File WJ/19 - Subject files

Henry Goronwy Alun Hughes, librarian, translator and journalist, was born in Bronant, Pontlottyn, Glamorgan, on 15 July 1921, the second son of the Reverend Robert Gwenffrwd Hughes and his wife Ethel (née Evans). His maternal grandfather was the Reverend Benjamin Evans ('Telynfab'), minister at Gadlys Welsh Baptist Church, Aberdare. In 1925 his father became the minister of Capel Rhondda, Gyfeillion, near Pontypridd. Goronwy Hughes attended Pontypridd County School for Boys, 1932-1939. Rhydwen Williams, poet and novelist, was a cousin of Dr Goronwy Hughes.

He won a scholarship in modern languages to Jesus College Oxford, in 1939, but his studies were interrupted by the War. He worked as a merchant seaman, sailing as a fireman, motorman on British, Swedish, Norwegian, Greek and Latvian ships. After the War he returned to University in 1944 and was awarded a degree in French and Portuguese. He studied anthropology at the University College, London and went to the Gilbert Islands to do his fieldwork, 1951-1952, having received a grant from the School of Oriental and African Studies. From 1953 to 1955 he attended lectures in social anthropology at the London School of Economics. In the summer of 1953 he went to the World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest. In 1956 he was appointed Language Specialist and International Librarian at Liverpool Public Libraries. He spent some time as a senior lecturer at two universities in Prague before returning to Wales as the Borough Librarian at Flint. He published books at his Gwasg Gwenffrwd at Afonwen mainly during the 1990s.