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Cyril Gwynn (1897–1988) was a British poet, from Gower, in the City and County of Swansea. He was known as the Bard of Gower, and became a household name in Gower before leaving for Australia. His poetry was spoken rather than written, and was in the English language, using Gower dialect. ==Life== Arthur Cyril Gwynn, known as Cyril Gwynn, was born on 19 January 1897 in Briton Ferry, Carmarthenshire.〔Nigel Jenkins, "Cyril Gwynn, Bard of Gower, 1897-1988", Gower, XXXIX, 1988〕 His father was a Gower farmer called Arthur Gwynn, and his mother, Caroline, came from Briton Ferry, where her father worked as a ship’s pilot.〔 Cyril grew up in Gower on his grandfather’s farm in Newton, and at a farm tenanted by his parents at Langland; he also spent time on his aunt’s farm at Southgate.〔 He went to school in Newton and Mumbles and it was at school that he began to make up rhymes.〔 His first work dealt with the football team and the Oystermouth fishermen. In 1906, when their Langland farm was sold to be developed for the Langland golf course, the Gwynn family took over a butcher's shop in Southend, and Cyril helped with deliveries; the shop failed and his parents lost everything.〔 The Gwynn family then moved to Llanrhidian and Newton, as farm workers, and then to Morriston, Swansea, where the older boys found jobs in government factories.〔 During the First World War, Cyril served on mine-sweepers.〔 In 1922 he joined the United States mercantile marine and was shipwrecked off the coast of Africa.〔 He then worked on an oil tanker along the east coast of America, travelling as far south as Mexico.〔 He married Winifred May Tucker of Parkmill in 1922, and they had seven children.〔 He attended a politics course at Ashridge College, Hertfordshire, and there he met Randolph Churchill and Lennox-Boyd, the unsuccessful Conservative Party candidate for Gower.〔 He became Lennox-Boyd’s political agent and considered a political career, but soon abandoned the idea.〔 He was then offered a job at the ''Western Mail'' newspaper, but turned this down.〔 After moving nine times, he bought the Hills Farm, in Port Eynon in 1946. He had fulfilled his dream: owning his own farm. However, in 1950 his wife was suffering from ill-health, so they moved to Three Crosses.〔 It was at this time that Cyril Gwynne, who was now a household name in Gower, and who had lived in six Gower parishes,〔J. Mansel Thomas (ed.), "The Gower Yarns of Cyril Gwynne", A Gower Society Publication, 1975〕 disappeared from the Gower scene: “....this remarkable, self-effacing fellow, with his head in the clouds and his roots deep in the soil of Gower, seemed to have effaced himself completely and vanished from the scene. I heard he had gone abroad and, incredibly, never returned.” He had left Gower for Neath Abbey, where he worked as an engineer for 10 years. At Hills Farm Winnie’s health was deteriorating, and the doctor strongly advised a change from their isolated life on the farm.〔J. Mansel Thomas, "Whatever happened to Cyril Gwynne?", Gower XXVI, 1975〕 One of Cyril’s daughters had emigrated to Australia, and urged her parents to visit for a holiday. In 1964, Cyril and Winnie went for a two months’ holiday and stayed for good.〔 They settled in Croydon, Victoria, where they found another close-knit farming community full of interest.〔 In 1975 Cyril and Winnie Gwynn returned to Gower for a three month visit, and in 1979, after Winnie had died, Cyril paid another short visit to Gower, before deciding to move into a retirement village in Australia.〔 By 1987, Cyril was in poor health but was looked after by his daughter Dilys, who took him shopping and to the library.〔 Arthur Cyril Gwynn died on 7 January 1988.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cyril Gwynn」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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