# William Thomas (Islwyn)

William Thomas, bardic name Islwyn (3 April 1832 – 20 November 1878), was a Welsh language poet and Christian clergyman. His best known poem is entitled Yr Ystorm ['The Storm'], and was written in response to the sudden death of his young fiancée. Graves (1917: 94) called him 'the Welsh Wordsworth' and Roderick (1981) described him as 'Monmouthshire's main and most important contributor to Welsh literature.'

## Early life

William Thomas was born at Tŷ'r Agent near Ynysddu on 3 April 1832 to Morgan Thomas and Mary Jones. Walters (1983) documented that his father was an agent to the Llanarth family, which became connected to the Llanover family. Morgan (2007) documented that his father was the mineral agent of the Llanover Estate.
Thomas' father was probably a Welsh speaker. However, his mother was probably an English-speaker and he was educated entirely in English. His fluency and love of the Welsh language came from the minister of their local Calvinist Methodist chapel, Rev Daniel Jenkyns, who married his sister Mary and who the young poet greatly admired.
Thomas received expensive private schooling in Newport, Tredegar and Cowbridge, and finally education at a well-known college in Swansea (the Swansea Normal College). Jenkyns encouraged him towards ordination in the church. However, his encouragement annoyed his father, who instead hoped that William would follow his brothers into the financially rewarding career of mining engineering.

## Later life

While in Swansea, Thomas became engaged to Ann Bowen. She died in 1853, at the young age of twenty, which became a source of poetic inspiration to him. At the suggestion of Lady Llanover, he took his bardic name from Mynyddislwyn, the mountain above his home. Subsequently he was a regular winner of local Eisteddfod prizes from the 1850s onwards.
The best-known poem of Thomas is entitled "Y Storm" ("The Storm"), a long philosophical poem over 9,000 lines long. His poems are noted for their confident expressions of Christian faith, expectation of reunion in heaven, fulfilment of Christian duty and completion of a life fulfilled in God's work. He began preaching in 1854. And he was ordained a Calvinistic Methodist minister in 1859. However, he never took charge of a chapel as was the custom with the Calvinist Methodists at the time. Daniel Jenkyns remained minister of Babell Chapel, Cwmfelinfach. But Thomas was a regular preacher there for more than 20 years while undertaking his ongoing work.
In 1864 Thomas married Martha Davies, Ann Bowen's stepsister. He edited several periodicals, the Welsh column of the Cardiff Times, South Wales Daily News and Gwladgarwr. His poetry was not always greatly regarded in his own lifetime. However, it found favour after his death and is now thought to be amongst the finest of the nineteenth century.
Thomas wrote twenty-nine poems in English.
Thomas died from bronchitis in Ynysddu in 1878. He is buried in Babell Chapel, Cwmfelinfach, where there is a monolith to his memory.

## The Islwyn Memorial Society

Harold Finch, the Member of Parliament for Bedwellty recounted in his book Memoirs of a Bedwellty MP that Edgar Phillips (bardic name Trefin), who was the Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales from 1960 until 1962, was particularly keen that Islwyn should be remembered in a tangible way. Consequently, Finch convened a meeting in November, 1967 in Blackwood to discuss the possibility. The meeting resulted in the creation of the Islwyn Memorial Society and the election of Finch as its first President. The intention of the Society was:
   to fix plaques at notable places associated with the poet; carry out necessary work at Babell so that it can become a cultural centre; award prizes and scholarships at local schools; and award a poetry prize at the Royal National Eisteddfod.
Finch documented: 'The Society organises annual special services (bilingual) in honour of the poet; and has a keen secretary in Alan Chiplin.' In 1971 the Society launched an appeal for £1,000 to enable the preservation of Babell. In 1977 the Society was registered as a charity with the objects of the advancement of education including
   'the provision of prizes and/or scholarships at schools conducted as charities or those maintained by the local education authorities in the County of Gwent', 'awarding a prize annually at the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales' and 'arranging local eisteddfodau and public lectures on the work of the Welsh poet'.
However the Society was removed (that is, it ceased to exist) in 2013.