Robert Owen Hughes, 1858-1919

Robert Owen Hughes, journalist and poet, was born in 1858 in Llanrwst, Denbighshire. Although he received an apprenticeship at the banking firm of Pugh Jones and Co. and even contemplated becoming a Calvinistic Methodist minister, in 1885 he became sub-editor of the newspaper Gwalia . Later he became editor of Y Rhedegydd and Y Glorian and he was a frequent contributor to Y Genhinen and Cymru .

Under the bardic name of Elfyn he won several Eisteddfod competitions, including the chair at the 1898 National Eisteddfod. He published a collection of poems under the title Caniadau Elfyn . He died in 1919.

From the guide to the Elfyn Papers, 1886 - 1952, (Bangor University)