Owen Morgan Edwards

Sir Owen Morgan Edwards (26 December 1858 – 15 May 1920), often known as O. M. Edwards, was a Welsh historian, educationalist and writer.

Biography

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.