICONS NEWS. (2022). Waldo Williams [Online]. Available: https://welshicons.org/cymrupedia/writers/waldo-williams/ [Accessed 14 March 2022].

 

Aberystwyth Pacifists ~ Part Two

 Thomas Herbert Parry Williams (1887 – 1975)

 

T.H. Parry-Williams inspecting his beloved pear tree at his home ‘Wern’ on North Road, Aberystwyth. Photo: Julian Sheppard - creative commons license from National Library Wales

 

Also an ardent conscientious objector, Thomas Herbert Parry-Williams was equally horrified by war and prominent in promoting an alternative vision of war in his poetry and essays. His post-WWI poems reflect the anguish of this time, many of them dealing with issues of mental health.  This became the focus of an award winning biography about the bard, called “The Price of Conscience: TH Parry Williams and the Shadow of the Great War” by Dr Bleddyn Owen Huws. It is published locally by Y Lolfa.

T.H Parry Williams had gained exemption from WWI by the skin of his teeth at age 28.. The Pwllheli tribunal was well publicised around Aberystwyth leading to verbal attacks on his character and general ostracisation by the town and his academic peers.  After WWI, he was so incensed at not being offered the post of Professor of Welsh at Aberystwyth (which had been vacant since 1914) that he enrolled in a science course and won a scholarship to study medicine at Bart’s in London – which he would have done had he not been awarded the Welsh Chair in 1920. He held this post until 1952.

Like T. Gwynn Jones, his fellow lecturer in Welsh, Parry-Williams was reviled for being a conscientious objector – an experience which profoundly coloured his life. This did not stop him publishing poems in the pacifist journal Y Deyrnas (The Kingdom) started by Thomas Rees in October 1916, as well as in the provocative student magazine Y Wawr (The Dawn), which was closed down by Aberystywth’s college authorities in 1918. 

 

Cover of Y Wawr with T.H. Parry-Williams poem ‘Y Frân, yr Eos a’r Niwl’ (The Crow, the Nightingale & the Mist) and a portrait of the Y Wawr committee members after they had resigned in 1918, with Parry-Williams back row left. Source: Aberystwyth University Archives

Parry-Williams’s poem 'To a Dog'  was published in the college’s main English language publication of the time: The Dragon (Y Ddraig). In it he writes about being shunned by his peers and his resulting need to isolate from them – preferring to spend his time with dogs. This follows from an earlier poem ‘Christmas 1916’  in which he decries the British public for their nerve in singing about peace through carols, while “baying for war for so long”: 

 

A mischievous spirit, in madcap mood,
Frolicked today through the neighbourhood.
As he neared my door, on the Morn of the Birth
I could hear his chuckling and sniggering mirth.
He spat his sarcasm through the hole, -
‘On earth, Peace!’ and away he stole.

The influence of Y Deyrnas was felt throughout the pacifist community, and in the three years of its publication, conscientious objectors were able to express their point of view in safety; being subscribers or published also helped convince military tribunals of their right to exemption from conscription, by proving their belief was genuine. 

Y Wawr was stopped after the Secretary of State for the Home Department was asked by a member of the commons about the subversive nature of the magazine using the Welsh language “to debauch the loyalty of the students and to impede the prosecution of the War...”

The Dragon has been recently revived by the students of the Welsh Studies department at Aberystwyth University, now called Y Ddraig, but its original English-language form was always deemed the most innocuous of the three publications making it a perfect platform for Parry-Williams’ more subtle approach to expressing his belief in pacifism. At one time the magazine was edited by Waldo Williams – although Parry-Williams and Waldo were in separate departments and of different generations, one can assume there was some cross-over and a meeting of minds.

The years between 1935 and 1947 were fruitful for Parry-Williams; he made a significant scholarly contribution, which earned him two honorary doctorates. He published three books of poems and essays in 1935, 1937 and 1944, as well as various translations.

When ‘Olion- Ysgrifau a Rhigymau’ was announced in the Western Mail on 29 June 1935, the reviewer – who went by the pen name Mynach Du or Black Monk – devoted a section to the poet’s desire for unity: “In the poetry there is also the same...sorrowful consciousness as is experienced with the loss of loved ones. Also, the same fascination with the duality of things and the desire for unity and oneness.”

In 1942, the Liverpool Post's announcement was completely different. WWII was underway and the Welsh Book Club provided a moment of calm embedded in a snapshot of the reality as it was taking place on 31 August by focusing on Parry-Williams’ other major stylistic focus – the evocative nature of the mountains, particularly Snowdon. 

 

Lyndhurst on North Road, T.H.Parry-Williams’ home in 1939 Photo: R. Bertz

 

 

 

I looked at the 1939 Register through Find my Past. It shows Thomas H Parry-Williams living at ‘Lyndhurst’ on North Road, Aberystwyth, with a widowed housekeeper named Esther Morgan. She is listed as the main householder, suggesting Parry-Williams, whose occupation is recorded as “University professor (Welsh)”, was a lodger of Mrs Morgan. According to his biographer, Dr Huws, Parry-Williams was still courting a medical doctor from Trawsfynydd at this time.

In 1942, Parry-Williams married one of his former students, Emiah (Amy) J. Thomas in Haverfordwest and they moved into a house just down the way from ‘Lyndhurst’, also on North Road, called ‘Wern’. Amy’s special interest in Welsh folk traditions was a perfect fit with her husband’s poetry, expressed in song and her own writings. She was also an active broadcaster and one of the early directors for HTV, a Welsh TV company. It is my belief that she provided the balance Parry-Williams required to keep going in a disintegrating world. 

Emiah (Amy) Parry-Williams and her husband Thomas in their back garden on North Road with a pet tortoise. Photo: Julian Sheppard - creative commons license from National Library Wales

During WWII, Parry-Williams was a member of the Red Cross ambulance, and in doing the classes and working with the Red Cross, he not only fulfilled his need to help others during a time of great helplessness (as well as the government’s expectations of conscientious objectors during this war), but also his interest in medical work – left incomplete after his brief time at Bart’s.

Apparently, his interest was strong enough that he used to watch operations in the Aberystwyth Infirmary (just up the hill from both his addresses on North Road) during the '30s and '40s. Perhaps this is where Parry-Williams realised that something broken cannot mend as it was originally.

Parry-Williams’ book of essays ‘O’r Pedwar Gwynt’ (From the Four Winds), published in 1944, has sparked a philosophical newspaper of the same name. One of the articles published in this Welsh language paper compares the freedom experienced when smashing crockery (Opa! as the Greeks say) with the irresponsibility of destruction on a global scale, like war. The author, Sioned Rowlands – a Parry-Williams scholar married to a Greek – finds this freedom hard to reconcile and aligns with the worry Parry-Williams suffered in relation to war which breaks countries and communities apart.  

She uses a quote from his writing: “... something that can never be fully integrated or made as before...a different thrill – a short burst of hopelessness – will be experienced when looking at the disaster [aftermath]... [but] mixed with that is a sense of irresponsibility, which is always pleasurable because man is free ...” While destruction is kept at arm’s length, a collective breath can be held, and there is “hope to wake up alive again”. She ends with Parry-Williams’ request for a breath of the East Wind  “to live for a time, and a life: the same love, the same fear, the same death...”

His love of medicine, and its attempt to make things whole again, or at least to functionally repair them, is possibly explained in this request. But better far, to avoid the breakage in the first place, which encapsulates the point of his being a conscientious objector.

Parry-Williams continued to adjudicate the poetry classes in the Eisteddfodau held during WWII. He is affectionately (or perhaps disrespectfully) referred to as Tom Parry in the award ceremony listing!

Perhaps because of his recent marriage to Amy, Parry-Williams also took to the radio – his programmes were publicised in both Welsh and English language newspapers from 1945 onwards, where he was part of “Munudau gyda’r Beirdd”, a sequence of interviews with prominent poets. This would have provided another platform for him to express, in the most subtle of ways, his ardent desire for unity and the absence of war.

As a musician, I find it interesting that the first post-war mention of Parry-Williams in the local news comes with a performance of Gounod’s opera ‘Faust’ at the King’s Hall, Aberystwyth on 11 March 1946. This is the first Welsh language production of the opera, with a translation provided by Parry-Williams, which he would have been working on during the latter part of WWII. The synopsis, in a nutshell, is the story of an aging scholar (Faust) who has given up on hope and faith and begs infernal guidance, therefore learning the hard lesson of the consequences of his actions when he enters into a contract with Mephistopheles – giving over his soul to Hell.

In Parry-Williams eyes, war was hell and the ultimate consequence of actions and decisions made without proper foresight. Easy for us to look back on, as we do in history classes, with 20/20 hindsight, but are we on this cusp once again?

Much of Parry-Williams’ public recognition came after the second world war. Ironically, his knighthood, awarded 15 July 1958, is listed under the heading of Military Record. The snapshot biography describes him as “Welsh poet; twice achieved the “double” of Chair and Crown at the National Eisteddfod; Professor of Welsh at University College of Wales 1920-1952 and then Emeritus.”

What it could not include at the time was his honorary doctorate awarded by the University of Wales in 1960, or his honorary fellowship as alumnus of Jesus College, Oxford which was awarded in 1968. He died in Aberystwyth in 1975, at ‘Wern’, his home on North Road, with its view over the rooftops to the castle, war memorial, the college where he worked for so long, and the sea, after living a very full, but slightly introverted life, never wavering from his opinion that war is wrong. 

T.H. Parry-Williams’ home on North Road. Photo: R. Bertz

 

Blog by Rasma Bertz

 

Additional sources: 

 DAVIES, N. (2019). Conscientious Objectors (part 2) [Online]. Aberystwyth: Aberystwyth at War 1914-1919. Available: https://aberystwyth-at-war.blogspot.com/2019/03/in-early-1916-act-of-parliament-knownas.html [Accessed 11 March 2022].

GOLWYG CYF. (2021). Gwobr arbennig i gofiant T H Parry-Williams [Online]. Aberystwyth: Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru, . Available: https://golwg.360.cymru/celfyddydau/llen/555857-gwobr-arbennig-gofiant-parry-williams [Accessed 7 September 2021].

HANSARD — UK PARLIAMENT. (1918). Defense of the Realm Regulations — Aberystwyth College Magazine [Online]. London: House of Commons. Available: https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1918/jan/24/aberystwyth-college-magazine [Accessed 11 March 2022].

NATIONAL ARCHIVES. (2022). Conscientious Objectors Research Guide [Online]. London: National Archives. Available: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/conscientious-objectors/ [Accessed 15/11/2021].

PARRY, C. (2022). Britain, Knights of the Realm & Commonwealth Index: Thomas Herbert Parry-Williams in 1958 [Online]. Find my Past. Available: https://www.findmypast.com/transcript?id=GBOR/KNIGHTS/REALM/024504 [Accessed 11 March 2022].

PRICE, A. (2014). Dictionary of Welsh Biography: PARRY-WILLIAMS, Sir Thomas Herbert (1887-1975), author and scholar. [Online]. National Library of Wales. Available: https://biography.wales/article/s10-PARR-HER-1887#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=21&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F4633672%2Fmanifest.json&xywh=27%2C602%2C4041%2C3487 [Accessed 7 September 2021].

PRIFYSGOL ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY. (n.d.). Y Wawr [Online]. Aberystwyth. Available: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/is/library-services/collections/special-collections/ww1/wawr/ [Accessed 11 March 2022].

ROWLANDS, S. P. (2018). ‘Un Serch sydd, un ofn, un angau’. O’r Pedwar Gwynt [Online]. Available at: https://pedwargwynt.cymru/dadansoddi/y-cofnod1 [Accessed 30 November 2018].

STAFF REPORTER. (n.d.). Darlithydd yn datgelu carwriaeth T H Parry-Williams â meddyg teulu Trawsfynydd. golwg360 [Online]. Available at: https://golwg.360.cymru/newyddion/cymru/532096-datgelu-carwriaeth-parry-williams-meddyg-teulu.

 

Aberystwyth Pacifists ~ Part One

 Perhaps any discussion of war should include the perspective of conscientious objectors –COs or “conchies” as they were commonly termed.  

 

Certificate of Exemption Advert, 1916. Source: First World War – British Conscientious Objectors Project

The right to refuse military service was set up through an exemption scheme under the Military Service Act, 1916. This follows a historical precedent of the 18th century when the British government tried and failed to force Quakers into military service. 

 

“Conscientious Objector” by Edward Ward in recognition of his great-uncle’s service as a stretcher bearer

During WWI, the number of COs was around 16,000 – by WWII, this number was even greater with 61,000 registrations, of which, only 3,000 were given complete exemption, and a further 18,000 were dismissed as being false claims.

Around 7,000 were directed into the Non-Combatant Corps (NCC), which provided service in clothing and food stores, transport, and any military project avoiding “material of an aggressive nature”. In November 1940, members of the NCC were given the choice of bomb disposal (over 350 volunteered for this), while others worked in the medical corps and Ambulance Service, on farms, and in mines or firefighting.

With this in mind, I would like to introduce you to three Welsh bards whose careers spanned both world wars, and who were profoundly affected by the Great War which honed their belief in pacifism, becoming ardent conscientious objectors – a theme that was embedded in their work leading up to and after the Second World War. Aberystwyth is fortunate to be associated to all three.  

My first subject is Thomas Gwynn Jones (1871-1949). 

Mainly self taught as a young man, and during a successful career as a journalist in North Wales, Professor T. Gwynn Jones won the chair at the Bangor national Eisteddfodd in 1902 for “Ymadawiad Arthur” (The Departure of Arthur), and again in 1909 for “Gwlad y Bryniau” (Hill Country) after he came to Aberystwyth to work at the National Library of Wales (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru).  

If you follow the hyperlink, you will come to his entry in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, showing a photo of him sporting an amazing moustache. Another photo shows a more haunted face with a grizzled grey trimmed mouser on his upper lip, taken when Jones was a special guest of the Y Cymro newspaper at the Denbigh Eisteddfod, the year WWII started.

 

Signed photo of T. Gwynn Jones, 'Prif Westai Pabell Awen' Y Cymro, Dinbych, 1939. Source: National Library of Wales Portraits AFF 28/1.

 

Gwlad y Bryniau  includes a section entitled ‘War’, in which a furious battle is described and a story of loss told with a definite lesson that one cannot return to a previous way of life. This theme of a paradise lost was to become a regular motif in Jones’ poetry, both in relation to Welsh independence and the futility of war.  

In 1913, Jones became a lecturer in Welsh Studies at the University College of Wales, just as the world was gearing up for WWI thereby emptying classrooms of bright young students. Hhe received the prestigious Gregynog Chair in Welsh literature in 1919, as Britain was recovering from losing 22% of its population. Aberystwyth’s war memorial (which has been updated to include names of those who lost their lives in WWII) was unveiled in September 1923, saluted by David Lloyd George a month later. One can only speculate how Jones felt about having a memorial to war in his town – even if it was topped by a statue of the Angel of Peace, especially after he felt betrayed by the Prime Minister who led the country through the Great War. 

Aberystwyth War Memorial seen from the castle ruins. Photo: R. Bertz

Jones’ pacifism was tightly linked to his faith in Nonconformist religion, a faith which was badly undermined by his own church minister in the First World War. He walked out of the Tabernacle Chapel on Powell Street in Aberystwyth, when a prayer was offered requesting a British victory, because he realised that Christianity in a war context was using God in order to justify the State’s military actions – an opinion backed by watching David Lloyd Jones (also a Nonconformist and newly elected Prime Minister), use religion and nationality to rally the Welsh troops in World War I.

His former church further disgusted him by installing a war memorial in the grassy area in front of the church, also created by Mario Rutelli and also depicting an Angel of Peace. Because Jones believed in the innate pacifist nature of Jesus as the Prince of Peace, he later wrote: “...those who say they are Christians, followers of Christ, must reject war totally.” His opinion never faltered. 

 

The ‘Rutelli Angel’ returned to the Powell Street site of the former Tabernacle by Ceredigion Museum, showing the additional plaque to those who lost their lives in World War II. Photo: R. Bertz

By 1934, Jones was increasingly disturbed by the looming reality of further carnage. During this time he was pursuing a study of the Llywarch Hen sequence, from various manuscripts held at the National Library, in which the cycle of the utter devastation of war is played out in the warlord’s lament over losing all of his 24 sons during the fierce battles to defend his kingdom. Two of the sons are pacifists; one submits and is killed, the other becomes a monk, but dies heroically saving a young girl from being raped by soldiers.

Llywarch Hen’s declaration that this son should have been born a woman - “and the merciless words / with their sarcastic drawl, rebuked him (Cynddilig) /  for his empty rite / at that time” - echoed Jones’ own agony over his decision to gain exemption from military conscription on medical grounds; he would have preferred to have been given the choice of pleading pacifism. This inspired Jones to write a poem, published a year later, bitterly protesting against war. It highlights the changes in Jones’ bardic style from the hope in the potential return of Arthur in 1902 to the hopeless despair and tragedy of Cynddilig in 1935. 

Photo of the complete cast, from ‘Album presented to Rev. Gwilym Davies - photographs of Peace Pageant on the Aberystwyth Castle Grounds, Wednesday 8 May 1935’, B6/6, National Library of Wales.

It is almost certain that Jones would have been involved in the Aberystwyth and Cardiganshire Peace Pageant of May 1935, as it was organised by members of the town’s CO group of which he was a member. The announcer’s name does not appear to be on record; however, the pageant was divided into three parts, beginning with “Towards Peace” and the following ‘bardic’ declaration:

‘Here, within the mouldering walls of a castle by a soldier king to dominate a people by military force… Here, beside a monument dedicated to the perpetual remembrance of men of our own generation who gave their lives in the belief that their sacrifice was the last of its kind to be demanded of men…

Here, it is dramatically fitting that we should present our Pageant of Peace… ‘through the ages, men and women have challenged the war; insisting that there were better ways to secure justice between men and man, between nation and nation…

To-day, we celebrate and review the efforts of those who have sought the better way, exhorting their fellows through example and precept to ‘seek peace and ensue it.’ (Announcer)

 

T Gwynn Jones retired in 1937, two years before WWII broke out. He was awarded a CBE and two honourary D.Litt degrees from his two favourite universities (Wales and Ireland) but there is very little written about him after this time. He left a legacy of influence on the poets of Wales as well as generations of students, producing Welsh versions of MacBeth and Faust as well as many other translations.

He wrote many novels and plays, a travel book and a book of children’s poetry, many of which were published during the war years, all containing the thread of conscientious objection. His collection of works is kept at Aberystwyth University. He died at his home “Willow Lawn” on Caradoc Road and is buried in Aberystwyth cemetery under a large tombstone simply inscribed with names and dates. 

Tombstone of Thomas Gwynn Jones and his wife, looking up towards the National Library where Jones had worked for so long. Photo: R Bertz

Blog by Rasma Bertz

 

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