. Built by Edwards as his own residence in 1907. Owen Edwards was born in
Llanuwchllyn near
Bala, the eldest son of Owen and Beti Edwards of Coed y Pry in the village. His father died on 27 March 1895. He gives a vivid description of his early education in his autobiography
Clych Adgof ("Bells of Remembrance") published in 1906. Llanuwchllyn was then and remains a strongly
Welsh-speaking area, but the
Welsh Not was in use at the local school and usually found itself round Owen's neck, as a punishment for speaking Welsh. After studying at Bala and
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, graduating with a pass degree in 1883. He then spent a year at the
University of Glasgow studying philosophy before studying at
Balliol College, Oxford, from 1884 to 1887, winning all the university's three main prizes for history. The 1891 census for Wales recorded that he was at home with his family at Coed y Pry on census night, and his occupation was 'school teacher of History.' He came under the influence of the
Dafydd ap Gwilym Society at Oxford, establishing friendships with other students who later became prominent in Welsh life such as
John Morris-Jones and becoming a strong cultural nationalist. He then spent a year on the continent before returning to Oxford, where he was appointed a Fellow of
Lincoln College and became tutor in history there and at other colleges. He remained in this position until 1907. In 1907 he was appointed as the first Chief Inspector of Schools for Wales under the recently established Welsh Education Department. He took the first steps towards ensuring that the Welsh language was taught in the schools of Wales. He came into conflict with the Central Welsh Board because of his conviction that the new intermediate schools were anglicising influences in Wales and his determination to resist this. He was also a prolific writer, starting and editing the periodical
Cymru in 1891 and ''Cymru'r Plant
for children in 1892, intended to arouse interest among the people of Wales in their own language and history. An English-language version of Cymru
, Wales
(1901), was less successful. He wrote a number of books on Welsh history, notably Cartrefi Cymru
("Welsh Homes") which describes visits to the homes of a number of important historical figures, and published the works of other writers in a series of Welsh classics Cyfres y Fil
("The Series of a Thousand" - in 37 volumes, so-called because the author sought 1,000 subscribers, through the periodical Cymru''). Edwards built Neuadd Wen ("White Hall") in his native Llanuwchllyn in 1907. Edwards was elected as a Liberal
Member of Parliament for
Merionethshire following the premature death of
T. E. Ellis MP in April 1899. He did not enjoy parliamentary life and did not seek re-election in 1900. He was knighted in 1916 and awarded the degree of D.Litt. by the
University of Wales in 1918. Edwards died at Llanuwchllyn in 1920, his wife Ellen having died the previous year. His first son died at the age of five. His second son,
Ifan ab Owen Edwards, founded
Urdd Gobaith Cymru ("The Welsh League of Youth"). His only daughter Hâf married
Sir David Hughes Parry. ==Bibliography==