Ellis Evans, eldest son of a farming family in Trawsfynydd in North Wales, left school aged 13 or thereabouts to work with his father on the farm. In spite of this limited education he wrote poetry, including long poems in classical Welsh to compete in eisteddfodau, the competitions in literature and music which took place on most Welsh towns at that time (and in fact still do today). To compete poets needed a pen name as the competition was anonymous. His pen name was Hedd Wyn which means White or Pure Peace. Town eisteddfodau and the national eisteddfod gave a carved wooden chair as a prize and Ellis won several of these from different towns but he dearly wanted to win the national eisteddfod prize for poetry.

However the First World War broke out and he was called up and went to the front with his long poem for that year almost completed. He submitted it and asked an officer to send it. The latter was at first unwilling as he regarded Welsh text as suspicious. The eisteddfod that year 1918 took place in Birkenhead and Hedd Wyn's poem won it but he was killed and never knew of his success.

A collection of his poetry was published in 1918 as a paper back which eventually went out of print. This used to make me rather sad. I live next door to the family farm and Ellis's nephews managed the farm and also showed the chairs to visitors and told his story. Hedd Wyn is famous as a Welsh poet. Eventually I decided to re-publish his poems, including some extra ones that Gerallt, his nephew, found in the farmhouse. The farm now belongs to the Welsh Senate and National Park and is a popular place to visit where visitors hear all th story and see the bardic chairs. The national winning chair is known as the Black Chair as the ceremony was performed with a black cloth over it.