Howell Elvet Lewis

Howell Elvet Lewis was recorded as having studied at Presbyterian College and Emlyn Grammar School.

• Honorific Prefix — The Reverend • Name — Howell Elvet Lewis • Other Names — Elfed • Born — 14 April 1860 • Birthplace — Y Gangell, Blaen-y-coed, Wales • Died — 10 December 1953 • Place of death — Penarth, Wales • Resting Place — Blaen-y-coed chapel • Occupation — * Minister • poet • hymn-writer Howell Elvet Lewis (14 April 1860 – 10 December 1953), widely known by his bardic name Elfed, was a Welsh Congregational minister, hymn-writer, and devotional poet, who served as Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales from 1924 to 1928. Elfed High School in Buckley, Flintshire, was named after him.

• Illustration — Y Gangell, where Elfed was born Elfed was born on 14 April 1860, the eldest son of twelve children of James and Anna Lewis, of Y Gangell, near Blaenycoed, Carmarthenshire. His father was a farm labourer and his mother was a local shopkeeper. He had a very limited early education, but through self-study and attendance at the local chapel schoolroom he managed to gain entry to Newcastle Emlyn Grammar School at the age of 14. Two years later he succeeded in an examination for admission to the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen, where he trained for the ministry.

Elfed was ordained in 1880 and was made pastor of St John's English Congregational Church in Buckley, Flintshire, where the local Secondary School Elfed High School is named after him. In 1884 he moved to minister at Fish Street Church, Hull. He returned to Wales in 1891 as minister of the English Congregational Park Chapel, Llanelli. In 1898 he accepted a calling to Harecourt Chapel in London, where he remained until 1904. In 1904 he became minister of Tabernacle Chapel (Capel y Tabernacl in Welsh) – a Welsh-language Congregational chapel in King's Cross, London. This was the first time he undertook a ministry at a Welsh-language chapel. He remained at Y Tabernacl until his retirement in 1940. He retired to Penarth, where he became a member of Ebeneser Chapel, Cardiff. Apart from serving as a church minister, Elfed's ministry included two periods as chair of the London Missionary Board in 1910 and 1922. He was one of three representatives of the Congregational Union of England and Wales invited to visit Madagascar to celebrate the centenary of the arrival of the first missionaries to the country. He was elected president of the National Free Church Council, 1926–27, president of the Welsh Union of the League of Nations, 1927–28, and chairman of the Congregational Union in 1933.

Elfed married three times. His first wife was Mary Taylor from Buckley. He married her in Stratford in 1887, and had seven children by her, of whom two died young. She died in 1918. His second wife was Elizabeth Lloyd whom he married in 1923, but her health was fragile and she died in 1927 after barely four years of marriage. His third wife was Mary Davies, one of the chapel members at Tabernacl Kings Cross, whom he married in 1930.

Elfed died on 10 December 1953. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in Blaenycoed.

• Caniadau (2 vols, 1895–1901) • Gwilym Tel (1924, translation of William Tell)

• My Christ and other Poems (1891) • Israel and other Poems (1930) • Songs of Assisi (1938)