Somme100

This collage came about through a strange set of circumstances. I saw that Gareth Bale - of the Welsh football team - had asked to visit the grave of Hedd Wyn before he game tonight.

Hedd Wyn was a welsh poet from the farm of Yr Ysgwrn near the small upland villlage of Trawsfynydd in Gwynedd.

Hedd Wyn - his nome de plume - was a Christian Pacifist who was conscripted - he went instead of his younger brother. He died on 31st July 1917 at Langemarck - there is a plaque there - during the Battle of Passchendaele.

I spent much of my youth and childhood in and around Trawsfynydd and I never really understood what the fuss about Hedd Wynn  - there is a statue in the village.

Hedd Wyn was crowned bard at the 1917 National Eisteddfod.

The trumpets sounded three times but he was already dead.

The Bard's Chair was draped in black and taken to Ysgwrn from where it has never departed. Ironically it was carved by a Belgian who had fled the war.

Yr Ysgwrn is now owned by the Snowdonia National Park and is open to the public. There is a video here of the last inhabitant and the house.

The collage is a screen grab of Yr Ysgwrn and the words of the last verse of one of Hedd Wyn's war poems.

Personal connections make such a difference.