Hedd Wyn was to enter his poetic works into Eisteddfodau from the age of 19 and was soon to win.  He won his first chair in nearby Bala in 1907.  In 1913 he again won taking the Chair at Pwllheli. In 1915 he traveled to Pontardawe in South Wales, he had in 1908 tried his hand as a coalminer in the rapidly growing South Wales coalfield but disliked it and returned home North, but his journey in 1915 to the Eisteddfod was to be more fruitful taking the chair home to his family farm ‘Yr Ysgwrn’

He first entered the big one – The National Eisteddfod of Wales in 1915 which was that year held in North Wales - Bangor the following year 1916 saw him once again enter the National Eisteddfod this time in Aberystwyth (South Wales)  and to come second.

In 1917 he decided to once again compete for the Chair in the National Eisteddfod, he had by this time been conscripted into the army but devoted all his spare time to his writing, he finished his work in July, 1917 but at first there was difficulty in him gaining permission from his commanding officer to enter his work, his work was naturally in his native and natural tongue of Welsh and the Eisteddfod to this day conducts all it’s business in Welsh.  His commanding officer was English and understood no Welsh and feared that the document was propaganda !  after much consideration and undoubtedly trust he allowed his entry to go to the National Eisteddfod and it left Flanders in the post on the 15th July, 1917. The National Eisteddfod of Wales was in 1917 back in the North but just over the boarder in England at Birkenhead, many Welsh lived in Birkenhead and the Liverpool area and there were even Chapels there that held their services in Welsh.  The chairing ceremony of the National Bard was to be held on the 6th September 1917 and no other than the Prime Minister David Lloyd George was to be there.

Ellis – Hedd Wyn had now in July 1917 moved from France to the battlefields of Flanders (Belgium) and was stationed Nr. Poperigne not far from the City of Ieper.  On the 31st July 1917 at 03.50hrs his unit was ordered to attack.  The Third Battle of Ieper (Battle of Passchendaele) had started Heavy rain soon turned the battlefield into a swap.  The 15th Battalion took Pilkem and then advanced toward Iron Cross (Hagebos).  They came under heavy fire from the Germans in Battery Copse.  Hedd Wyn was shot in the back.  There are a number of versions of what followed.  The most likely is that he was taken by four comrades to a first-aid post at a dug-out, called Corner House.  There a Doctor ascertained that he had little chance of surviving, but he did not lose consciousness.  “ Do you think I will live ? “ he asked the Doctor.  Despite his critical state, Hedd Wyn smiled.  “ You seem very happy”, a soldier remarked.  “ Yes, I am very happy “ he replied.  Those were his last words.  Hedd Wyn died at about 11.00hrs.

31,000 soldiers died in the Battle of Pilkem Ridge – The British commander in chief, Field-Marshall Douglas Haig – made the bald entry in his diary for the 31st July :  “ A find day’s work “

It was the 6th September 1917 and the British Prime Minster Welshman David Lloyd George is ready to present the Eisteddfod Chair to the winning Bard at the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Birkenhead – The Archdruid announced that the winning entry it was under the pseudonym Fleur – de – lis was the winner.  The trumpets sounded and the and everyone looked for the winner but no would stood up to go forward, the Archdruid then called for the winner to go to the stage, but no one again stood up, the audience all looked to see who had won, but no one stood up, then came the sad announcement that the winner was Hedd Wynn – Ellis Humphrey Evans the Shepherd Boy from Trawfynydd who had died a Solider in Flanders Fields some six weeks earlier.

The chair was empty – and was draped in black, the Eisteddfod in tears and the Poet in his grave, said the Archdruid Dyfed – Hedd Wynn now layed in Flanders Fields. The Chair draped in Black was carried home on horse and cart some 90miles (140km) to Ty Ysgwrn, Trawsfynydd to sit amongst his other chairs.  The Western Mail newspaper reported at the time “ Instead of the usual chairing ceremony the chair was draped in a black pall amidst death-like silence, and the bards came forward in long procession to place their muse-tribute of englyn or couplet on the draped chair in memory of the dead bard hero “

Today the farm is occupied by his nephews Gerald and Ellis Williams and their Uncles chairs still line the walls with his big prize the Chair from the National Eisteddfod of Wales still draped in black.

The 1917 Eisteddfod chair was ironically carved by a Flemish carpenter who fled Flanders at the outbreak of work and settled in Birkenhead – Eugeen Vanfleteren.

Although Ellis – Hedd Wyn died a solider in his home town of Trawsfynydd in 1923 a statue to his remembrance was unveiled to that of a Shepherd boy who left for Flanders Fields and never returned home.  This bronze statue of him dressed as a Shepherd was unveiled by his mother in 1923 and bearing an inscription which Hedd Wyn had written in memory of a friend who lost his life in the Trenches.  Ei aberth nid a heibio – ei wyneb Annwyl nid a’n ango Er I’r Almaen ystrenio Ei dwrn dur yn ei waed o (Neither his sacrifice no his dear countenance are forgotten, though the Hun has stained his fist of steel in his blood). Hedd Wynn is buried in Artillery Wood Cemetery, Boezinge were the inscription on his headstone is to E H Evans ‘Hedd Wynn ‘ “ Y Prifardd Hedd Wyn “ The Chief Bard Hedd Wynn. His headstone was to read simply E H Evans, but after the war, a petition was submitted to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and it was granted that his grave could also read “ Y Prifardd Hedd Wyn “ He is immortally a war poet but in his home land will always be a Bard who won the big chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.   He has become a link between the Flemish and the Welsh, two small Celtic nations working to keep their culture and native tongue, moving and praying for a peaceful Europe that no longer leaves their youth in Foreign Fields.

Flanders will always have a piece of Wales.

The day he died a fellow poet died he to is also buried at Artillery Wood, Irishman and fellow Celt Francis Edward Ledwidge born 19th August 1887 to Patrick and Anne Ledwidge, Slane, Boyne Valley, Ireland some 30miles from Dublin (for further information visit www.francisledwidge.com

Many ceremonies have been held since his death to his memory, in 1992 on the 75th Anniversary of his death, a commemorative slate plaque was unveiled at the Hagebos cross-roads in Langemark to his memory and an exhibition in the Cloth Hall in Ieper.  In 2007 the 90th Anniversary BBC Wales transmitted from his grave.

A humble sincere memorial to his memory can be found in St. George’s Memorial Church, Ieper placed by Merched y Wawr, Trawsfynydd.

Welsh Choirs have sang at his graveside and filled the air with his native tongue, he is not alone in that graveyard many fellow country men are there with him and many more in the fields of Flanders.

We would like to say thank you to Lieven Dehandschutter who brought this story to us he produced a book Hedd Wyn and this can still today be bought in Ieper in Flemish, Welsh and English :
                                   
Hedd Wynn  1887 – 1917

            Een Welshse tragedie in Vlaanderen
               Trasiedi Cymreig yn Fflandrys
                A Welsh tragedy in Flanders

   Lieven Dehandschutter

RHYFEL – War

Gwae fi fy myw mewn oes mor ddreng
A Duw ar drai ar orwel pell
O’I ol mae dyn, yn deyrn a gwreng
Yn codi ei awdurdod hell.

Pan deimlodd fyned ymaith Dduw
Cyfododd gledd I ladd ei frawd
Mae swn yr ymladd ar ein clyw
A’I gysgod ar fythynod tlawd.

Maer’r hen delynau genid gynt
Yng nghrog ar gangau’r helyg draw
A gwaedd y bechgyn lond y gwynt
A’u gwaed yn gymysg efo’r glaw.

Woe that I live in this dire age
When God on far horizons glees,
Yonder men high and lowly wage
Their little vile authorities.

And seeing God had turned away,
A sword they raised to slay their own
We hear the tumult of the frat
On humble homes its shadows frown.

And there, the weeping willow tress
Bear the old harps and sang amain
The lads’ wild anguish fills the breeze,
Their blood is mingled with the rain.
Hedd Wyn

In 1992 the Film Hedd Wyn scripted by Alan Llwyd and directed by Paul Turner brought his story to the World Stage its premier was held at Theatr Ardudwy, Harlech in the presence of his family, it won several awards and was nominated as best Foreign Film in the Oscars in 1993.  

He continues to represent a lost generation that could have further enriched our literature and national life had they been spared. 

The acclaimed poet, Alan Llwyd maintains that his Eisteddfod entry in 1917 Yr Arwr ‘ is possibly the most ambitious of any Eisteddfod winner in the 20th Century’

Hedd Wyn’s poems had been turbulent and emotional before 1914, often dwelling on the horror of war, among them one simply entitled Rhyfel (War). 

In his 1987 book Llen Cyni a Rhyfel (The Literature of Adversity and War), Tecwyn Lloyd describes it as ‘One of the great verses of our century and the greatest of all war poems of our era.’

In two lines it sums up the terror of battle in the trenches during The Great War:  “With the cries of the boys filling the air / and their blood mixed with the rain”

            They died in hell – they called it Passendale