PUDDICOMBE, ANNE ADALISA ('Allen Raine'; 1836 - 1908), novelist

Born 6 October 1836 in Bridge Street, Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire, the eldest child of Benjamin and Letitia Grace Evans. Her father was a lawyer, and a grandson of David Davis of Castellhywel (1745 - 1827), whilst her mother was the daughter of Thomas Morgan, a surgeon of Newcastle Emlyn, and grand-daughter of Daniel Rowland of Llangeitho (1713 - 1790).

During childhood she attended a school at Carmarthen, and from 1849 to 1851, she was educated with the family of Henry Solly, Unitarian minister at Cheltenham. During the years 1851-6 she resided with her sister at Southfields, near Wimbledon. She learned French and Italian and was a capable musician. In 1856 she returned to Wales, and there spent the next sixteen years.

On 10 April 1872, at Penbryn church, Cardiganshire, she married Beynon Puddicombe, foreign correspondent of Smith Payne's Bank, London. For the following eight years they lived at Addiscombe, near Croydon, and then at Winchmore Hill, Middlesex. In February 1900, as her husband suffered from a mental affliction, she removed him to Bron-môr, Traeth-saith, Cardiganshire, where, on 29 May 1906, he died. She continued to reside there until her death on 21 June 1908. Both were buried in Penbryn churchyard.

In her youth, with the help of a few friends, she published a short-lived periodical called Home Sunshine, which was printed at Newcastle Emlyn. In 1894 she shared a prize offered at the Caernarvon national eisteddfod for a serial dealing with Welsh life, and this was later published in the North Wales Observer under the title 'Ynysoer.' In June 1896 she finished writing a novel called 'Mifanwy,' but having had it rejected by six publishers, she changed the title to 'A Welsh Singer , by Allen Raine.' She dramatised this novel, but it was only performed on one occasion. After this she produced one novel after another in quick succession, Torn Sails, 1898; By Berwen Banks, 1899; Garthowen, 1900; A Welsh Witch, 1902; On the Wings of the Wind, 1903; Hearts of Wales, 1905; and Queen of the Rushes, 1906 (which depicts a number of incidents of the religious revival of 1904 and 1905). Published posthumously were Neither Store-house nor Barn, 1908 (which had already appeared in serial form in the Cardiff Times); All in a Month, 1908 (treating of her husband's malady); Where Billows Roll, 1909; Under the Thatch, 1910 (dealing with cancer, from which the author died). In 1909 there was published An Allen Raine Birthday Book. She contributed a number of short stories to various periodicals, and in Wales , 1897, vol. iv, there appears an English translation by her of Ceiriog's poem 'Alun Mabon.'

Author

• Dr David Jenkins, (1912 - 2002)

Sources

• D. L. Thomas, Puddicombe, Mrs. Anne Adalisa, writing under the pseudonym of Allen Raine (1836–1908), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 1912
• South Wales Daily News, 23 June 1908
• Western Mail, 23 June 1908
• Yr Ymofynnydd, September 1908
• Wales, the National Magazine for the Welsh People, May 1911

Further Reading

• Juliet Larsen, Allen Raine - a distinctive female voice in Wales
• Sally Roberts Jones, Puddicombe [née Evans], Anne Adalisa [pseud. Allen Raine] (1836–1908), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
• Wikipedia Article: Allen Raine

Works

• Allen Raine, A Welsh singer (London 1897)

Additional Links

• VIAF: 75356354
• Wikidata: Q4731836

Published date: 1959

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