       
 River Nodwydd
Y 'Royal Charter'
Llain Abernodwydd
Saint Mary's Church
Cloth Hall
Pentraeth Station
Plas Gwyn
Mair Wyn Hughes. |
Hall of Fame
Cliciwch yma am y fersiwn Cymraeg
The Famous People of Pentraeth
Ifor Owain Thomas: Ifor Thomas was born at Pentraeth in 1892 in Bay View,
Red Wharf Bay and he moved to live at Pandy afterwards. This is why his friends called him
‘Ifor Pandy’. He went to Pentraeth Board School in 1895 and after leaving school
at thirteen years of age he became a carpenter with Huw Parry from Pentraeth. He began his
career as a tenor when he won a scholarsip to the Royal College of
Music in London in 1914. He met his wife, Ceridwen in London and a little daughter,
Yvonne, was born to them on the 3rd June, 1921. Later in the year they went to live in
Milan. A short while afterwards, he met the famous tenor from Poland, Jean de Reszke, and
he became his voice trainer. He sang in the opera houses of Milan, Nice and Monte Carlo. A
great tragedy in the tenor’s life was the death of his one and a half year old little
daughter in Milan. Ifor broke his heart and brought his little daughter’s body home
to Anglesey. She was buried in the graveyard at Soar Chapel, Rhosfawr.
The singer buried himself in work and in 1928 he was invited to join the
Metropolitan Quartet in New York with Frances Alda. He worked with the Radio Atwater Kent
company and he sang in two Newark Music Festivals in the Mosque Theatre. He recorded a
number of operas for the His Master’s Voice company. It is probable that he was the
first Anglesey man to make a record and, according to the story, he signed a contract for
£250,000 which was a fortune in those days. When his musical career came to an end he
started to work as a photographer for Coliers magazine in 1933. He made a name for himself
in his new profession and he worked with famous people such as Frank Sinatra, Ingrid
Bergman and Tommy Dorsey. The greatest honour for him was when he was asked to photograph
the President of the U.S.A., Franklin D. Roosevelt. His famous picture was used
world-wide. He did his work for 15 years.
At the end of the forties he turned his hand to art. His work was exhibited in New York
and London and also in a number of colleges in the United States. He would always sign his
work as Ifor o Fôn. In 1977 Ysgol Pentraeth received a picture of Red Wharf Bay painted
by Ifor o Fôn left to the school in the will of John Wiliams Hughes, Marianglas. Owain
Ifor Thomas died n 1956 in New York and his body was laid to rest at Delwanne, New Jersey.
This is a photograph of the oldest
person to live at Pentraeth.
Mary Owen 1803 -1911: This is a photograph of the oldest
person to live at Pentraeth. She was born at Trefriw in 1803. Mary Owen came to live to a
little cottage at Fron Olew, Mynydd Llwydiarth, Pentraeth. By May 1911 she was the oldest
person to live in Pentraeth and in Britain and two strangers with a camera came to
photograph her. The old lady was sleeping and the men went into the house and took her
photo without saying a word to anyone. Seven months afterwards Mary Owen died at 108 years
of age and she was buried in the
graveyard at Pentraeth.
Leila Megane 1891-1960 Leila Megane, or Maggie Jones was a famous opera
singer. She sang in Paris, Milan, Rome, New York and London. Her father was from Cae Ifan,
Pentraeth.
Dafydd Ddu Eryri Dafydd Ddu Eryri was a famous poet. He wrote many books
and a famous song called Titrwm Tatrwm,-
Titrwm Tatrwm
Titrwm, tatrwm, Gwen lliw'r wy,
Lliw'r meillion mwy rwy'n curo,
Mae'r gwynt yn oer oddiar y llyn
O flodyn y dyffryn deffro.
Chwyth y tan, mi gynnith toc,
Mae hi'n ddrycinog heno.
Pan ymhell o'm gwlad yr af
Pa beth a wnaf a'm geneth?
Pa run a'i mynd a hi efo mi
Ai gadael hi mewn hiraeth?
Hed fy nghalon o bob man
I fryniau a phantiau Pentraeth.
Weithiau'n Llundain, weithiau yng Nghaer
Yn gweithio'n daer amdani,
Weithiau yn gwasgu fy mun mewn cell
Ac weithiau ymhell oddi wrthi:
Mi gofleidiwn flodau'r rhos
Pe bawn i'n agos ati.
William Evans (Wil Ifan o Fôn) - 1876- 1952
He was born at Traeth Coch, and went to Ysgol Llanbedrgoch before going to learn
to be a stonemason. Then he went to the army and went to India, Melita, Crete, Egypt and
China. He came back from Hong Kong in 1900 to live by Traeth Coch to work as a stonemason
and sell sewing machines. He was an extremely interesting man and there is story about him
standing at Traeth Coch with his back to the Sea shouting at the top of his voice. It was
a custom of his, when the tide was out, to go to the beach to rehearse some speech; and
when he heard the dog barking its answer to him in the far off farm he knew
that his voice was bearing fruit.
His greatest contribution to the life of his period was his important books on the Gorsedd
of the Bards, - Bonedd y Cymry and Bards of the Island of Britain. We saw his grave at
Pentraeth cemetery with the words ‘Athrylith Fawr, Bardd, Llenor a
Hynafiaethydd’ (A Great Genius, Poet, Literary Figure and Antiquarian) written on his
gravestone.
Dr William Rowlands - 1810 -1871: Dr
William Rowlands was born in 1810 at Ty Fry, Rhoscefnhir. He learnt to read and write at
home and he brought much fame to his family through his success at college. He graduated
with honours from the College of Surgeons and Apothecaries Hall in London in 1832. He was
accepted as a surgeon at the ‘Liverpool Dispensary’ and at the beginning of
July, 1843 he went to work as a family doctor in Llangollen. He fell in love with a girl
from that town but unfortunately the parish curate came and took his intended wife and his
future. This caused the doctor awful worry and concern, so much that he tuned to drinking
and that got the upper hand over him. After a while he lost his practice and everything
else. He returned
to Anglesey in 1834 and turned to the only other work that he knew about, - cattle
droving.
Doctor Williams walked the cattle but after 1847 the cattle are moved on the train.
William Rowlands was at Chester station on a wet and cold morning of December, 1871
waiting for the catle train. As he crossed the line he was killed by a train. He did not
hear the train’s sound as he had begun to lose his hearing. He was buried at
Pentraeth cemetery.
Harry Hughes Williams - 1892-1953: Harry Hughes Williams was born at Clai Mawr
farm in Pentraeth on 18 April, 1892. The family moved to Mynydd Mwyn, Llandrygarn in 1894.
When he was eleven years of age Hughes Williams fell and broke his thigh, but he concealed
the accident and as a result he suffered from bodily disability throughout his life.
He completed his secondary education at the Collegiate School in Liverpool and then for
three years, from 1911 onwards, in the Liverpool city School of Art. Early in 1914 he won
a scholarship to the Royal College in London. There he won a scholarship to travel through
Europe but because of the war he could not take advantage of it. He returned to Anglesey
and devoted himself to living and working as an artist. He converted one of the corn lofts
at Mynydd Mwyn into a studio. At that time the Royal Cambrian Academy gallery at Conwy was
the nearest place where he could display his work. His pictures were first shown there in
1918, and he was elected joint member of the Academy in 1921.
They were hard times for him. Painting materials were expensive. Yet his produce was
substantial. Often he painted his pictures on pieces of pulled -apart wooden boxes.He had
some commission work, for pictures and for memorial work. Then in 1938 he was appointed as
an art teacher at Llangefni Grammar School. Hughes Williams did not confine himself to
showing his work solely at the Royal Cambrian
Academy, where he became a full member in 1938.
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