The Morfydd Owen story has it all. A woman of beauty and plentiful talent, famous friends, who died far too young aged 26, in unusual, and some would say suspicious circumstances.
There is a new Morfydd Owen mural in Pontypridd where there is also an annual Morfydd Owen festival in October.
I’ll give a brief summary of her life but not go into too much detail as there is already plenty available online (see references at end of article). I will however then share some things which I’ve discovered during my research which may not have been shared previously in relation to Roath and Cardiff.
Morfydd Owen was born on 1st Oct 1891 in Treforest to William Owen, a bookkeeper, originally from Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire and Sarah Jane Owen nèe Jones, a draper and milliner, originally from Merthyr Tydfil.
On her father’s side she is believed to be descended from William Williams, Pantycelyn, the famous Welsh hymn writer. On her mother’s side there is thought to be Romany stock. Put those two things together and we have an explanation for her musical talent and dusky appearance.
Her twin brothers William and Richard had been born five years previously at 15 Mackintosh Place, Roath. She was schooled in Treforest (and possibly Roath – see later).
Morfydd’s musical talent shone through at a young age and when her learning outpaced local music teachers in Treforest, she travelled to Cardiff to be tutored privately by Professor David Evans, head of Music at Cardiff University. Whether that was at the university or his home in Cefn Coed Road is not clear. She wrote her first composition in 1908 at the age of 17.
Two years later she won the Caradog scholarship in composition and started studying music at Cardiff University. She graduated two years later aged 21 having already penned around twenty compositions. Also in 1912 she attended the Wrexham Eisteddfod where she was admitted to the Gorsedd of the Bards under the name Morfydd Llwyn Owen, a reference to where her father came from in Montgomeryshire.
After graduating in Cardiff she went to the Royal Academy in London.
Morfydd is probably best known as a composer but she was also a talented mezzo-soprano vocalist and pianist. It wasn’t just classical music that occupied her. She also wrote accompaniments to Welsh folk songs.
Her time in London was musically productive and she penned many compositions. Her social circles were initially her fellow students at the Royal Academy and the London-Welsh chapel attending community at Charing Cross Presbyterian Chapel but then a third friendship group appeared, the Bohemian society in Hampstead which included D.H.Lawrence. It was through this group that she met and quickly married psychoanalyst Dr Ernest Jones, an atheist with a flamboyant lifestyle and friend and biographer of Sigmund Freud. Her musical output began to diminish as married life took over.
Eighteen months after being married Morfydd and Ernest went on holiday and stayed with his parents in Mumbles. It was there that she became seriously ill. Appendicitis was diagnosed. An operation to remove the appendix was hastily arranged and took place at the family home in Craig-y-môr, Thistleboon, Mumbles but died a few days later after developing a high temperature. In his autobiography Ernest Jones explains the death was due to chloroform being used as the anesthetic. She is buried in Oystermouth Cemetery. The headstone is inscribed with a quotation in German from Goethe’s Faust. In translation it reads ‘Here the indescribable consequences (of love) have been fulfilled’.
There has always been speculation over the circumstances of her death. Was it the result of the anaesthetic or was it blood poisoning caused by infection? There was also speculation that she may have been pregnant at the time but not by Ernest Evans. The one certainly was that her death was a loss of a very talented young musician.
A bit of family history
I know what it’s like when people like me writes about family history. It must be so easy to lose the plot. To make things a bit easier I have sketched out a simplified Morfydd Owen family tree.
The Roath Connection
We know that the twins Richard Austin Owen and William David Owen were born at 15 Mackintosh Place on 10 Nov 1886. By 1888 the Owen family had moved to Treforest where Maldwyn Hugh Owen was born. He died in infancy on Oct 17 1891, aged three, just a couple of weeks after Morfydd herself was born on 1 Oct 1891.
Written accounts of Morfydd Owen state she and her twin brothers were schooled in Treforest and Pontypridd but some school records more recently digitized and available on Find My Past tend to suggest they lived part of the time in Cardiff.
In 1889 Morfydd’s admission to Wood Street Board School, Treforest states that her previous school was in Cardiff. I would have tended to overlook that had it not been for finding three school records for her twin brothers.
In 1895 on entering Wood Road Boys School, Treforest their records say their previous school was Stacey Road, Cardiff.
In 1899, again at entering Wood Road school in Treforest their records state they previously went to Albany Road school in Cardiff.
In 1899 the twin brothers are admitted to Howard Gardens School in Cardiff. On this admission form they are recoded as living at 46 Miskin Street in Cathays and their previous school being Roath Park Board School.
Why do their records show that they seemingly attended every school in Roath? Were they actually flitting between Treforest and Roath. Maybe if I search I will find some relative in the area they were living with.
There is something to support the fact that the Owen children may have moved around in childhood between relatives. At the time of the 1891 census neither of the four year old twin brothers, William nor Richard, were living with their parents. William was with his paternal grandparents in Penrhiwceibr and Richard with his maternal grandparents in Cilfynydd.
Father – William Owen and his annus horribilis
1918 was to be an awful year for William Owen, Morfydd’s father. In April 1918 his wife Sarah passed away. She is buried in the graveyard next to the now abandoned Saron Chapel, Treforest along with their infant son Maldwyn. I tried to visit the grave recently but the church is abandoned and the whole graveyard has become overgrown and impassible.
On 7 Sep 1918 Morfydd herself died in Mumbles and buried a few days later in Oystermouth Cemetery. Newspaper reports appear to show her father William and the twin brothers attended the funeral.
A month later on 11 Oct 1918 William David Owen had made it back to France but died in a military hospital of influenza.
So in the space of six months William Owen had lost his wife and two of his three remaining children.
He moved to Cardiff living initially in Colum Road. He remarried to Ethel Parry in 1926 and they had a son Huw Parri Owen (1926-1996) who went to Cardiff High School and went on become Professor of Theology at Aberystwyth and Bangor.
In his time in Cardiff William Owen attended Plasnewydd Presbyterian church (now the Gate Arts Centre).
William Owen died on 14 Jul 1948, aged 83, at his house 63 Park Place, Cardiff, a building now part of Cardiff University. He is buried in Cathays Cemetery (plot EG1720). Other articles state that the grave could not be found as the area was completely overgrown but when I visited it was clear. William appears to be buried on his own. His second wife Ethel died in Bangor in 1962.
Brother – William David Owen
As already stated William Owen died in WWI. As he was born in Roath we have included him on our Roath Virtual War Memorial. Here is his summary on the memorial:-
WILLIAM DAVID OWEN
2nd Lieutenant, 15th Battalion, Welsh Regiment
William David Owen and his twin brother Richard Austin were born on 10 Nov 1886 at 5 Mackintosh Place, Roath to William Owen, an accountant, originally from Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire and Sarah Jane Owen nèe Jones originally from Methryr. In 1891 the twins were living separately with different grandparents; William in Penrhiwceibr. They attended Albany Road and Roath Park primary schools then Wood Road board school in Treforest before being registered at Howard Gardens School, Cardiff. In 1901 the Owen family were living together in Castle Street, Treforest including their sister Morfydd who was to go on to become a composer of notoriety. After leaving school William became a bank clerk with the London and Provincial Bank. At the time of the 1911 census he was working in Ruthin, Denbighshire. He later worked in a bank in Cowbridge. William married Ivy Keturah Owen in Portsmouth in 1917. William had joined the Officer Training Corps. He held a temporary commission in the 4th Battalion the Welch Regiment (a territorial battalion). He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieut on 26 Sep 1917. He was serving with the 15th (Service) Battalion Welsh Regiment when he died from influenza in a British military hospital near Lyon on the 11 Oct 1918, aged 31. A newspaper report said he had been on his way to Salonika. He is buried in Saint-Germain-au-Mont-d’Or Communal Cemetery Extension, France. Commonwealth War Graves Commission record. He is also remembered on the Cowbridge War Memorial and on the Welsh Regiment WW1 Memorial in Sandhurst and the Pontypridd War Memorial in Ynysangharad Park. His sister, Morfydd Owen, had died tragically a month before William in Mumbles, aged 25. William’s daughter was born after he died, in April 1919 and given the middle name Morfydd after his sister. Megan Morfydd Owen lived to be 100 years old.
Brother – Richard Austin Owen
After leaving school Richard become an elementary school teacher himself. At the time of the 1911 census he is living with his parents and sister Morfydd at Wain House Treforest.
In WWI he served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (service no.16377).
On 26 May 1917 he married Margaret Mary Evans in Pontypridd. He returned to the front and received a gunshot wound in the right hand on 2 Aug 1917.
At the time of the 1921 census Richard and his wife and first child William are living with his father at Colum Road and he is teaching at Grangetown Boys School. He later taught at Gladstone School, Cathays. Richard and Margaret had three children together.
He died in 1931, aged 45, and is buried in Cathays Cemetery (grave EJ523).
Richard’s widow, Margaret Mary Owen, remarried Thomas William Pugh, father of Muriel Agnes Pugh the Royal Eye Surgeon, subject of one of our previous blogs. Margaret died in Cardiff in 1976 and is buried with her first husband Richard ‘Richie’ Owen in Cathays Cemetery.
Remembering Morfydd
In honour of Morfydd’s vibrancy & quirkiness the annual festival named after her in Pontypridd has a lampshade parade. When Morfydd was in London she decided on upcycling old lampshades and wearing them as hats. So I’ll leave you there as I head off to choose between a pleated, round or bell lampshade.
References:
Never so pure a sight – Morfydd Owen (1891-1918) – Rhian Davies (1994) (Gomer press)
Rhian Davies, ‘An incalculable loss’: Morfydd Owen (1891-1918) – Illuminate Women’s Music (2018)
Morfydd Owen – Eliot-Crawshay-Williams, Wales No. 35, Dec. 1958 (National Library of Wales)
Oh can it be that evermore she sleeps? Morfydd Owen (1891-1918): A Centenary Lecture – Rhian Davies MA. Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1991)
Morfydd Llwyn Owen of Treforest – Welldigger blog post (2014).
Blue Plaque in Thistleboon – The Story of Mumbes (2026)
Morfydd Llwyn Owen facts for kids – Kiddle Encyclopedia (2025)
Morfydd Owen – Radio Wales Arts Show (2018)
Roath Local History Society 