Rev. William Evans (Wil Ifan)

Description

Rev. William Evans, whose bardic name was Wil Ifan, was born on 22 April 1883 in Vale View, Cwmbach, Llanwinio, Carmarthenshire, where his father, later the Rev. Dr. Daniel Evans, was the village schoolmaster. The family moved to Cwmavon in Glamorganshire in 1888, and William attended Port Talbot Grammar School. He graduated from University College Bangor in 1905, and after theological study, also at Bangor, became the minister at the English Congregational Church in Dolgellau, where he met his future wife, Nesta Wyn Edwards, a history graduate, teacher and musician, whom he married on 28 December 1910. They had four children. He was the minister at the English Congregational Church in Bridgend, Glamorganshire, from 1909 to 1917, when he was ‘called’ to the church at Richmond Road, Cardiff. In 1925 the family returned to Bridgend, where he remained as pastor until his retirement in 1949. His poetry won him many prizes at local and national eisteddfodau, and, most notably, he was awarded the Crown at the National Eisteddfod on three occasions - in Abergavenny in 1913, Birkenhead in 1917, and Pwllheli in 1925. Well-known for his many collections of poetry and other writings (in both Welsh and English), his newspaper columns in the Western Mail, and his frequent broadcasts on the BBC on religious and other topics, he was the Archdruid of Wales from 1947 to 1950.