Category: Publications

The history of the great poet, T.Gwynn Jones (1871-1949)

Review of the Welsh language biography ‘Byd Gwynn’ by Alan Llwyd

We have good reason to be grateful to the poet and author Alan Llwyd, who was brought up in the Llŷn peninsula and now lives in Morriston.  His awdl, a poem in strict metres on the subject Llif (stream, or flow) ensured that  the chair could be awarded this year, providing a real climax for the successful Llŷn and Eifionydd National Eisteddfod.

By now Alan Llwyd has established himself as one of Wales’ outstanding poets and writers.  His output is astonishing, both in quality and quantity , and includes a number of detailed biographies of Welsh poets, among them T. Gwynn Jones.

Today people remember T. Gwynn Jones as one of the leading poets of the twentieth century but he was much more – for decades a hardworking journalist, novelist, critic and adjudicator as well as a translator and linguist.  And a committed pacifist and a fiery nationalist. 

Alan Llwyd paints a detailed picture of his life from his upbringing in Denbighshire as son of a struggling tenant farmer. Although his family’s straitened circumstances ruled out university, Gwynn’s sheer talent ensured a career as a journalist in Welsh and English newspapers such as the Cymro and the North Wales Times.  But he also contributed substantially to the cultural life of Wales. At the age of 17 he published a poem in Y Faner in support of Welsh people’s fight against being forced to pay tithes to the established Church of England, and from then on he would occupy a key role in the literary life of his country. 

In 1902 he carried off the Eisteddfod Chair with his poem Ymadawiad Arthur, making purposeful use of the complex Welsh mode of cynghanedd to create a special effect; as Alan Llwyd explains, “not throwing consonants idly around without regard to the meaning of the words “.   In this respect, he was very different to many other poets , such as Hwfa Môn and Dyfed; and before long Gwynn would find himself in the middle of a fierce debate about poetic standards.  Critics would accuse him of resurrecting antiquated words that no-one understood, but Gwynn was more than ready to stand his ground and use his jounalistic skills to fight for rasising the standards of the Welsh language and experiment with new measures.

Cynghanedd, according to Gwynn, was the learned term for what ordinary people called a ‘cwlwm’, a knot or link.  As a schoolboy he came to know these links by ear before learning the rules, and coming to love them.

He succeeded in surmounting every obstacle,  moving from his ill-paid journalistic career to become a cataloguer and biographer in the National Library in Aberystwyth, and in 1919 a lecturer, and finally Professor of Welsh Literature in Univerity College, Aberystwyth.  Alan Llwyd also records Gwynn’s marriage and happy family life.

Gwynn became an accomplished linguist and translator in a number of European languages, and especially the Celtic languages.  He had learnt the Breton language before the visit in 1904 of the Celtic Congress to Caernarfon, and Gwynn played an active role as a member of the local organising committee.  Later on he set out to master Irish, seriously considering academic posts in Ireland.

Throughout his life T.Gwynn Jones was a convinced nationalist, but it is interesting to explore exactly what that meant during the course of his life. Gwynn’s father was a keen Liberal: he was forced to leave the farm at which he was tenant because of his opposition to the Tories during th ‘tithe war’ in rural Wales.  The young Gwynn also supported the Liberal cause, enthusiastically so during the period in the 1890s when the Cymru Fydd movement was campaigning for self-government. In 1903, he composed a poem in Welsh praising David Lloyd George, ‘our Dafydd of silver tongue, and a heart of fire’.

Disillusion with the Liberal Party followed the failure of Cymru Fydd and the support of many Liberal leaders for the First World War.  Gwynn was a lifelong convinced pacifist, and was profoundly disappointed by the ‘dogs of war’, politicians and ministers of religion who urged young people to go to their deaths in the slaughter.  As a socialist as well as a fervent nationalist, by 1918 he was attracted to the Labour Party, telling a close friend that he had (like DJ Williams) joined the ILP.

However, there was no question whose side he was on when the Easter Rising took place in Ireland in 1916: if England had the right to fight, then so did Ireland, he said.

In 1923, Gwynn chaired a meeting of the ‘Tair G’ (the three Gs, Y Gymdeithas Genedlaethol Gymreig or The Welsh National Society), one of the meetings that would lead to the formation of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru.  It is not known what was his reaction to the suggestion voiced at that meeting by Saunders Lewis to set up an ‘army’ of volunteers who would conduct military drill – it is unlikely he would have been in favour, and the idea found little support at the time.   Could that be one reason why, curiously,  there is no evidence that this convinced nationalist ever joined the nationalist party launched in 1925.  Indeed, some years later, he would admit that his friendship with one poet had cooled because of the latter’s support for Plaid Cymru.

By 1943 however, Gwynn was prominent among those who nominated Saunders Lewis as Plaid Cymru’s candidate in the University of Wales by-election, even though he was running against W.J. Gruffydd for the Liberal Party.  Gruffydd had been a close friend of Gwynn’s since his youth.

A great poet, and an emotional and complex character, T.Gwynn Jones stands out as a leading figure in the history of Wales, and his story is well worth remembering.

Dafydd Williams

From the Plaid Cymru History Society Newsletter Autum 2023

 

The next three years will be crucially important for refining a model of independence relevant for Wales in today’s world.  In the wake of Brexit, Wales needs to protect its essential connection with the continent of Europe – the source of our values and civilisation, and the context of practical independence for our country. 

Nearly a century ago, the Plaid Cymru leader Saunders Lewis set out a vision of Wales in Europe.  The Plaid Cymru History Society is proud to publish in full the important lecture delivered by Dafydd Wigley during the 2023 Eisteddfod Llŷn ac Eifionydd National Eisteddfod – which shows that this vision is today more relevant than ever.  

Saunders Lewis, Wales and Europe

[In Memory of Emrys Bennett Owen,
who opened my eyes to his vision]

 

I am grateful to the Eisteddfod for being for this forum to re-examine ideas that are highly relevant to this period of time; and to thank Swansea University for inviting to deliver a lecture on the subject of “Saunders Lewis, Wales and Europe”. And today, it is appropriate to remember that it was in Pwllheli during the 1925 Eisteddfod that Saunders Lewis and five others came together to set up Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru, the Welsh National Party.

May I acknowledge my gratitude to the Uwch-Gwyrfai History Society for the opportunity of delivering the first version of this lecture, and pay tribute to the outstanding work of Geraint Jones, Marian Elias, Gina Gwyrfai and Dawi Griffith. And congratulations to Geraint on his gaining the T.H. Parry Williams award; an award he fully merits. Another lecture was presented to the Society last year by Ieuan Wyn, with the title of “Darlith Saunders a’i dylanwad” (Saunders’ lecture and its influence), which is available as a pamphlet – dealing principally with the impact of the radio lecture by Saunders Lewis, Tynged yr Iaith (the destiny of the language).

This morning, I wish to deal with another of Saunders Lewis’s lectures, the electrifying one he gave in Machynlleth in 1926, under the title Egwyddorion Cenedlaetholdeb, or The Principles of Nationalism. To some of you, what I have to say will be neither new nor original; after all, I am a politician, not an author or a historian. But I feel passionately that Saunders Lewis’s vision, interpreting Wales in the context of Europe, is fundamental to the current project of securing an independent Wales; and I want to help the younger generation to appreciate Saunders Lewis’s leadership a century ago.

The next three years, which span the centenary of the lecture, will be crucially important for refining a model of independence that is relevant for this age. Especially so, as we consider – as we have to following Brexit – how Wales can protect its essential connection with the continent of Europe, the source of our values and civilisation, and the indispensable context for practical independence.

We also remember that Saunders was a University lecturer in Swansea between 1921 and 1936, before he paid the price for acting according to his conscience in September 1936 when the Bombing School was burnt, just three miles away from this place. It is good that the University has acknowledged its connection with this hero, in the words of Williams Parry, “the most learned in our midst”. And I thank Professor Daniel Williams for the Seminar he organised in 2011, which marks the 75th anniversary of the dismissal.

It is good also to recall that, earlier this year, an enormous rally calling for independence took place in Swansea, with six thousand in the procession – this at a time when the concept of independence has aroused the interest of over a third of the people of Wales. So it is right for us to consider once again the vision of Saunders Lewis. We don’t have to agree with every word he pronounced; and we have to remember that the Wales of 1926 was a very different place to the country we have today. At that time we did not exist politically: according to the index of Encyclopaedia Britannica, with its arrogant statement – “For Wales: see England”.

There was no Welsh Parliament, no Secretary of State, and no status for the Welsh language. That was the backdrop for Sounder’s revolutionary ideas, in the wake of the most bloody war ever seen by the world; a war where he as a soldier was wounded in the trenches in France; a war which, in name, was fought to protect small nations – but Wales, sadly, was not among them. But now, after four centuries of servility, here was this diminutive, frail man was daring to challenge it all, making Wales an essential part of the European continent, not the back yard of an arrogant and self-satisfied empire.

The Wales we have today would not exist but for the vision of Saunders Lewis: he cannot be ignored. This is evident in recent books, such as the work of Professor Richard Wyn Jones, who demolishes the completely groundless accusations of fascist tendencies by Saunders and Plaid Cymru. It is confirmed by Professor M Wynn Thomas, Swansea, in his volume Eutopia, which assesses the vision of Saunders Lewis. He is critical, in an objective way, but acknowledges that his vision remains “an interesting, brave and intellectually penetrating endeavour to frame a uniquely Welsh analysis of European affairs”. It is therefore appropriate to have a forum to examine the abiding significance of his European vision in this Eisteddfod.

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Throughout the centuries, and during the times of Owain Lawgoch, Owain Glyndŵr, Gruffydd Robert, Richard Price, Emrys ap Iwan and Henry Richard, our link with Europe has been a key element of our identity as a nation. And today, when considering the significance of the European dimension for Wales it is impossible to do that without taking into account the standpoint presented to Plaid Cymru in its early days by its President.

During the period that followed the second world war, there was a tendency to scorn and belittle its political vision and beliefs; partly by Plaid Cymru’s political adversaries; and partly on account of the claim that its values and vision were relevant to another era – an era whose values were very different to those of our time. I shall try and answer that sort of accusation.

Saunders Lewis was just a name to me until I turned on the radio in February 1962. The programme had already begun, and so I was no wiser as to who was speaking. I was entranced by the unfamiliar, thin voice that was saying such great things, things you would never hear on the BBC! Who was talking, and what was the context? Yes, it was the lecture “Tynged yr Iaith” (The Destiny of the Language) – and quite by chance I was listening amazed in my bedroom in Manchester University.

I met Saunders Lewis only three times – the first occasion being at the time of the 1975 referendum 1975 on Britain’s membership of the European Common Market. I went to his home in Penarth in search of consolation at a time when Plaid Cymru – quite incredibly, to me – was campaigning against membership. Like me, he could not believe that the party was so short-sighted. A decade later, I had the unexpected privilege of bearing his coffin, along with Meredydd Evans, Geraint Gruffydd and Dafydd Iwan. I believe I was accorded this privilege because the European dimension is central to my politics, as it was for him; and that I was entranced by his vision of the rightful role of Wales – and the Welsh heritage – within the Europe’s cultural mainstream.

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Saunders Lewis was born in 1893 in Wallasey, near Liverpool, the son of a Methodist Minister. I do not know at what age he became interested in our continent’s culture, but by 1912 he was studying French in Liverpool University; and this proved advantageous for him after he enlisted, as did so many of his fellow-students, in the army in 1914.

Saunders Lewis, at the time of the First World War,
as a subaltern in the South Wales Borderers 

By 1916 he was describing his life fighting in the trenches, but billeted in a French village fifteen miles behind the battlefield. In letters to his girl friend, Margaret Gilcriest, he described the experience of socialising with the local French people; and describing it as much more acceptable than the macho-masculine company of his fellow-soldiers. He wrote of the open and spontaneous nature of French people, and that this was in sharp contrast to the company of those in the trenches.

He says that returning to the front line was like going to another country – having to go back to the middle of Englishness; to English foul language and all the attitudes of “John Bull’s own ways of eating, drinking, and geing generally half a gentleman by effort, and half a Bull by nature and instinct.”  The company of French people, cheerful, open and without malice was quite different to life in the trenches where he had to live what he describes as “the boorish life of an English Squire”. There can be no doubt that these experiences confirmed his feeling that the Welsh had more in common with their cousins on the continent than with the values and attitudes of most of the people of England.

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Saunders Lewis,
President of Plaid Cymru between 1926 and 1939

 

Saunders Lewis, from his early days as the leader of the National Party placed his political beliefs in the context of Europe. He made this quite explicit in his great lecture to the first Plaid Cymru Summer School in Machynlleth in 1926.

In the lecture, “Egwyddorion Cenedlaetholdeb” (The Principles of Nationalism) – and I wish to quote a substantial passage to present it to a new generation – Saunders Lewis says as follows – :

5] “In medieval Europe, no one country …… claimed that its government within its own boundaries was the supreme and only authority. Every nation and every king recognised that there was an authority higher than state authority, that there was a law higher than the king’s law, and that there was a court to which appeal could be made from the State courts.

“That authority was the moral authority, the authority of Christianity. The Christian Church was sovereign in Europe, and Church law was the only final law.

“For a while Europe was one, with every part of it recognising its dependence, every country recognising that it was not free, nor had any right to govern itself as it pleased regardless of other countries. And Europe’s oneness in that age, its oneness in moral principle and under one law, protected the culture of every land and region.

“For one of the profoundest ideas of the Middle Ages, an idea Christianity inherited from the Greeks, was the idea that unity contains variety. There was one law and one civilisation throughout Europe, but that law, that civilisation took on many forms and many colours…..

 “Because there was one law and one authority throughout Europe, Welsh civilisation was safe, and the Welsh language and the special Welsh way of life and society. The idea of independence did not exist in Europe nor the idea of nationalism, and so no-one thought that the civilisation of one part was a threat to that of another, nor that a multiplicity of languages was inimical to unity.”

He goes on to ask:

“What, then, is our nationalism? This, …… a denial of the benefits of political uniformity, and a demonstration of its ill effects, thereby arguing in favour of the principle of unity and variety. Not a fight for Wales’ independence but for Wales’ civilisation.”  [I shall come back to that shortly!] “A claim that she should have a seat in the Society of Nations and European society by virtue of the value of her civilisation. ……. Europe will return when the countries recognise they are all subjects and dependent. …… So let us insist on having, not independence but freedom. And freedom in this affair means responsibility. We who are Welsh claim that we are responsible for civilisation and social ways of life in our part of Europe. That is the political ambition of the National Party.”

I do not want to split hairs about the word “independence”. It can have a variety of meanings for different people. The meaning of independence for UKIP was leaving the European Union; its meaning for the SNP is being able to join the European Union. Saunders himself said in his address to the Llanwrtyd Summer School in 1930: “We will go to Parliament …to reveal to Wales how we have to act in order to win independence.” [Y Ddraig Goch, September 1930]. If the greatest among us mix their diction, who are we to split hairs! It is the big concept that is important; and about that, there is no doubt and no confusion about where Saunders Lewis stands – securing for Wales “her place in the community of Europe by virtue of her civilisation.”

I have no time this morning to pursue the attractive red herring of asking “What is the value of the civilisation we possess in Wales today?” There are many people better qualified than myself to analyse that. Have a go! But I do believe that it is essential that we should advocate independence for a purpose; and that purpose should be to safeguard, develop, enrich, share and pass on what we regard as Welsh civilisation. And we should never forget that the natural home for our civilisation lies within the framework of Europe.

1. Myrddin Lloyd, in his essay on the political ideas of Saunders Lewis, also refers to the theme of Europe, when he writes as follows:

“A nation’s foundations are therefore moral and spiritual; and its destiny does not rest on any form of complete independence; nor does its dignity require that. It can present itself to many sorts of relationships. And it can cope readily with many frustrations. One of its virtues is its freedom, and in the same way that people link themselves naturally together in families, and in various other societies, as they find themselves in association with their fellow-people, so nations by virtue of moral law acknowledge many relationships with each other.”

Myrddin Lloyd continues:

“In his attack on Fascism in 1934 (an important article that some choose to ignore) Saunders Lewis said that Fascism maintains that every individual belongs to the state , and that the claims of the State are unconditional. ‘The Welsh National Party maintains that the nation is a society of societies, and that the rights of smaller societies, such as the family, the locality, the trade union, the workplace, the chapel or church, are all worthy of respect.

“The State has no right to ride roughshod over the rights of these societies and there are also rights beyond the boundaries of the nation that every man and every country should respect.”

It is certain that the vision of Saunders Lewis is founded in part on the legacy that springs from Wales’s European roots. We should not think that commercial advantages of European unity are key to this vision; to the contrary. Material advantages are a secondary consideration; because Saunders set his vision on a spiritual rather than material foundations; and it is the European origin of this spiritual dimension that is important for him. This is seen in the Wednesday essays, when Saunders says as follows:

“The history of European civilisation – this is the history of a spiritual ideal …Tracing that ideal gives meaning to studying the history of Europe; it is that which gives Europe a unity.

There can be any number of influences on a country and its way of life. But what enters its life as a destiny, and decides its role in Europe’s heritage, is the particular moral ideal, the ideal first shaped by Greece. Greece is the starting point for our civilisation and the imprint of Greece remains upon it to this day.”

It is interesting to note the words of Patricia Elton Mayo, in her book “Roots of Identity: Adnabod y gwreiddiau”, where she wrote that as a author and dramatist recognised on the continent but unknown in England, Saunders Lewis emphasised the European context of Welsh civilisation, an obvious feature “before the English occupation isolated Wales from the mainstream of European cultural development”. This sort of perspective – springing from outside Wales, and recognising national developments in Wales as part of a European movement, reflects the viewpoint of Saunders Lewis, and sets it within a much broader context.

Saunders edited Y Ddraig Goch for years during the early phase of Plaid Cymru’s history. I shall be taking advantage of every opportunity to bring the European dimension to his analysis. For example, in the August 1929 editorial article that he wrote, under the title “Yma a thraw yn Ewrop: y lleiafrifoedd yn deffro” (“Here and there in Europe: the minorities awake”), he noted the national revival in Flanders, Catalunya, Malta, and Brittany and asks:

“What does all this prove? It proves that the minorities of Europe, the small countries that were swallowed up by larger ones during periods of oppression and centralisation of government, are now awakening in every part of our continent and are bringing a new spirit and ideal to European politics.”

Then he declares:

“The speciality and strength of Europe, in comparison with America, is the rich variety of her civilisation. ….If this is correct, our argument that the movement for self-government in Wales and in all the other countries benefits Europe and the world is also correct …..

“This European philosophy also drives leaders on the continent, …. who are seeking to lead Europe back from imperial materialism, from the short-sighted competition of the large centralised powers, to a new politics, a politics founded on a deeper understanding of the true nature and value of western civilisation.”

Saunders Lewis also sees self-government for Wales as part of establishing a better international order; an order that would aim at solving disputes by peaceful methods, not by fighting the bloody war that he witnessed in the trenches in France. His emphasis on developing international systems – and his repeated warnings that England would not wish to be part of such an order, provides the background for the politics of Gwynfor Evans, and for the stand taken by Adam Price against the Iraq War.

It is worth looking at this in detail, as the message is so relevant for our time, when England, once more, is turning its back on our continent and on the European Court of Justice. In his article “Lloegr ac Ewrop a Chymru” (Wales and Europe and England) in 1927 Saunders Lewis says:

“What is the foreign policy of England? Its guiding principle was set out finally and beyond doubt by Sir Austen Chamberlain (Britain’s Foreign Minister) in a meeting of the League of Nations in September. He said: ‘England belongs to a union of nations that is older than the League of Nations, which is the British Empire, and that if a collision occurs between the League of Nations and the Empire, then we have to back the Empire against the League of Nations.’”

It is relevant to remind ourselves that the Welsh Women’s “peace petition” collected in 1923, involved this very point – appealing to America to support the League of Nations as an essential foundation for building peace.

Saunders continues: “When Chamberlain said that, he spoke for England, not for his party …. Now, by virtue of this principle, England – unfortunately, we have to say Great Britain – although naturally and geographically and in part historically part of Europe and essential to Europe – nevertheless denies its association and its responsibility and leaves Europe today, as in 1914 and before, uncertain about its policy.”

Isn’t it incredible that we can say this, once more today? By failing to learn the lessons of history, we repeat the same mistakes. Last time this lead to fascism and to the 1939 war. God forbid we should experience that blood-stained lesson yet again.

Saunders goes on with this key statement, which did much to shape my own political convictions:-

“Bringing about political and economic unity within Europe is one of the foremost needs of our century. This is clearly seen by Europe’s small nations, and in order to ensure it they drew up the Protocol that binds countries to settle disputes by discussion and by law, and calls on all the other countries to unite and punish any country that breaks their commitment.”

To that end also, the small nations demanded that every country be bound to endorse a Permanent Court of International Justice, the aim of which was to get countries to accept the judgement of the Court on disputes between them and so avoid was.

“England refuses … because, as part of the Empire almost entirely outside Europe, she does not wish to attach herself to Europe …. She refuses … because the Government cannot ensure, if the court’s judgement were unfavourable to Britain, that it could be passed into law by a British Parliament; and secondly because the Government is sufficiently broad and strong to be able to defend its rights without depending on a court of law ……….”

Hasn’t this been clearly seen during the last seven years, by the attitude of supporters of Brexit towards the European Court of Justice?

Saunders’ essay continues:

“It can also be seen that England’s economic tendencies quite as much as her political tendencies, lead to war. The hope of political peace in Europe is to get Britain as an essential part of the European union of nations ….. But in Britain is there a European tradition? Is there here a nation that was an original part of the civilisation of the West, that thinks in the ways of the West, and can understand Europe, and be able to sympathise with her?  The answer is: Wales.

“The Welsh are the only nation in Britain that formed part of the Roman Empire … The Welsh can understand Europe because they are part of the family.”

Friends, It is from these roots that the national movement in Wales has grown; and woe betide us if we forget it. Wales’ national civilisation includes our cultural heritage – our language, our literature, our music, our fine arts. It also includes our values, such as the emphasis we place on our social legacy, on equality; on the value of society in its own right, and not just the value of the individual and the family alone; and on the element of cooperation, as families, as communities and as countries, to protect our interests.

This is the essence of the fundamental difference between the politics of Wales and the politics of England; and because the Welsh Labour Party insists on tying itself to the English Labour Party, it fails to develop a philosophy and a political programme based on our

Such was the meaning of independence when Plaid Cymru was set up; and that is why Gwynfor Evans wrote in the sixties, “It was stated (by Blaid Cymru) from its outset that its aim is freedom, not independence”. This was the case because of Plaid’s commitment to empower Wales to play its part in international institutions, such as the League of Nations; national values as the foundation for its policies within Senedd Cymru.

At this point, I come back to the matter of ‘independence’. In the 1920s the policies of the London parties rejected sharing power with international bodies in order to protect Britain’s ‘independence’, and after the war the United Nations; and later on, the European Union.

It was only at the turn of the century, when the terms of membership of the European Union were redefined so that membership of the Union was open to ‘independent states, that Plaid Cymru changed its policy to one of independence. I myself voted for that, accepting that the first thing that happens to a country becoming part of the European Union is that it sacrifices part of its independence. Saunders Lewis, I am sure, would rejoice that Wales was embracing this as an aim.

Saunders Lewis, of course, was no Marxist. He acknowledged the importance of small businesses and cooperative businesses. He was most critical of Soviet Communism – and as a result he attracted the antagonism of those, both Welsh and English, who based their politics on Marxist analysis. But that does not make him a capitalist; placing him on the political spectrum is not a binary choice. Saunders made quite clear his opposition to international capitalism in the first chapter of Canlyn Arthur: “It should be said at once and clearly, that capitalism is one of the principal enemies of nationalism.” In an essay in 1932 he says: “For the Welsh nationalist, the Trade Unions are institutions that are priceless, valuable and advantageous for establishing in Wales the sort of society we aim at.”

So I completely reject the allegation that he was on the political right wing.

The aim of the European Community, from its early days, was to promote free trade on condition it was within a social framework, and so create equal terms for workers in the various countries rather than leaving them at the mercy of the market. Not many in Britain had recognised this in 1975, at the time of the referendum on Britain’s membership of the ‘Common Market’. So the English commercial right wing were longing to join the new system where they could, in their opinion, rake in more private profit. By contrast, the English left responded by opposing Common Market membership.

But both right and left misunderstood the European vision – the ambition of creating a social European just as much as an economic Europe: The idea of ‘Social Europe’ became an essential part of the fight for a social chapter within the European Union. When Maggie Thatcher and her crew realised the civilised implications of this part of the vision, they quickly went into reverse! This is why by the time of Brexit, much of the right wing in England was fiercely opposed to the European Union; while progressive elements on the left were in favour.

I do not agree with every word that fell from the lips of Saunders Lewis. Some points, credible at that period of time, appear outmoded today. But the mainstream of his vision is wholly relevant.

Another article with a European theme in the volume Canlyn Arthur is that on Tomáš Masaryk and the national revival of Bohemia; and this is a reply to those critics who complained that Plaid Cymru at that time was only interested in the small Celtic countries. Masaryk succeeded in laying the foundation for the Czech Republic which today is an independent country. Masaryk, like Saunders Lewis, stressed the role of culture as one of the essential elements of the national community; and like Saunders Lewis he saw his country in a European framework and within European ideals.

   Saunders Lewis, with his fellow-defendants
Lewis Valentine and D.J. Williams
at the time of the Penyberth trials

           

In his important contribution to the book “Presenting Saunders Lewis”, Dafydd Glyn Jones, writing about “Aspects of his work: his politics”, notes:

“Canlyn Arthur assumes throughout that the nation is the normal form of society in Europe and the basis of modern civilisation….. To be, to exist, and to be recognised by other national communities as exosting, this, Sanders Lewis maintains, is the only way …… in which Wales can fully and creatively participate in wider community.

“That participation, moreover, is indispensable if self-government is to have any meaning …. A Welsh parliament is necessary not in order that Wales may retire into self-sufficiency, but so that she may recover her contact with Europe.”

According to Dafydd Glyn, one of the strongest influences on Saunders Lewis was the French Catholic scholar, Jacques Maritain. He was one of the French leaders who maintained that there was an alternative for French Catholics other than supporting the quasi-fascist movement Action Française.

Maritain’s ideals included individual freedom, the need for order within society and a new pluralism that avoided dictatorship and conservative laissez-faire. He was influential in the task of drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and he campaigned to draw attention to the horrors of the Holocaust. In 1936, he published the book “Integral Humanism” which is regarded as a work that inspired the Christian Democrat movement in Europe. He was a close friend of i Robert Schuman, the Foreign Minister of France, after the war – the person who could claim, before anyone else, to be founder of the European Union!

A valuable work on the importance of the ideas of Saunders Lewis about the essential relationship between Wales and Europe has been contributed by Dr Emyr Williams, who took a doctorate in Cardiff with his thesis on “The Social and Political thought of Saunders Lewis”.

Emyr Williams traces the influence of Maritain on Saunders; and cites Maritain’s conclusion that the concept of sovereignty is intrinsically wrong because “political authority arises from the people, the body politic, and does not descend from above. This is crucial in seeking to understand Saunders Lewis’ thought regarding the concept of sovereignty …”

I am indebted to Emyr Williams for his help and for being able to study his research work. Among his conclusions are the following:

• The concept of a centralised European superstate is unacceptable to Saunders Lewis;
• That his vision is based on the principles of federalism and subsidiary;
• That his model for Europe is one of multilevel, plural governance;
• That the element of national cultural continuity is an essential part of the European concept, and a central part of European identity.

According to Emyr Williams, “Saunders Lewis’ Catholicism and Francophilism (sic) was undoubtedly to inform his view of Welsh culture being part of a broader European Christian heritage; seeking to move Wales away from the parochial relationship with England and Britain, and seeking to engage it both culturally and politically with the wider world.”

Saunders Lewis acknowledges that he had been influenced by the work of Emrys ap Iwan – in particular by the book by T. Gwynn Jones on Emrys ap Iwan, described by Saunders as “One of those books that changes history and influences an entire generation, giving inspiration and direction to its thinking.”. Emrys ap Iwan, like Saunders Lewis drew much of his inspiration from France, and also from Germany where he had been a teacher. Emrys ap Iwan coined the term “ymreolaeth”, self-government; defining it in federal terms and using Switzerland as a model.

According to Saunders Lewis, the French philosopher and historian, Etienne Gilson, was one of the main influences on him; and Gilson himself was an authority on the work of Descartes, and cooperated closely with Jacques Maritain! Some say that it was his own awakening to the central importance of the European dimension brought Saunders Lewis to develop his political and national consciousness.

There was a time – in the sixties and seventies – when many within the national movement saw the European Union as an impediment to Welsh independence. In my opinion today – just as it was a century ago when Saunders Lewis was refining his vision of Wales – it is not Europe that threatens the future of Wales, or the values of Wales, but the imperialistic mentality of Westminster, which is as true today as it was in the days of Austen Chamberlain.

From our perspective today, what is important to remember is first of all, why did Saunders Lewis look to our European roots for inspiration? Cultural and religious reasons account for this, as our identity and culture spring from our European roots. Our values have developed from these roots, and for me this aspect is absolutely fundamental.

But there is also another most important reason why we should not give up on the task of uniting our continent; and we are reminded of this by the recent history of Ukraine. Some of us here today have relatives who suffered – or even lost their lives – in the two terrible wars fought between the nations of Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. Let us never forget that people came together after the second war with the aim of creating a new, peaceful unity for our continent.

In conclusion, I return to the thesis of Emyr Williams – who underlines the fact that Saunders Lewis did not set national sovereignty in an independent state as the foundation of his Welsh nationalism. And this, say some political scientists, makes him unique for his period, and far ahead of his time. He is certainly not isolated in the mediaeval past, as his political enemies would have us believe.

Emyr Williams worked on his thesis partly because there had been no effort since the 1970s to reassess Saunders Lewis and his political ideas in the light of the massive changes of the last forty years, which by now include:

• Britain’s entry into the European Union, followed by its regrettable departure;
• the development of the European social chapter, the fall of communism and European reunification;
• smaller countries achieving full membership of the European Union;
• establishment of a legislative parliament for Wales;
• laws that give official status to the Welsh language; and
• growth in support for independence in Scotland and in Wales.

These all confirm the need to reassess the values and political message of Saunders Lewis.

Emyr Williams says of Saunders Lewis:

“Instead of viewing a place for the Welsh nation within a hierarchical British Empire, he sees a European political and economic union as necessary to the political vitality of the “small nations of Europe” in an egalitarian mould. The idea of a European union is therefore integral to his political thought.”

 The message comes in a sentence:

“The development of the European Union as well as of its inherent principle of subsidiarity and multi level governance therefore requires that Saunders Lewis’ thought be re-examined.”

And that is also my message today, from the platform of the Literary Pavilion, to look once more at the teaching of one of the greatest writers of Wales, one who shaped a vision for the Wales of today – whether in terms of language rights, relationship with our continent, social justice or what is vital for civilised nationhood and international order.

And if we are to use the next three years learning the lessons of the century that has passed since 1926, where better to start on the task than here in Llŷn and on the platform provided by the University of Swansea? And how better to conclude than with two poems by Williams Parry, the first to Y Gwrthodedig – the Rejected One:

 

Hoff wlad, os medri hepgor dysg,
Y dysgedicaf yn ein mysg
Mae’n rhaid dy fod o bob rhyw wlad
Y mwyaf dedwydd ei hystâd.

 

(Beloved land, if you can do without the learning
Of the most learned in our midst,
You must among every country
The most blessed of all.)

 

And again, from Y Cyn-ddarlithydd, the Former Lecturer:

“Y Cyntaf oedd y mwyaf yn ein mysg
Heb gyfle i dorri gair o gadair dysg
Oherwydd fod ei gariad at ei wlad
Yn fwy nag at ei safle a’i lesâd.”

 

(The first was the greatest among us
With no opportunity to speak a word from the chair of learning
Because his love of his country
Was greater than of his position or his well-being.)

 

Diolch yn fawr.

Editor’s Note

This is a translation from Welsh of the lecture delivered by Dafydd Wigley at the 2023 National Eisteddfod at Boduan near Pwllheli. Where possible, previous received English-language versions have been used in rendering direct quotations, notably the translation by Dr Bruce Griffiths of Saunders Lewis’ Egwyddorion Cenedlaetholdeb – Principles of Nationalism published by Plaid Cymru in 1975 on the occasion of the party’s Silver Jubilee. I have translated other passages. I have also made use of the work of D.Hywel Davies and Emyr Williams. I am grateful to them, and also to D.Hywel Davies for his practical help.

Dafydd Williams

Sources

The Welsh Nationalist Partty 1925-1945: A Call To Nationhood. D.Hywel Davies (1983) Cardiff. University of Wales Press.

Saunders Lewis: Letters to Margaret Gilcriest. Edited by Mair Saunders Jones, Ned Thomas and Harri Pritchard Jones (1993) Cardiff. University of Wales Press.

Egwyddorion Cenedlaetholdeb – Principles of Nationalism. Saunders Lewis (1975) Plaid Cymru. Printed originally in 1926 by Ryan Jones, Argraffydd, Machynlleth.

The Social and Political Thought of Saunders Lewis, Emyr Williams. A dissertation submitted at the School of European Studies, Cardiff University, in candidature for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Cardiff University.  June 2005.

https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/54521/

Social and political thought of Saunders Lewis. -ORCA (cardiff.ac.uk)

Syd Morgan has published an article about Stuart Neale, Plaid Cymru Candidate in Gwent 

Syd Morgan Article > Linc 

Elwyn Roberts, the anchor man of Plaid Cymru throughout much of the twentieth century, was the topic of the Plaid history society’s 2017 annual Eisteddfod lecture.  For all his apparent solid background in bank management, Elwyn Roberts was a committed and determined nationalist who put love of Wales before his professional career.

His work for Wales was described by former Plaid leader Dafydd Wigley, historian Gwynn Matthews and Elwyn’s successor as party general secretary Dafydd Williams.  You can read the full text of their lectures and listen to a recording the session in the Societies’ tent in the 2017 National Eisteddfod in Ynys Môn.

 

Memories of Elwyn Roberts

Translation of the Address by Dafydd Wigley to the Plaid Cymru History Society,

Eisteddfod Ynys Môn; August, 2017

It is a pleasure to open this meeting to commemorate Elwyn Roberts, one of Plaid Cymru’s stalwarts, and appropriate that we should gather here on the Eisteddfod field in Anglesey, Ynys Môn, as he was also twice the organiser of the National Eisteddfod.  For decades he lived in Bodorgan, although his roots were in Abergynolwyn, Meirionnydd.  He was someone whose influence was to be felt throughout Wales. 

As a nation we have cause not only to respect Elwyn’s memory but also to carry on the contribution which he made, as an inspiration to a new generation to roll up its sleeves and complete his heartfelt ambition.  He was a practical nationalist who believed that victory would grow from a foundation of political organisation – through harnessing human and financial resources in the service of our nation’s highest goals.

I pondered whether I could do justice to this subject, wondering whether I really knew Elwyn Roberts.  Perhaps many who worked with him would admit similar feelings,  because Elwyn, as well as being a national figure and a political heavyweight, was also a very private man.

Elwyn was one of half a dozen who had a substantial influence on me personally, drawing me – from  a young age – to work for Plaid Cymru.  The other national influences were Gwynfor Evans and Saunders Lewis;  locally in Gwynedd Dafydd Orwig and Wmffra Roberts; and of my own generation, the late and beloved Phil Williams.  It is worth noting that among these three were the sons of slate quarrymen – Dafydd Orwig, Wmffra and, yes, Elwyn Roberts.

Elwyn was the son of Evan Gwernol  Roberts, a quarryman in Abergynolwyn; his mother, Mabel, was headmistress of an infants’ school.  Abergynolwyn was so important to him that his autobiography turned into a volume of history about Abergynolwyn – he never spoke about himself!  Thus he takes pleasure in the book that it was through the endeavours of Plaid Cymru in the 70s that quarrymen at long last won the right to dust disease compensation.

Elwyn was born in 1905, and was a child of his generation.  The shadow of the first world war rested heavily upon him, as did the revolution in Ireland and the depression in the heavy industries.  He had no university education – indeed, he had little regard for the education he received in Tywyn grammar school, which for him was far too English.  After leaving school he went to work in the bank, where he would remain for a quarter of a century, first in Blaenau Ffestiniog, then Bethesda – two quarrying communities – and later Llandudno, rising to the position of deputy manager at scarcely thirty years of age.

He could have risen to the heights in the world of banking, but the future of Wales was more important to him than career or wealth.  He joined the National Party in its early days; at the age of twenty-one, he set up the Blaenau Ffestiniog branch – the biggest branch throughout the whole of Wales.  Then, as throughout his career, he worked strenuously in the background, leaving others to enjoy the limelight.

When war came in 1939, Elwyn refused to enlist in the armed forces, basing his action on nationalism rather than pacifism.  He refused to recognise the right of the English state to compel him to fight for it.  One of the Tribunal members asked him “You are standing as a Welshman, are you?”.  Elwyn answered, with his withering humour, and his totally contemptuous view of the English establishment, “No, as a Chinaman!”   He was ordered to work as a rat catcher in the Corwen area.

During the war – at the instigation of Saunders Lewis and J.E. Daniel –  the “Committee for the Defence of Welsh Culture” was set up – in the words of Gwynfor Evans, “the most important national movement that worked for Wales during the war”.  Rallies were organised throughout Wales, and the most successful of all these took place at Colwyn Bay.  Gwynfor enquired who was responsible for attracting such a crowd.  He was told that a young bank clerk had achieved this miraculous turnout.  This was the first time that Gwynfor met Elwyn; and a partnership was forged that would influence the future of our nation. 

The bank must have thought highly of him, because despite his fervent nationalism he was able to return to the bank before the end of the war.  When Gwynfor stood for Merioneth in the 1945 election, he requested the bank to release Elwyn to work as organiser; and the bank agreed!  Rhys Evans, in his biography of Gwynfor talks of Elwyn starring as election agent – and I quote – “for his proverbial toughness”.

Elwyn returned to the bank after the election;  but his organisational ability was now well known, and he received an invitation to work as the organiser of the Colwyn Bay National Eisteddfod, 1947 – getting the bank to release him once again!  He was headhunted once more to work as organiser for the National Eisteddfod at Llanrwst in 1951.  This time he did not return to the bank, and was appointed by Plaid Cymru as its Gwynedd organiser and Director of Finance.

Another call came – to organise the cross party Parliament for Wales campaign.  When Elwyn took over, the campaign had been running for two years but had attracted only a few hundred names.  Elwyn took up the reins with his characteristic dedication, and succeeded in raising the number of signatories to over a quarter of a million.  This led to S.O. Davies MP presenting a Parliament for Wales Bill in Westminster in 1956.

In 1958, Elwyn organised a successful tour of the United States by Gwynfor Evans.  Gwynfor took part in a broadcast seen by twenty million people; he was warmly welcomed by John L Lewis, the leader of the United Mineworkers of America; and  Elwyn organised an invitation for Gwynfor to meet President Eisenhower – only for the British Embassy to obstruct it.

Other requests flowed in.  When the television company Teledu Cymru hit financial difficulties in 1962, it was to Elwyn that the call came, and he succeeded in raising investments for the venture, the equivalent of £1 million in today’s money.   Fund raising was one of Elwyn’s strengths: it was he, later on, who persuaded a wealthy businessman to employ Gwynfor as a consultant between 1970 and 1974, after losing Carmarthen – and when Gwynfor, to all intents and purposes, was financially on the rocks.

Elwyn was drawn into the battle to save the Clywedog valley from being drowned, and he devised a scheme for hundreds of people to buy a square yard of ground in the valley, so as to frustrate Birmingham Corporation – a scheme which unfortunately failed because of defective legal advice.

In  1964 Elwyn was appointed General Secretary of Plaid Cymru.  He accepted the post – at a time of great difficulty for the party – on condition that he could work from the Bangor office. 

It is fair to say that not everyone within the party could respond positively to Elwyn’s personality, to his “proverbial toughness” nor to the sort of “traditional” nationalism that he represented; nor to his conservative orthodoxy from the standpoint of handling money.  A great deal has been written about the tension between Emrys Roberts, who until 1964 worked as Plaid Cymru’s General Secretary in the Cardiff office, and Elwyn Roberts, the party’s finance director,who  worked from the Bangor office.  I could personally see great virtues in both of them, and they each contributed much to the success of Plaid Cymru in their different ways.

Elwyn played a key role in a number of campaigns, including the Carmarthen by-election in 1966, where he worked with the Agent, Cyril Jones. Elwyn  ensured the resources to carry the day.  And it was Elwyn who had the privilege of telling Gwynfor, as he arrived at the count, that he had won!

Elwyn Roberts held the post of General Secretary of Plaid Cymru through the most incredible period in its history –  the by-elections in Carmarthen, Rhondda West in 1967, Caerffili in 1968, and through the frenzy of the Investiture in 1969, before retirement in 1971.  Immediately after retiring – as though he had not already done enough for Plaid Cymru,  Elwyn took over the unpaid post of National Treasurer of the party.

As part of this job, he set about organising fund raising through nosweithiau llawen and pop concerts – Tribannau Pop!  I cannot imagine anyone less likely than Elwyn, in his grey top coat, his hat and his briefcase,  as organiser of rock ‘n roll events in the 70s .  But he raised thousands of pounds for the cause, and it was he who laid the financial foundations for the elections of 1974 when Plaid won three seats in Westminster.

Perhaps election organisation created a wish to take part in politics himself, because soon after retirement he was elected as County Councillor in Ynys Môn, and then to the new council of Gwynedd in 1973.  He remained as a councillor until 1985 – playing a prominent role in improving the economy of Gwynedd.

I first met Elwyn in 1962.  I was a student in Manchester and had just joined Plaid  Cymru.  During one university holiday, I attended a meeting of Caernarfon branch in the People’s Café – on the Maes in the town.  Elwyn was speaking there and I mention in my  book “O ddifri” how he entered in a purposeful way with a bulging brief-case.  He had come, not to talk niceties, still less to socialise, but rather to give us directions.  He was the one who set the agenda and the priorities, like some Soviet Commissar.

Soon afterwards, I called in his office in Bangor and that was an experience.  He organised the work like a machine and was complete master of everything and everyone  as I am sure Nans Couch – Nans Gruffydd as she was then – could testify from personal experience.

Elwyn had little time for fools – and he made that pretty clear.  But if he saw that someone had a contribution to make to the national movement, then nothing was too much trouble for him.  He decided fairly soon that I had something to offer – and he took a great interest in everything I would do for a number of years.

He was behind my appointment to work as organiser for the Caernarfon constituency from June to October 1964, after I graduated and before I started work, a period leading up to the general election of 1964.  Earlier he had suggested that – after graduation – I should look for a job in the South Wales Valleys to get to know Wales better.  When he heard that I wanted to go to work with the Ford Motor Company in Dagenham, for a while he was disgusted – apparently I had angered him because he thought I would vanish from the party and from Welsh politics, as was the story of so many young men at that time.

His fears were confirmed after he and Wmffra Roberts sought to persuade me to stand in Caernarfon in the general election of March 1966.  I flatly refused to consider anything of the kind – after all I was just twenty-two years old, and it was far too early for me.  But Elwyn had  planted the idea in my mind that I should prepare myself for such a possibility in the future.

When I saw Elwyn in Carmarthen on the last Saturday before the 1966 by-election, his attitude towards me remained frosty, to say the least.  He sent me out canvassing with scarcely a word – I was really in his “bad books”!  But when I returned to report the substantial support in the town, he had thawed.  He said that this was the response throughout the constituency – and lowering his voice, in case anyone should hear, he whispered “I think Gwynfor’s going to win”.

In the wake of the by-election, a number of us – Phil Williams, Dafydd Williams, Eurfyl ap Gwilym, Gareth Morgan Jones, Rod Evans and others – set about forming the Plaid Cymru Research Group – to assist Gwynfor with aspects of his parliamentary work, and to prepare an Economic Plan for Wales.  This pleased Elwyn enormously – and without any persuasion he provided a budget of some fifty pounds a month to enable us to rent a very small office and employ a part time typist.

Having failed to get me to contest Caernarfon, Elwyn persuaded the Meirionnydd Rhanbarth Committee to invite me to stand there in the 1970 election, although I was living in London and working for the Mars company in Slough.  Elwyn provided practical support for me from the party’s national resources.

By 1972 I had returned to live in Wales, working for the Hoover company in Merthyr and had been elected to Merthyr council – it was as if Elwyn’s long -term plan for me had at last been pushed through as he had intended.  When I was elected for Caernarfon, he once more gave me every support as he did when I stood to succeed Gwynfor as President.

Yet although Elwyn proved such a mainstay of support for me, and considered me to be something of a protégé, I cannot claim to have really known him – only once did I call at his home in Bodorgan – just to collect some papers – and I hardly ever had any conversation with his wife Nansi.  Such a person was Elwyn; and there was no alternative but accept him for what he was – because nothing would change him.  He was like the rock of ages, consistent, firm, genuine and completely dedicated to Wales.

It is right that today we should remember his life, because Plaid Cymru and our nation are greatly in his debt:  Elwyn Roberts,  “Y graig safadwy drwy dymhestloedd” – “The rock that stands firm through the tempests”;  the sort of rock that is hiddden under the surface of the land, but which is so vital if we are to build the future of our nation on firm foundations.  Thank you for listening and thanks for his life.

 

Elwyn the Man

Reminiscences by Gwynn Matthews

I am grateful for the invitation to share my memories of Elwyn, and to Dafydd Wigley for the notable portrait he gave us. Who could add to that picture of Elwyn as a national figure? I am not going to attempt to do so – what I am going to do is speak of Elwyn the man – the man so many people have found it difficult to penetrate below the outer skin.

I first met Elwyn in 1961. I was a schoolboy at the time, and the circumstances of our meeting were not of the happiest, for I had received a summons to appear before him at a Pwyllgor Rhanbarth!

I had set up a school branch of Plaid Cymru at Denbigh Grammar School early in the sixties. We would meet during the dinner break in various classrooms unbeknown to the staff. This was possible because I wore a ‘Prefect’ badge (enabling me to allow pupils into the building) – but the trouble was that teachers were able to come by, open the door and enquire “What’s going on here, then?” If the teacher was English, I could just say, “Oh, it’s the Welsh Society, Sir”. And that would be fine. Once, the Religious Education teacher came and asked me if I was conducting a prayer meeting – and I regret to have to tell you that I said that I was!

In fact, there was a risk that we would be caught, but eventually we were allowed to use the Plaid office in town. However, someone complained that children were coming and going to and from the office and causing a commotion. So, I was summoned to give an account of myself and my fellow pupils before none other than Mr Elwyn Roberts.

Those of you who knew Elwyn can imagine what it felt like to appear before him! I fully understood – you can’t waffle with him. But, in fact, he found in our favour and said that we were free to use the office from then on.

Some years later, in 1968, as Dafydd Williams said, I was appointed a member of Plaid staff. I had my interview in Pwllheli following Robyn Lewis’s adoption meeting. Elwyn approached me at the end of the rally – “Right” he said, “I want you to help me fill the car boot with these pamphlets.” As I filled the boot, he asked me questions. When I had filled the boot, he said, “You’ve got the job”. That was the shortest interview of my life.

As Dafydd Wigley has said, he was a private man. And I would say that he was really a shy man. Maybe, he had a facade that shy people often adopt which gives the impression that they are less warm than they truly are. Basically, Elwyn was a warm person.

And as Dafydd Wigley has commented, when he did have some leisure time, he did not write about himself but about his native locality – the community that gave him his values. [Wrth Odre Cadair Idris] He writes about his childhood, and one sentence is quite a surprise. He refers to his school, and to a teacher of whom he was very fond, Mr Fielding. Mr Fielding’s family had come from the Netherlands, but he spoke Welsh.

And this is the sentence that struck me as unexpected: “I recall some of the lessons in arithmetic, although I hated the subject.” Says he, the conjurer with figures! The man who could conjure money from the air – and he hated arithmetic! He states that Welsh and local history were much more to his taste. Yes, love of patrimony was the foundation for his patriotism, and as Dafydd Wigley has described it, slightly old world patriotism. I would agree – his values were those of a Nonconformist Welsh-speaking Wales.

I recall that at a conference in the early seventies one of the Rhondda branches had proposed a motion calling on Plaid to set up licensed clubs. Only two speakers’ cards had been submitted – proposer and seconder. Elwyn came up to me and said, “Gwynn, you must speak!” I had not intended to speak but he insisted, “You must speak against this! Good heavens, what do you think the supporters of Goronwy Roberts, the great teetotaller, will make of this in Arfon if we pass this motion?”.  And so it was that I had to speak, with two minutes’ notice, against setting up licensed clubs. The motion failed, but not because of anything I said!

Another aspect of his Nonconformist values was his pacifism. I know that it was as a nationalist that he objected to doing military service, but he could well have done so as a pacifist too.

I remember one occasion during the run-up to the Investiture when the late ROF Wynne (Garthewin) had expressed an allegedly ambiguous attitude concerning the use of violence in struggles for national freedom. A fairly prominent Plaid member spoke up in defence of ROF Wynne. Elwyn was incensed. “Him! Him of all people! If he saw a real gun, he’d wet himself!”

Elwyn could get quite cross, that has to be admitted. I remember returning from an Eisteddfod where Elwyn had been very cross with one of the party’s most faithful workers, Nans Jones. (I’m bound to say that, of the staff, it was Nans Jones who seemed to irritate Elwyn most often.) When Elwyn had gone to Y Ddraig Goch stand (in the days when political parties were banned from the Maes) what did he see under the table but copies of JE Jones’s gardening book [JE was a former Plaid General Secretary]. What Nans had been doing when she saw anyone who knew JE approach was to offer them the gardening book – rather than party literature! “And in any case”, said Elwyn, “when did JE ever find time to do gardening?”

Elwyn had been a National Eisteddfod organiser twice. [Llanrwst Eisteddfod, 1951, was one of them] One Monday he arranged for Cynan to come to Llanrwst to inspect the Gorsedd Circle as the architects had been arranging the stones in the order stipulated for them (before the advent of plastic stones – i.e. real rocks) the previous week. However, over the weekend the farmer had allowed bullocks to graze on the site. And here are Elwyn’s words, “Do you know what, the bullocks were lifting their tails against the stones – Cynan was enraged! ‘Don’t you realize’, said Cynan, ‘that those atones are sacred?’” It was clear from his expression as he told the story that Elwyn had a sense of the absurd. 

One day we were discussing cars. Among the jobs that Elwyn had done was selling second hand cars. I’m sure he was a good one – he had the knack of parting people from their money – as he did many years later as Plaid’s Treasurer! He sold cars for a businessman from Colwyn Bay, Mr Bill Knowles.

Bill Knowles was quite a character, a prominent Tory, and he became Mayor of Colwyn Bay. (As it happens, during the sixties he joined Plaid Cymru, and served as chairman of Denbigh Pwyllgor Rhanbarth.) Coming back to our chat, Elwyn said, “Gwynn, if ever the radiator of your car leaks, I know how to settle it. You need to pour a packet of pepper into it, and that will seal it – something Bill Knowles taught me!”  Second hand car salesmen do not always have a good reputation, but if you asked me would I buy a second car from Elwyn I would answer, “Yes, oh yes!”

I think that he could sometimes be over cautious – two small examples. A research group, under Dewi Watcyn Powell I believe, had prepared a constitution for a free Wales (for which a conference was held at the Temple of Peace for its adoption). One point that was raised was what to call the Crown’s representative. ‘Viceroy’ was out of the question, and there was a feeling that ‘Governor-General’ was too imperialist. So they suggested ‘First Citizen’. Elwyn thought that too elitist for Plaid.

“Can you think, Gwynn, of another title for the head of something?”

“Well, the ceremonial head of a University is called a Chancellor,” I said.

“Yes, I like it – Chancellor of Wales,”

“Come to think of it,” I said, “that is what the prime minister of Germany is called”.

“Good heavens – we can’t have that! Just think what the Daily Post would make of it!”

So, ‘First Citizen’ it was!

One day, I recall, we were discussing family life, I suppose, and he discovered that I was an Anglican. He felt he needed to explain something to me.

Those days every political party was invited to some place of worship on the Sunday before their conference. It had been arranged in advance, of course, who would extend the invitation.

“I must admit that I have never sought an invitation to attend a church service [i.e. as distinct from a chapel service], and I should explain why. The reason is that a church service includes a prayer for the Queen, and I’m afraid of some hothead walking out during the service – what would the papers make of that?”

Yes, over cautious, sometimes, perhaps.

But what are the lasting impressions of him? Discipline, tenacity and integrity.

Discipline – personal discipline, work discipline. If you pulled your weight, Elwyn would not be slow to express appreciation. But if he was disappointed, he would let it be known! I disappointed him once – I failed my driving test. “Damn you!”

Tenacity – perseverance in the face of difficulties. I remember summer 1969 (the summer of the Investiture) – it was a frightfully difficult period – and one of Elwyn’s main fears was that the Summer Raffle would fail! The Summer Raffle was important – it funded our wages – but Elwyn kept his nerve.

Finally, and supremely, integrity. A genuine man. I have worked for a number of people – some of them very good people – but I retain the highest respect, on account of his unsparing dedication, for Elwyn.

 

Elwyn Roberts

A tribute by Dafydd Williams

I got to know Elwyn Roberts after joining Plaid Cymru’s staff – supposedly for just twelve months – almost half a century ago, in December 1967.  I had met him already on a number of occasions in the party conference and Summer School, as well as one never to be forgotten day shortly before the Carmarthen by-election in 1966.  But it was in Plaid Cymru’s office in Pendre, Bangor that I saw the man himself at his daily work.  He would be there without fail every morning, and usually would be hard at it well after the clock on the wall told us it was time to be going home.

It was an exciting time.  In the wake of the Carmarthen by-election, and Rhondda West the following year, and with Gwynfor in the House of Commons, new members were flocking in, and the aim was to channel that growth into an effective pattern of branches and constituency organisations.  As General Secretary and  Chief Organiser – that was his job title – Elwyn Roberts had the job of dealing with all the issues that accompanied that rapid growth, and a steady stream of callers who would drop in.

I soon came to see that it took someone of exceptional talent, experience and character to occupy that key role.  Someone who would keep  the ship on course whatever the weather.  And there was no doubt that Elwyn Roberts was that person.  Of course he worked in the background.  Although he was fully capable of addressing councils or conferences if need be, the public stage was not his natural environment.

I still have a vivid picture of him, at his desk in his sports jacket – it wasn’t often that he took that off – and a handkerchief neatly folded in his top pocket.  Working with him at that time in Bangor was a young woman from the Llŷn peninsula, Nans Gruffydd – by now Nans Couch.  Nans is unable to be with us today because of family duties, but I am very grateful for her recollections.

This is how Nans recalls Elwyn Roberts: “He was definitely one of my heroes in Plaid Cymru and it was a privilege to work with him.  Elwyn was someone who went the second mile – a tireless worker who gave up his career in the bank in order to serve his nation.  He was the strongest influence on me … working with Elwyn was better than any college”.

Elwyn was fond of his tea.  Just about every hour in the afternoon, it seemed, both of us would hear his voice from the back room: “Is there something warm in the teapot?”   And – cue a confession! – it was Nans who would put her work to one side and prepare another pot of tea.  This was 1967, remember!

Of course, long before either Nans or I came on the scene, Elwyn had already given decades of his life to Wales and Plaid Cymru – and through times of great difficulty.  For example:

• Elwyn served as election organiser to Gwynfor Evans in Meirionnydd in 1945, winning praise for his “proverbial hardness” as agent according to the author Rhys Evans – by the way, during that campaign, he arranged a public meeting before the memorial to Hedd Wyn in Trawsfynydd – at 11:30pm in the night!
• Ten years later in 1955 – released by Plaid Cymru to rescue the struggling Parliament for Wales campaign, and succeeding as well.
• Or this – in 1961, raising £62,525 to launch Teledu Cymru.

And there is no way I can relate all his work in raising funds to keep Plaid Cymru from going bankrupt – time after time and in all sorts of ways.  No wonder that in Rhys Evans’ magisterial biography of Gwynfor Evans he gets 45 mentions.

In 1971, and quite unexpectedly, I became the successor to this unique figure in the history of Plaid Cymru, following a walk on the prom in Aberystwyth with Gwynfor, but that is another story!  How on earth could I hope to fill his shoes?  I knew there was no way I could imitate him.

But fortunately for me and the party, if Elwyn was retiring as General Secretary,  his contribution to Plaid Cymru was far from being over.  In the same year, his was elected as party Treasurer – a post he had in reality been doing for years.  And, however much some of you may doubt it, thanks to his hard graft in an improved political atmosphere Plaid’s financial situation markedly improved.

He went on to carve out a whole new career as an elected member of Gwynedd County Council representing Bodorgan here in Anglesey and holding a number of public posts – among them the Development Corporation for Wales and Gwynedd Health Authority.

I was fortunate enough to call at his home a number of times – a bungalow named Peniarth on the corner of a small rural lane in the village of Bodorgan, with a grouted roof in the style familiar in Anglesey (I heard a lot about ‘grouting’!) and an immaculate interior.  I was sure of a warm welcome and every kindness from Elwyn and his wife Nansi – it is sad to think that Elwyn spent the last years of his wife without her lively company.

I learnt of his death when I phoned Gwerfyl in the national office the day before his funeral while on holiday with my parents in Scotland, and unable to get back in time for his funeral.  It was a comfort to visit his last resting place in Abergynolwyn a few months later.

I would like to end with an appeal.  There is a real need to set down the history of this unique hero – the banker who became organiser of a national movement.  The raw material is ready – volume upon volume of his papers in the National Library, and no shortage of red ink!  It is a story worth telling – a subject worthy of a PhD and a book to follow.  What about it, you historians?

For my generation, and the younger generation, the story of Elwyn Roberts is an inspiration – and a challenge.  The success of Plaid Cymru today, whatever the difficulties, stem from the seeds planted by Elwyn and his contemporaries.

It is difficult to believe that his time came to an end nearly a decade before our country won the battle to secure its own national assembly.  He would have been overjoyed – and would have given anything to played his part in that victory.  We give thanks for his life and his work.

The Birth of Wales the Nation

Magnus Maximus