AMO, amas, bardd gwlad
The Welsh poet, pacifist and quondam Latin teacher Waldo Williams is to be commemorated at Kimbolton School later today (Saturday) – Old Kimboltonians’ Day.
A plaque will be unveiled in his honour at Kimbolton Preparatory School, where he taught Latin between 1944 and 1946.
The unveiling ceremony, jointly organised by Kimbolton Local History Society and Cymdeithas Waldo Association, will be carried out by the poet’s great niece.
Chief Bard Jim Parcnest, representing all the poets of Wales, will give an address and a reading of the poem Preseli, which recalls Waldo Williams’s childhood in Pembrokeshire and was written in 1946 while he was living at ‘Sunnyside’, in West Perry.
Cerwyn Davies, chairman of Cymdeithas Waldo was to have presided at the unveiling, but he is a shepherd in the Preseli mountains and must tend his flock. He will be replaced by Hefin Wyn.
Waldo Williams is the most significant Welsh language poet of the 20th century, according to the school’s Nora Butler.
“Later in life he became a Quaker, and his standing as a bard was often eclipsed by his stance as a pacifist. He was jailed on two occasions for refusing to pay income tax as a protest against military conscription,” she added.
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INFORMATION: The unveiling will take place at 2.30pm and is open to the public.
