OWEN, ROBERT (1858 - 1885), schoolmaster and poet

Born 30 March 1858 at Tai Croesion, a small farm not far from Llanaber church, Merionethshire; son of Gruffydd Owen, boatman and farmer, and his wife Margaret. The particulars given here are taken from the biography written by (Sir) Owen M. Edwards for the selection made by him of the poems by Robert Owen, published in 1904 at Llanuwchllyn. When he was four years old, Robert Owen moved with his parents to Llwyn Gloddaeth, a farm about a mile inland from Barmouth. The father did not succeed as a farmer and the family lived later in Barmouth. Here Robert Owen went to the newly-opened British School, becoming in time, an assistant teacher at that school. He also learnt some French, German, Italian, and Spanish, being assisted by a Frenchman, a good linguist, who had settled in Barmouth. He did not go to Bangor to receive training as a schoolmaster because, owing to the death of his parents, the care of a younger brother and two young sisters fell upon his shoulders. He became assistant master at Jasper House School, Aberystwyth, and later at Bourne College, Birmingham. Because he was now beginning to suffer from tuberculosis he decided to sail for Australia in the hope of having his health restored. He reached Melbourne on 7 April 1879, secured a post as private tutor in a household of Irish people - living on a farm called Mullagh, near Harrow, Victoria, and died there 23 October 1885. He has been rightly called (by O. M. Edwards) 'a poet of the sea.'

Author

• Sir William Llewelyn Davies, (1887 - 1952)

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/