David Rees Griffiths
David Rees Griffiths (6 November 1882 – 17 December 1953), also known by his bardic name of Amanwy, was a Welsh poet, and an older brother of politician Jim Griffiths.
Griffiths was born in Betws, Carmarthenshire, where his father was a blacksmith. He was the fifth of ten children. He spent his working life as a coal miner, beginning work in 1894 at the age of eight, after a brief education at the local primary school.
His father's smithy remained a gathering point for local intellectuals and political activists. On 28 January 1908 David was badly injured in a colliery explosion, which killed one of his brothers.
The profits from the edited volume O lwch y lofa: cyfrol o ganu gan chwech o lowyr Sir Gar (1924) went towards helping Rev. Gomer Morgan Roberts supplement his scholarship to Fircroft Adult College near Birmingham. Griffiths edited the volume of selected works from local minors it 'easily sold a thousand copies' for a shilling each and gave the 24 year old Roberts £30 to help support him. He also wrote a weekly column in The Amman Valley Chronicle entitled Colofn Cymry'r Dyffryn (column for the Welsh speakers of the valley) using the pen name Cerddetwr (one who wanders aimlessly).
In 1910, Griffiths won his first eisteddfod chair, going on to win a further fifty in local events. In the same year, his wife Margaret died of tuberculosis. Griffiths also had a career as a journalist, writing for the Amman Valley Chronicle and also for BBC Radio. In 1927, he travelled to South Africa along with his son Gwilym, who was suffering from the same disease (from which Gwilym eventually died in 1935). In 1928, Griffiths became caretaker at the local grammar school. In 1951 a film of his life David, was made as part of the celebrations for the Festival of Britain. Amanwy played himself and the role of "Dafydd Rhys as a young man" was played by Ieuan Davies, who later married the youngest of his two daughters Marged Mallt Davies (née Griffiths). The elder daughter was named Menna Ruth Griffiths; she later taught at the local nursery school and died in 2013.
Works
- Ambell Gainc (1919)
- 0 Lwch y Lofa (ed.) (1924)
- Caneuon Amanwy (1956)
Sources
