John Dyfnallt Owen (Q61514)

The Rev. John Dyfnallt Owen (Dyfnallt, 1873-1956), poet, writer and journalist, was born at Coedffalde, Glamorgan, on 7 April 1873. He was Congregational minister at Lammas Street, Carmarthen, 1910-1947. He won the crown at the 1907 National Eisteddfod in Swansea and was made Archdruid of Wales in 1954. From 1927 he edited the weekly Welsh newspaper Y Tyst. Dyfnallt was, from 1908, a member of the Celtic Congress. He visited Brittany in 1928, publishing his accounts of the journey in Y Tyst (collected in O Ben Tir Llydaw (Merthyr Tydfil, 1934)). He became friends with leading Breton nationalists and literary figures, including Taldir and the Abbé Perrot. Dyfnallt's daughter Meirion (1905-1991) and son Geraint (1908-1993) also became deeply interested in Breton matters. Dyfnallt died in Aberystwyth on 28 December 1956.Following the Liberation of France from Nazi occupation in 1944 many Breton nationalists were imprisoned or otherwise punished by the French authorities on charges of collaboration. Dyfnallt was among the prominent Welshmen who sought to defend some of those affected, campaigning on their behalf and writing in their defence in the Welsh press. He was part of a delegation from the Council of the National Eisteddfod to visit France in April 1947, on the invitation of the French government, to inquire into the situation.