Beti Rhys

Beti Rhys was born on 2 April 1907 in Port Talbot, Glamorgan.[1] She was the daughter of J.E. Rhys, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife.[2] Rhys had one sister, Neilan. She was educated at the Howell's School, Llandaff, which she resented due to its policy of barring any person from speaking the Welsh language;[1] Rhys was described by one member of staff as "dirty Welsh".[3] The experience failed to dissuade her and she went on to read Welsh at University College, Cardiff (now Cardiff University).[3] Rhys began her career teaching Welsh at multiple schools before settling at the Pentre Secondary School in the Rhondda.[1][3]

In 1950 Rhys borrowed money from friends of hers to begin a bookshop specialising in books published in the Welsh language and university textbooks at the Castle Arcade shopping building in Cardiff.[1][3] During that era, books published in the Welsh language were scarce with a close following and the opening of her shop expanded their reach further south in Wales.[3] According to Rhys' obituarist in The Times, the shop became "a focal point for the Welsh literati".[3] Soon after its opening she obtained contracts to deliver textbooks to various Welsh educational institutions.[3] Rhys had regular customers in Idris Foster, the professor of Celtic Studies at Jesus College, Oxford, the poets Waldo Williams and Dylan Thomas, Saunders Lewis, the co-founder of the political party Plaid Cymru,[1] the historian John Davies,[3] the politician Neil Kinnock and his wife Glenys Parry.[1]

The shop made an academic, financial and social success,[3] and she soon opened a second shop in Park Place, Cardiff, which her sister managed.[1] Rhys also advised students who struggled academically. A doctor from Kuwait held a positive review of her swift service, and he persuaded his hospital in his home country to order all of its works from her store.[3] She sold her shops in 1968,[3] so that she could retire to Aberystwyth and travel.[1][2]

Rhys traveled to China via a cargo boat, the Trans-Siberian Railway to reach Russia, a bus to India, visited the Americas by the Greyhound Lines,[1] and all of Africa.[3] She wrote two books about her travels, Crwydro'r Byd (Travelling the World),[1] and I'r India a thu hwnt (To India and Beyond) in 1995.[2] Rhys wrote a biography about her great uncle, Evan Rees, the Archdruid of Wales from 1905 to 1923.[1] She later returned to Cardiff,[2] and went into a nursing home.[1] She died on 5 April 2003.[3]

Rhys was described by her obituarist in The Times as a "Champion of Welsh" and an "indomitable Welsh woman".[3]

• Rhys, Beti (1984). Dyfed: Bywyd a gwaith Evan Rees (1850–1923) [Dyfed: The Life and Work of Evan Rees (1850-1923)] (in Welsh). Gwasg Gee. ISBN 978-0-7074-0109-6.
• Rhys, Beti (1988). Crwydro'r byd [Travelling the World] (in Welsh). Gwasg Gee. ISBN 978-0-7074-0157-7.
• Rhys, Beti (1994). I'r India a Thu Hwnt [To India and Beyond] (in Welsh). Gwasg Gee. ISBN 978-0-7074-0253-6.