WILLIAMS
,
RICHARD
(
Gwydderig
;
1842
-
1917
),
collier and poet
;
b.
Feb. 1842
, the son of
Daniel Richard
Williams
,
collier
, and
Mary
, his wife, the daughter of a
farmer
.
Gwydderig
was brought up in a house named
Bryn Hafod
,
Brynaman, Glam.
He lost his father when he was only a boy and went early to
work in a coal mine
. He began to contribute poems to
Y Gwladgarwr
at a time when
William
Williams
(
Caledfryn
, q.v.)
was
editor of the poetry column
of that journal. When a depression came to the
Brynaman
and surrounding districts,
Gwydderig
went to work in
Pennsylvania
,
U.S.A.
After his return he continued to write poems, particularly
englynion
, and won prizes at national and other eisteddfodau; he became, in fact, known in many parts of
Wales
as ‘Bardd yr englyn.’ It is said that, in conjunction with
Evan Gurnos
Jones
(
Gurnos
, q.v.)
, another
poet
, he began to
compile a dictionary giving examples of
cynghanedd
. It does not appear that a collected edition of his poems was published; they must, therefore, be sought in newspapers and journals of his time — there are some examples in the articles in
Y Gen.
noted below. He d.
30 March
, and was buried
4 April 1917
in the burial ground attached to
Gibea chapel
,
Brynaman
.
Bibliography:
-
Y Geninen
,
April and Oct. 1917
;
-
Amman Valley Chronicle
,
5, 12, 19, and 26 April, and 3 and 10 May 1917
;
-
South Wales Weekly Post
,
7 April 1917
;
-
Western Mail
,
24 Jan. 1936.
Author:
Sir William Llewelyn Davies, M.A., LL.D., F.S.A. (1887-1952),
Aberystwyth
