Mai Jones was a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

, entertainer and radio producer

Radio producer

A radio producer oversees the making of a radio show. There are two main types of producer. An audio or creative producer and a content producer. Audio producers create sounds and audio specifically, content producers oversee and orchestrate a radio show or feature...

.

She was born in Newport

Newport

Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...

, the daughter of a railway stationmaster. Having won a scholarship to study music at the University of Wales, Cardiff, she went on to the Royal College of Music

Royal College of Music

The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...

. Her early successes included being selected as one of the official accompanists for the National Eisteddfod of Wales

National Eisteddfod of Wales

The National Eisteddfod of Wales is the most important of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales.- Organisation :...

 at Pontypool

Pontypool

Pontypool is a town of approximately 36,000 people in the county borough of Torfaen, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in South Wales....

 in 1924. Singing and playing both piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 and accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

, she began to make a name for herself as an entertainer in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and broadcast on radio for the first time with Jack Payne

Jack Payne

Jack Payne was a British dance music bandleader.-Career:John Wesley Vivian Payne was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, the only son of a music warehouse manager...

's band.

In 1941, she joined the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 in Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

 as a radio producer of light entertainment programmes. Programmes produced by her included Welsh Rarebit

Welsh Rarebit (radio programme)

Welsh Rarebit was a Welsh radio variety show broadcasted from Cardiff by the BBC. First transmitted in 1938 by the Welsh Home Service, it became the main English language entertainment programme from the BBC in Wales during Second World War...

and Saturday Starlight. As part of the war-time Cardiff artistic and music community Mai had known Idloes Owen

Idloes Owen

Evan Idloes Owen principal founder of the Welsh National Opera Company- Early life :Idloes Owen, was born in late 1894 in the mining village of Merthyr Vale in Glamorgan. His parents Richard and Jane originally came from Llanidloes a market town in Montgomeryshire mid-Wales. They moved to Merthyr...

 who was also a composer, arranger and conductor, who performed with the pre-war Lyrian Singers. Idloes went on to found the Welsh National Opera

Welsh National Opera

Welsh National Opera is an opera company founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1943. The WNO tours Wales, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world extensively. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main stage operas to a combined audience of around 150,000 people...

in 1943. He was instrumental in providing Mai with a musical score written originally by a fellow Lyrian performer Thomas Morgan. Mai then collaborated with Lyn Joshua and James Harper with the lyrics to create the now Welsh standard ‘We’ll Keep a Welcome’. It had its début on 29 February 1940 the BBC resident 25-strong male voice choir, the Lyrian Singers, performed the new song. It was an overnight success.

Successful songs written by Mai Jones included: "Blackbirds" (1924), "Wondering If You Remember" (1927), "We'll Keep a Welcome" (1940) (with words by Lyn Joshua and James Harper), "Nos Da/Good night" (1946) and "Rhondda Rhapsody" (1951).

In 1947, she married a singer, David Davies. She died shortly after her retirement from the BBC. Her husband outlived her.

Reference