Hedd Wyn

Ellis Humphrey Evans is a farmer’s son and a poet living at Trawsfynydd in the uplands of Wales. He competes for the chair of the National Eisteddfod, the highest prize in Welsh poetry. He sends his poem in under the bardic name Hedd Wyn, which means blessed peace. Then, despite his misgivings about the war, he joins the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Liverpool and is sent to the trenches of Flanders. Evans was killed on 31 July 1917 on Pilckem Ridge near Ypres. The prize was given to him six weeks later, at the ceremony held at Birkenhead in August 1917; when the winner was called nobody came forward and the chair was covered with a black cloth. That year’s ceremony is still known as the eisteddfod of the black chair. It was the first Welsh language film nominated for an Oscar. Paul Turner’s hundred and twenty three minute British film was completed in 1992.