1. Gwynfor Richard Evans was a Welsh politician, lawyer and author.
22 Facts About Gwynfor Evans
1. 2.
Gwynfor Evans was President of the Welsh political party Plaid Cymru for thirty-six years and was the first member of Parliament to represent it at Westminster, which he did twice, from 1966 to 1970, and again from 1974 to 1979.
3.
Gwynfor Evans was the first MP to attempt to do so, but the right to take the oath in any of the UK's non-English native languages was not granted until 1974.
4.
Gwynfor Evans was born in Barry, near Cardiff, to Dan Evans and Catherine Richard.
5.
Gwynfor Evans had a brother named Alcwyn, and a sister named Ceridwen.
6.
Gwynfor Evans's father ran a chain of shops in Barry, and his mother a china shop.
7.
Gwynfor Evans was a teenager when the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru was founded in 1925, and he founded a branch of the party while he was at Oxford.
8.
Gwynfor Evans became the party's president in 1945 and retained the office until 1981.
9.
Gwynfor Evans is credited with keeping Plaid Cymru going through the lean years of the 1940s and 1950s.
10.
In 1962, Gwynfor Evans joined Wales West and North Television, in which he was one of the leading figures in the venture.
11.
Gwynfor Evans was elected to Carmarthenshire County Council in 1949, keeping his seat for the next 25 years, usually as the lone Plaid Cymru representative, acquiring the nickname "Gwynfor Evans dual carriageway" for his emphasis on improving transport links.
12.
In 1973, following the abolition of Carmarthenshire County Council, Gwynfor Evans failed to be elected to the new Dyfed County Council.
13.
Gwynfor Evans contested Merioneth at the general elections of 1945,1950,1955 and 1959, and the 1954 Aberdare by-election.
14.
On 14 July 1966, Gwynfor Evans won the parliamentary seat of Carmarthen from Labour in a by-election caused by the death of Lady Megan Lloyd George, daughter of the former Liberal prime minister, David Lloyd George, having come third in the general election just a few weeks before.
15.
Gwynfor Evans had contested the seat at the 1964 general election.
16.
Gwynfor Evans was the first MP to attempt to do so, but the right to take the oath in any of the UK's non-English native languages was not granted until 1974.
17.
Gwynfor Evans regained the seat, with a majority of 3,640 votes, in the October 1974 general election, when he returned to Parliament accompanied by two other Plaid Cymru MPs, Dafydd Wigley and Dafydd Elis Thomas.
18.
Gwynfor Evans lost Carmarthen once more at the 1979 general election, to Roger Thomas.
19.
Gwynfor Evans was unsuccessful in the 1983 general election, and did not contest any further elections.
20.
Gwynfor Evans opposed the Vietnam War: after being denied entry to the country as part of an inspection group, he instead protested outside a US air base in Thailand.
21.
In 1941 Gwynfor Evans married Rhiannon Prys Thomas, who survived him by nine months, dying on 13 January 2006.
22.
Gwynfor Evans died at his home in Pencarreg on 21 April 2005 at the age of 92.