Our D.J.

Here on Fishguard's Golden Mile is David John Williams (1885 -1970), commemorated on a lump of granite carved by local artist Vicki Craven. A Carmarthenshire man, he settled in Fishguard, or as he would prefer to call it, Abergwaun, and became a renowned teacher at the High School. He was also a fine writer, a fervent advocate of the Welsh language. and one of the founders of the Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru. The Welsh words on the stone mean literary man and nationalist.

D.J., as he is known, looks stern and erudite here but he was passionate about his beliefs, and words were not his only weapon: he was an activist too. In 1936, he and two others tried to set fire to an army bombing school in North Wales - a bold attempt to draw attention to the loss of Welsh language and culture as a result of increasing Anglicization. The trio served nine months in Wormwood Scrubs prison as a result. Something of a local hero is our D.J.

Of course, referring to him as DJ Williams (without the punctuation) would today suggest a very different sort of individual - the mind boggles!