Geraint Bowen (poet)

Dr. Geraint Bowen (10 September 1915 – 16 July 2011) was a Welsh language poet and academic.

Born in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, he was the son of Thomas (Orchwy) Bowen and Mrs Ada Bowen, the brother of the poet Euros Bowen and nephew of the Carmarthenshire minister David Bowen.[1]

From grammar school at Aberaeron, he went on to study at University College, Cardiff. After graduating in 1938, he went on to take an MA in Celtic Studies at the University of Liverpool. Bowen's doctoral thesis was a study of recusant literature in south-east and north-east Wales, and he wrote extensively on this subject and other aspects of Welsh religious history during his academic career. Amongst works published by Bowen were an edition of the recusant Robert Gwyn's Gwssanaeth y gwyr newydd (1970), an edition of Y Drych Kristnogawl (1996) and a history of the Welsh Mormons during the nineteenth century, Ar Drywydd y Mormoniaid (1999). Despite his interest in religious literature and history, he was an avowed atheist.[2]

He was an outspoken Welsh nationalist, and during the Second World War became a conscientious objector, working in farming as an alternative to military service. He stood against Labour, as Plaid Cymru candidate for Wrexham in the 1950 General Election.[2] In 1944, he came to live with his parents[3] in New Quay, where Dylan Thomas was temporarily living; it has been speculated that his father Orchwy was the inspiration for the Reverend Eli Jenkins in Under Milk Wood.[4]

In 1946, Bowen won the bardic chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in Mountain Ash, for his "Awdl Foliant i'r Amaethwr",[5] In 1977 he became editor of Y Faner,[2] and from 1978 to 1981 he presided over the Eisteddfod ceremonies as Archdruid. As Archdruid he was heavily involved in the campaign to force the government to create the promised Welsh-language television channel S4C.[6]

He was also a campaigner against the dumping of nuclear waste and was chairman of the campaign group MADRYN (Mudiad Amddiffyn Dulas Rhag Ysbwriel Niwcliar) in the early 1980s.[2][7][8]

He married the author, translator and activist, Zonia Bowen, in 1947. They had two sons and two daughters.[2]