Owen Morgan Edwards
Encyclopedia
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...
historian, educationalist and writer. He is often known as O. M. Edwards.
Owen Edwards was born in Llanuwchllyn
Llanuwchllyn
Llanuwchllyn is a village in Gwynedd, Wales, near the southern end of Bala Lake . Its population according to the United Kingdom Census 2001 was 834., of which approximately 81% were Welsh-speaking....
near Bala
Bala, Gwynedd
Bala is a market town and community in Gwynedd, Wales, and formerly an urban district of the historic county of Merionethshire. It lies at the north end of Bala Lake , 17 miles north-east of Dolgellau, with a population of 1,980...
, the eldest son of Owen and Beti Edwards. He gives a vivid description of his early education in his autobiography Clych Adgof ("Bells of Remembrance") published in 1906. Llanuwchllyn was then and remains a strongly Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
-speaking area, but the Welsh Not
Welsh Not
The Welsh Not or Welsh Note was a punishment system used in some Welsh schools in the late 19th and early 20th century to dissuade children from speaking Welsh...
was in use at the local school and usually found itself round Owen's neck, as a punishment for speaking Welsh.
After studying at Bala and Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. Often colloquially known as Aber, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Ystwyth and Rheidol....
, Edwards spent a year at the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
studying philosophy before studying at Balliol College, Oxford from 1884 to 1887, winning all the University's three main prizes for history. He came under the influence of the Dafydd ap Gwilym Society at Oxford, establishing friendships with other students who later became prominent in Welsh life such as John Morris-Jones
John Morris-Jones
Sir John Morris-Jones was a Welsh grammarian, academic and poet.He was born at Llandrygarn, Anglesey and educated at Friars School, Bangor. Whilst at Jesus College, Oxford, Morris-Jones co-founded the Cymdeithas Dafydd ap Gwilym...
and becoming a strong cultural nationalist. He then spent a year on the continent before returning to Oxford, where he was appointed a Fellow of Lincoln College
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...
and became tutor in history there and at other colleges. He remained in this position until 1907 .
In 1907 he was appointed as the first Chief Inspector of Schools for Wales under the recently established Welsh Education Department. He took the first steps towards ensuring that the Welsh language was taught in the schools of Wales. He came into conflict with the Central Welsh Board because of his conviction that the new intermediate schools were anglicising influences in Wales and his determination to resist this.
He was also a prolific writer, starting and editing the periodical Cymru in 1892 and Cymru'r Plant for children in 1894, intended to arouse interest among the people of Wales in their own language and history. An English language version of Cymru, Wales, was less successful. He wrote a number of books on Welsh history, notably Cartrefi Cymru ("Welsh homes") which describes visits to the homes of a number of important historical figures, and published the works of other writers in a series of Welsh classics Cyfres y Fil.
Edwards was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Merionethshire following the premature death of T. E. Ellis
T. E. Ellis
Thomas Edward Ellis , usually known as T. E. Ellis, was a Welsh politician who was the leader of Cymru Fydd, a movement aimed at gaining home rule for Wales.-Life:...
MP in April 1899. He did not enjoy parliamentary life and did not seek re-election in 1900. He was knighted in 1916 and awarded the degree of D.Litt. by the University of Wales
University of Wales
The University of Wales was a confederal university founded in 1893. It had accredited institutions throughout Wales, and formerly accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students, but in October 2011, after a number of scandals, it withdrew all accreditation, and it was...
in 1918. Edwards died at Llanuwchllyn
Llanuwchllyn
Llanuwchllyn is a village in Gwynedd, Wales, near the southern end of Bala Lake . Its population according to the United Kingdom Census 2001 was 834., of which approximately 81% were Welsh-speaking....
in 1920, his wife Ellen having died the previous year. His son Ifan ab Owen Edwards
Ifan ab Owen Edwards
Sir Ifan ab Owen Edwards , was a Welsh academic, writer and film-maker, best known as the founder of Urdd Gobaith Cymru, the Welsh League of Youth....
founded Urdd Gobaith Cymru
Urdd Gobaith Cymru
dde|200px|thumb|The Urdd logoUrdd Gobaith Cymru, literally, the Welsh League of Hope, but normally translated as the Welsh League of Youth, or merely referred to as the Urdd, is a Welsh-medium youth movement with over 1,500 branches and over 50,000 members...
("The Welsh League of Youth").
Books by O.M. Edwards
- Clych Adgof (1906). Reminiscences of the Bala area.
- O'r Bala i Geneva (1889). Travel.
- Ystraeon o Hanes Cymru (1894). Tales from Welsh history.
- Hanes Cymru (1895, 1899). History of Wales.
- Cartrefi Cymru (1896). Famous Welsh homes.
- A Short History of Wales (1906)
- Llyfr Del (1906). For children.
- Hwiangerddi (1911). For children.
- Llyfr Nest (1913). For children.
- Tro yn Llydaw. Travels in Brittany.
- Tro yn y Wlad (1920). Welsh travel sketches.
Critical Studies
- W.J. Gruffydd, Owen Morgan Edwards (Aberystwyth, 1937)
- Gwilym Arthur Jones, Bywyd a Gwaith Owen Morgan Edwards (1958)
- Meic Stephens (ed.) Companion to Welsh literature (University of Wales Press)
External links
- http://ead.llgc.org.uk/arddangos_fs.php?iaith=eng&saan=0000172810O. M. Edwards Papers at the National Library of WalesNational Library of WalesThe National Library of Wales , Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales; one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies.Welsh is its main medium of communication...
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