Thomas Evan Nicholas

Thomas Evan Nicholas (6 October 1879 – 19 April 1971), who used the bardic name "Niclas y Glais" (English: '"Nicholas of Glais"'), was a Welsh language poet, preacher, radical, and champion of the disadvantaged of society.

Nicholas was born at 'Blaunwaun Felen' in Llanfyrnach parish, Pembrokeshire, Wales, the fifth child of David (a farmer) and Elizabeth Nicholas. As a teenager he worked two days a week at The Swan Inn, Eglwyswen (Whitechurch), Pembrokeshire. The Old Swan Inn still stands today, but is now a holiday cottage, having closed as a pub in the 1920s. He left Pembrokeshire in 1897 and worked briefly in Treherbert in the Rhondda.

He married Mary Alys Hopkins, daughter of Thomas Hopkins, watchmaker, Amanford. Their children included a son, Thomas Islwyn Nicholas (Islwyn ap Nicholas) (b. 1903) and two daughters, Gwladys Thelma (b. 1904) and Nellie Alys (b. 1911).

In 1901 he was ordained to the ministry among the Welsh Independents at Horeb Chapel, Llandeilo, in Carmarthenshire. He received his three-year training for this at the Gwynfryn Academy (Ysgol y Gwynfryn), Ammanford, under Watcyn Wyn (Watkin Hezekiah Williams) and Gwili John Jenkins. Between 1904 and 1914 he was a minister of Seion Chapel in the village of Glais in the Swansea Valley, where Nicholas Road bears his name.

His religious convictions, influenced by Watcyn Wyn and Gwili, were focused on the radical message of the Gospels. He supported the socialism of R. J. Derfel with its emphasis on brotherhood, peace and justice, equality, land nationalisation, and a Parliament for Wales, and opposition to the royal family, the brewers and militarism. Nicholas fearlessly thundered out a prophetic gospel and he became a favorite preacher at ‘Big Meetings’ and public speaker.

In his own chapel at Glais he supported Welsh culture, establishing a choir and an eisteddfod. He was a prolific poet : his early poetry had religious themes but by 1908 his poems carried a socialist and radical message. He was known as ‘The People's Poet’. He won 17 eisteddfod chairs during his time at Glais. The main themes of his poetry were injustice, the battle between the working class and the power of capital, and pacifism. His poetry books and pamphlets - almost all written in Welsh - sold well: his long poem Weithwyr Cymru, Cenwch eich hunain i ryddid (‘Workers of Wales, sing yourselves to freedom’) sold over 6000 copies. He also translated The Internationale into Welsh.

Nicholas joined the Independent Labour Party in 1905. He was a close friend and supporter of James Keir Hardie, the founder of the Independent Labour Party - Hardie had been elected as M.P. for the Welsh mining constituency of Merthyr Tydfil from 1900. Like Hardie, Nicholas was both a Christian socialist and a committed pacifist. At Hardie's request, Nicholas served as the first Welsh editor of the ILP’s Merthyr Pioneer from its first appearance in 1911.

In January 1914 Nicholas left Glais to become Minister to two chapels in rural Ceredigion: Ebenezer, Llangybi, and Bethlehem, Llanddewi Brefi. When the First World War broke out, Hardie and Nicholas both opposed it. Within a few days of Britain going into the war Hardie was speaking against it in his own constituency but was shouted down by the crowd, who supported the war. Hardie died on 26 September 1915, aged only 59. Nicholas delivered the funeral service at Hardie's funeral, and continued to oppose the War throughout its duration. The authorities took an interest in his activities and sought evidence of treason.

In the General Election of 1918, Nicholas was invited by the ILP to stand in Hardie's old Merthyr and Aberdare seat, against Charles Butt Stanton (1873-1946). Stanton had won the seat in the by-election caused by Hardie's death: he had supported the Coalition Government and the war; and fought the General Election as a member of the National Democratic Party (NDP) with the assistance of the Coalition 'coupon'. Nicholas campaigned on Hardie's socialist and pacifist positions. He was badly mistreated. He won 6,229 votes to Stanton's 22,824. However, he was heartened by the fact that the Labour Party greatly increased its vote share nationally (from 7% to 21%) and for the first time it won the most seats in Wales, breaking the long Liberal dominance. Nicholas took heart also from the Russian revolution.

In Ceredigion Nicholas organised farmworkers into a Union and in 1918 he established the Labour Party in the county. He resigned from the ministry in the same year. He and his wife and son, Islwyn ap Nicholas, set up a dental practice - first in Pontardawe and then, in 1921, in Aberystwyth. (They were trained as dentists by a good friend, David Ernest Evans (1870-1956) of Mountain Ash).

In 1920, Nicholas joined the Communist Party when it was first formed. He continued as an active and popular lecturer, preacher, writer, columnist and poet. In the 1930s he wrote a weekly column, ‘O fyd y werin’ (‘The world of the people’) in Y Cymro newspaper.

In July 1940, during the Second World War, he and his son Islwyn were arrested on a charge of fascism. They were imprisoned first in Swansea prison and then in Brixton, where Nicholas wrote 150 sonnets expressing his Christian and Communist convictions. Protests against their imprisonment came from Ministers of religion, trade union leaders, especially the miners, and Members of Parliament. After four months in prison, they were released. Nicholas' prison sonnets (many written on toilet paper were published in 1942 in the volume Canu'r Carchar: they were translated into English by Daniel Hughes, Dewi Emrys and Wil Ifan as The Prison Sonnets of T. E. Nicholas (London, 1948). A second volume of prison poems was published as Llygad y Drws ("The Eye of the Door", referring to the eye-hole in the prison cell door).

T.E. Nicholas died at home in Aberystwyth on 19 April 1971, aged 91. The funeral services were held at the Independent Chapel, Aberystwyth and Narberth Crematorium. His ashes were scattered on the Preseli Hills, Pembrokeshire. His papers are held in the T.E. Nicholas Archive at Bangor University.

T.E. Nicholas was a pacifist, a Christian, a radical, a socialist, a Communist. He was an internationalist who loved the Welsh language and the culture of the Welsh people. His roots were in the radicalism and religion of the Nonconformist tradition of rural West Wales. Yet he threw himself into the practical struggles of his century - to unionise the industrial and agricultural workers of Wales and to build political parties which could fight for them.

Poetry

• Salmau'r Werin First edition (Ystalyfera, 1909), Second edition (Wrecsam, 1913)
• Cerddi Gwerin (Caernarfon, 1912)
• Cyflog Byw (Pontardawe, 1913)
• Cerddi Rhyddid (Abertawe, 1914)
• Nadolig Arall (Llangybi, 1915)
• Dros Eich Gwlad First edition (Llangybi, 1915), Third edition (Pontardawe, 1920), Fourth edition (1930)
• Y Gân Ni Chanwyd(Aberystwyth, 1929)
• Weithwyr Cymru, Cenwch eich hunain i ryddid (Aberystwyth, 1938)
• Terfysgoedd Daear (1939)
• Sonedau'r Carchar(Aberystwyth, 1940)
• Llygad y Drws (1940)
• Canu'r Carchar (Llandysul, 1942)
• Y Dyn a'r Gaib (Dinbych, 1944)
• Dryllio'r Delwau (Tywyn, 1949)
• Meirionnydd First edition (Llandysul, 1949), Second edition (1950)
• Rwy'n Gweld o Bell (Abertawe, 1963)

"Prison Sonnets", translated into English by Dewi Emrys et al, probably 1942