1849–1919
Gutyn Arfon

Introduction

illustration
Former Rhiwddolion School

Born: Jan­ua­ry 1849, Tŷ Du, Llan­ber­is, Wales.

Died: Ju­ly 26, 1919, Rhiwdd­oli­on, Caer­nar­von­shire, Wales.

Buried: Nant Peris, Llan­ber­is, Wales.

Pseudonym: Gu­tyn Ar­fon. Gu­tyn is a form of Grif­fith, and Ar­fon is short for Caer­nar­von­shire.

portrait

Biography

Griffith was the son of Hugh and Ell­en Jones.

His fa­ther was pre­cen­tor at Capel Coch, Llan­ber­is, for 60 years. When John Ro­berts be­came pas­tor at the cha­pel, he re­cog­nized Griff­ith’s tal­ents and trained him.

Jones lat­er be­came a stu­dent teach­er at Dolbadarn, then as­sist­ant mas­ter at the Brit­ish School in Aber­ys­twyth, and, in 1869, mas­ter at Rhiwdd­oli­on Ele­men­ta­ry School, where he served 50 years.

He wrote both po­et­ry and mu­sic, and was the first to in­tro­duce mu­sic­al in­stru­ments in the Me­tho­dist cha­pels of Caer­nar­von­shire.

In 1918, he re­ceived a Na­tion­al Tes­ti­mo­ni­al, val­ued at £65.

Sources

Music