Ifor Owen; Teacher and illustrator (Welsh comicbook "Hwyl")
Hyfler/Rosner
Teacher and illustrator
The Independent
31 May 2007
Meic Stephens
Ifor Owen, teacher and illustrator: born Cefnddwysarn,
Merioneth 3 July 1915; married Winefred Jones (deceased; two
sons, one daughter); died Dolgellau, Gwynedd 22 May 2007.
Ifor Owen was devoted to his own small communities in rural
north-west Wales, serving them in many capacities but mainly
as a primary school headmaster for 40 years. He was a gifted
teacher who understood the needs of children from
Welsh-speaking homes, providing attractive reading material
for them and encouraging his staff to help pupils develop
their literacy skills in their own language. Besides books,
he wrote, illustrated and published the first comic in
Welsh, Hwyl ("Fun"), the first number of which appeared in
1949 and the last in 1989. It soon became a children's
favourite, selling 8,000 copies an issue, and many adults
admitted to enjoying it too.
In his concern for the education of Welsh-speaking children,
Owen was inspired by Owen M. Edwards, educationist,
publisher and for many years Chief Inspector of Schools in
Wales, whose practical approach to bilingual education had
laid the foundations for the growth of national
consciousness in the first decades of the 20th century.
Another influence on him was the renowned bibliophile and
genealogist Bob Owen of Croesor, who awakened in him a love
of the printed word and image.
An early member of Urdd Gobaith Cymru (The Welsh League of
Youth), the movement founded by O.M. Edwards's son, Ifan ab
Owen Edwards, in 1922, Ifor Owen played a prominent part in
the League's activities and became almost the official
designer and illustrator of its publications. In the days
before the more professional approach of the Welsh Books
Council, he was one of the few who strove to make Welsh
children's books more colourful and visually exciting. He
also turned his hand to making county maps which featured
cameo portraits of the famous men and women who had lived
within their borders.
Ifor Owen was born in the village of Cefnddwysarn in
Merioneth in 1915. Educated at the Boys' Grammar School in
Bala and Bangor Normal College, where he trained to be a
teacher specialising in art and science, he entertained an
ambition to teach art but his father thought it "only for
girls". At the age of 21 he was appointed headmaster of the
primary school at Croesor, an upland, virtually monoglot
community, where he remained until 1948. From then until
1954 he was head of the village school at Gwyddelwern near
Corwen and from 1954 to 1976 the first headmaster of Ysgol
O.M. Edwards in Llanuwchllyn, near Bala. It gave him
particular pleasure to be in charge of a school named after
his hero and to live in part of Neuadd Wen (White Hall), the
large house Edwards had built for himself in the village.
Owen had begun illustrating books in Croesor while the
school was shut by an outbreak of measles. As an illustrator
he was always in great demand. The first book he illustrated
was Yr Hen Wraig Bach a'i Mochyn ("The little old lady and
her pig", 1946), after which many commissions from Welsh
publishers followed. Among other books were a Welsh version
of Collodi's Pinocchio story, Yr Hogyn Pren ("The Wooden
Boy") by E. T. Griffiths and Hunangofiant Tomi by E. Tegla
Davies, a classic among Welsh children's tales. In the early
Sixties he turned his hand to designing the sleeves of
records produced by the burgeoning pop industry in Wales. An
example of his talent as a designer can be seen in the
wrought-iron gates of the cemetery at Llanuwchllyn.
In 1961 Owen was invested in the White Robe Order of Gorsedd
y Beirdd - sometimes said to be the equivalent of the CBE in
Wales - and the University of Wales awarded him an honorary
MA in 1997. But perhaps the honours which gave him most
satisfaction were the prestigious Sir Thomas Parry-Williams
Medal, which he received in 1977, and the first-ever Mary
Vaughan Jones Award in 1985, named after one of the foremost
of Welsh children's authors and thereafter presented
triennially by the Welsh Books Council.
Ifor Owen was a man for whom the local was the real. He was
in his element at meetings of committees charged with
organising or financing local initiatives of a cultural
nature. Since the National Eisteddfod depends on support
from the district where it is held every year, he served on
its council and was the long-time chairman of its Art and
Craft Committee. He was also a member of the governing body
of the National Museum of Wales. But he also derived great
pleasure from sessions of the famous literary club Clwb
Llenyddol Pethe Penllyn, where his puckish wit and keen
interest in local history were much appreciated.