Author: Rheolwr Gwefan

TRANSLATED TRIBUTE TO JUDGE PHILIP RICHARDS (1946-2025)

At his Funeral at Thornhill Crematorium, Cardiff, October 8, 2025

This is a task that I – and others taking part in today’s proceedings – did not seek and do not relish. It has been thrust upon us by recent events. The same can be said of everyone present this afternoon: we would prefer not to be attending the funeral of our friend, Philip Richards, and that he was still brilliant, bright and breezy among us – albeit of mature years. Yet we are where we are, and gather today to remember him; to share our knowledge of him – and, above all, to celebrate his life among us.

Others – in particular members of his immediate family – will speak of the Phil they knew and loved. I speak as one of Phil’s many friends and, if I may be so bold, on behalf of others also. In doing so, there may be points of overlap between us; but my aim is to avoid too many of these by speaking of the Phil I knew : an exceptionally good and loyal friend across almost 60 years between March 1966 (when I first met him at a political rally at Aberdare) and July this year when I and four friends last visited him at The Waverley Care Home,  Penarth shortly before his 79th birthday. I should add also that he was Best Man at my marriage in 1980!

I begin these remarks in English by way of introduction. With your indulgence, I shall continue and finish in Welsh : a language Phil loved, learned and ‘made legal’. Indeed, if his accomplishment in the Welsh language was good enough for the Lord Chancellor of England & Wales to appoint him chair of the Standing Committee on the Use of Welsh in the Courts of Wales, and for Phil to hear Crown Court cases in Welsh, it would be most odd not to acknowledge in our own language such an important aspect of his life & work.

*  *  *  *  *

The greatest strict-metre poet of the late 20C in Welsh, Gerallt Lloyd Owen, wrote an ode (awdl) entitled ‘Afon’ (‘River’). It won him the Chair at the National Eisteddfod in 1975. In it, Owen describes his childhood recollection of playing on the banks of a river and depicts that river as a symbol of life itself. He says:

                Fy nyddiau, afon oeddynt,   
                mân donnau fu oriau’r hynt.       
                Aethant fel breuddwyd neithiwr                      
                or a leaf sweep on the surface of water.

               My days were as a river,
               my hours like small, swift waves.
               They went by like last night’s dream,
               with the haste of leaves on water.

All of our lives might be depicted so. Phil’s life, too, was as a river : fed by the streams of his various hinterlands : his upbringing;  education; intellect; formative friendships; family life; career experience and health.

 In the Welsh remarks that follow, I shall touch on each of these – hopefully in a way that won’t impinge on the comments of others. I shall conclude with a praise-poem for Phil written in the traditional cywydd metre, dressed in cynghanedd : a system of rhyme, rhythm and assonance that binds the sense of a poem with what an American observer once called “probably the most complex system of prosody in the world”. (Just don’t try to translate the strict-metres of Welsh poetic tradition using GoogleTranslate : they’re too complex for  even A.I. to master as things stand!).

The cywydd metre was – and still is – at the heart of a long Welsh tradition that has praised great and worthy people since at least the beginning of the 13C. Our late friend, Philip Richards, is more than worthy of my humble effort to place him within that tradition.

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

[The original text is in Welsh from this point on]:

Phil was born at Nottingham in 1946, in the wake of the Second World War, as his parents lived away from home due to the effects of the conflict that had just ended. Phil was never entirely comfortable with this fact (though he wore it lightly enough, of course). In that respect, he was in good company in the Welsh political world of which he would eventually be a part, since exactly the same could be said of David Loyd George (born in Manchester); Saunders Lewis (Liverpool); Emrys Roberts (Leamington Spa ) and Dafydd Wigley (Derby)!

Within a short time, the family returned to Wales on the appointment of Phil’s father as a History and English teacher in Cardiff. His mother was also a teacher, specialising in teaching English in the secondary sector. Phil went to Cardiff High School, and from there to Bristol University to study Law. He graduated in 1968.

From Bristol he went to London for a time and sat Bar exams at the Inner Temple in 1969. He then did a pupilage with Judge Dewi Watkin Powell – a patriotic lawyer who had a lasting influence on him. While in London – at an event organised by Plaid Cymru – Phil met Dorothy George of Llanbradach. Soon, the two returned to Cardiff and married in 1971. Rhuanedd was born in 1974 and Lowri in 1978. Eventually, Phil became a member of the largest barristers’ chambers in Wales at Park Place, Cardiff. He had a successful career as a barrister until appointed a Crown Court judge in 2001: a position he held until his retirement in 2016.

Phil was always a man of broad interests. There isn’t time now to detail them all; but we can mention literature; all kinds of music – from classical to blues and rock-and-roll); people; travel; languages; history and family history; sport and – on a more serious level – the state of the society of which he was a part and, of course, politics. However, most of these must now be put aside to focus on the field in which I knew him best, politics.

I first met Phil in 1966 when he came to Aberdare as a twenty-year-old student to speak for the Plaid Cymru candidate in that year’s general election. I was an eighteen-year-old Form Six student standing for Plaid Cymru in the mock-election held at Aberdare Boys’ Grammar School the same year. That was the start of a friendship between us that continued unabated until his decease.

Phil’s own political career began when he stood as a Plaid Cymru candidate in local elections in Cardiff in 1971. He then stood as the Plaid candidate for Westminster in Cardiff North in both general elections of 1974 (February and October).

Following Gwynfor Evans’ historic victory in the Carmarthen by-election in 1966, there was much stirring in some of the constituencies of the south Wales valleys in favour of Plaid Cymru. The constituencies of Caerphilly, Rhondda West and Merthyr are normally mentioned; but the same was true of the Cynon Valley. There, in 1970, the Plaid candidate received 11,431 votes and 30% of the total vote. In the 1974 general election, its candidate scored nearly 12,000 votes (11,973 : 30% of the total) in February, and 8,133 votes (21% of the total) in October. Therefore, the Aberdare constituency (‘Cynon Valley’ as it was to become) was fertile ground for Plaid Cymru, especially given that the local council had a large group of councillors as the centre of a strong campaign.

Thus, in 1975, Phil was invited to be the Plaid candidate there: an invitation that was accepted and which saw his young family move to Mountain Ash and then Cwmaman. Soon afterwards, Phil asked me to be his agent; but I was by then working for the Party centrally myself, and felt I would not have the time needed to devote to the post. In due course, the late councillor Aubrey Thomas, Penrhiwceiber, became his agent in the 1979 general election.

To date, I have not said a great deal in public about the turmoil of the years between 1975 and the 1979 election, and don’t intend to go into too much detail today. Suffice to say that Phil was not given fair play by everyone in the constituency as the previous parliamentary candidate felt he should remain in that role. Less than half of the local party agreed; but a bitter and personal campaign was launched to undermine Phil. Years of arguing and squabbling in public ensued between the two factions: one for Phil, the other not. The result, of course, was a huge drop in the Plaid vote at the 1979 election (though we kept our deposit with 10% of the total vote). No candidate – even St. David – would have been able to prevent such a collapse in such circumstances; and I and others felt angry and ashamed that Phil had had to face such a betrayal.

One of the few who came out of the episode with honour was Phil. In a response typical of him, he did not respond to those who had undermined him in the same way they had acted towards him. He didn’t get angry; he didn’t flinch; he didn’t insult anyone. On the contrary, he threw himself into constituency work before and after the election and put down roots in the area which would eventually bring him a far better political result.

During this time, he joined Mountain Ash RFC and became the club’s popular President for many years, He was Chair of Cynon-Taf Housing Association and chairman of Governors at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydyfelen at a turbulent time in its history. He helped and advised ‘RHAG’ (Parents for Welsh-medium Education) locally and at county-level. He campaigned for a new hospital and campaigned passionately for the miners and their families who went on strike for many months in 1984-85. The Shepherd’s Arms, Cwmaman became a refuge for him; and often, in sharing a drink there, I marvelled at his ability to get along naturally with the most ordinary of people, despite being a senior barrister and prospective judge. Not everyone (by far) would want – or be able – to do that. The basis of this talent, of course, was his natural good nature, and the fact that there wasn’t a pretentious bone in his body.

His dedication and ability as a public speaker during this period was a means of restoring Plaid’s credibility in the constituency. Indeed, his commitment and affability did much to win the respect of those who were his political opponents from a partisan point of view. He cultivated personal friendships with various councillors and members of the Labour Party; and I can honestly say that I never heard of any of them attack him personally. Quite the opposite!

Often, a politician has to pay a price for leading such a demanding life, and in the late 1980s Phil and Dorothy’s marriage came to an end – though they still respected each other and loved their two daughters unconditionally. Yet the period between 1988 and 1991 was difficult for Phil, it’s fair to say – until he embarked on a new phase in his life in 1991 when he met Julia. This led to their marriage in 1994 and the birth of Megan in 1995. He also had through this marriage a stepson, David, of whom he was very fond, thereby completing his closest family until the arrival of seven grandchildren!

But, there was still too much of that old political ‘itch’ lurking within Phil; and with the prospect of a National Assembly for Wales on the horizon in 1997, he wanted to make one more bid to be elected to that new body.

Following the May 1997 general election, a referendum was held in September of the same year on the establishment of a National Assembly for Wales. It was won by a few thousand; but, as they say, “‘one’ is enough in a democracy” and an Assembly – or ‘Senedd Cymru’ as it is today – was created.

This partly realised a dream that Phil had had since his youth. So, his wish to stand for the new body was hardly surprising. He did so in the Cynon Valley in March, 1999, winning 9,206 votes (42.5% of the total vote): just 677 votes behind the Labour candidate (who received 45.6% of the overall vote). This was Phil’s best election result; and although Julia has described it (understandably in terms of her family) as being “too close for comfort“, I’m sure she’ll forgive me for saying that this narrow loss was a huge loss for Cwm Cynon.

That was the end of Phil’s political campaigning. From then on, he put his shoulder to the wheel of his legal career and became head of chambers and, in 2001, a Crown Court judge with particular responsibility for advising on the use of the Welsh language within the legal system in Wales. He served as a judge for fifteen years until retirement in 2016 at the age of 70. That same year, he was honoured at Abergavenny by being made a member of the Gorsedd for his service to the Welsh language in the worlds of law and education.

The sunset of his health came far too quickly thereafter. In February 2017, he was initially diagnosed with the illness that eventually overcame him. By 2019, things had become so much worse that his family and friends had repeated cause for concern about his personal safety. The end result was that, in 2021, he had to live in care in Cardiff and then Penarth.

His family faithfully visited him there. Also, a group of some of his old political friends (David Evans, Dafydd Williams, Marc Phillips, Helen Mary Jones and myself) – visited him regularly, thereby continuing our habit of meeting from time to time for lunch and conversation – with Phil at the heart of it all. Such visits were not easy and sometimes challenging; but we are extremely glad we kept going. Phil, our friend, deserved no less than that.

The last time we visited him was on the 16th of July, about two weeks before his 79th birthday. Usually, it was an effort during the first half of the hour we had with him to elicit a response; but there would sometimes be a glimmer of recognition during the second half-hour : especially as we sang to the accompaniment of Dafydd Williams’ banjo! Phil opened his eyes that particular day and started smiling at us. At the end of the hour, we went, one by one, to say goodbye to him for the time being. When my turn came towards the end, he grabbed my hand until I couldn’t easily pull it away – and I didn’t have the heart to do so purposefully. So it was until I explained to the others – and before HMJ gave him another big kiss on his forehead. That alone made him release his grip.

That’s how our sixty-year friendship ended. I will not forget it; but the thing that kept us going that day was that Phil understood – if not exactly who we were – that we were friends of his, and that thought the world of him.

Thank you for listening. I conclude with the poem of praise “In memory of Judge Philip Richards” : a great man in the Wales of his time if ever there was one.

David Leslie Davies

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Tribute in the Senedd to Phil Richards by Rhys ab Owain. 24 September 2025

Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. Another 932 votes and Phil Richards would have become a Member in this Chamber in 1999 as the first Member for the Cynon Valley. This loss to Welsh politics was a boon for the justice system of our country. Like many prominent nationalists of the time, Phil was not born in Wales, but place of birth does not determine nationality, and Phil was consumed with passion for Wales and the Welsh language.

My father and Phil were unique in Plaid Cymru in Cardiff at the start of the 1960s. They weren’t Welsh-speaking chapelgoers, and some were quite suspicious of these two rebels, but they both threw themselves into the task of campaigning in Cardiff, often in difficult circumstances, and then Phil moved to the Cynon valley years before the 1979 general election to stand in that very difficult election. Phil Richards wasn’t a parachute candidate.

He used his legal skills to assist the party in the 1970s and the 1990s. These were key periods in the history of devolution. Phil threw himself into normalising the Welsh language in our courts. He would encourage witnesses to give their evidence in their first language, and I took many cases through the medium of Welsh before Phil. The Welsh learner became a Welsh language liaison judge, promoting the language on every occasion.

Phil also became a member of the Gorsedd as Phil Pennar. Dad and Phil were in the same care home for a while, and although these two old friends didn’t recognise each other because of their cruel illness, it brought us some comfort that those two old friends were together, and every time we saw Phil, he was still smiling. Wales has lost a giant of a man, a giant short in stature, perhaps, but a giant nonetheless. Thank you.