Robert Jones Derfel was a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 poet and political writer.

He was born Robert Jones on a farm in Merionethshire

Merionethshire

Merionethshire is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, a vice county and a former administrative county.The administrative county of Merioneth, created under the Local Government Act 1888, was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 on April 1, 1974...

 and became a travelling salesman employed by a Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 firm. He also became a Baptist preacher. With John Ceiriog Hughes

John Ceiriog Hughes

John Ceiriog Hughes , was a Welsh poet and well-known collector of Welsh folk tunes. Sometimes referred to as the "Robert Burns of Wales"...

 and two other Welshmen, he formed a literary society in Manchester, taking the surname "Derfel" at that time. He had already begun to write for periodicals and to win prizes for poetry at local eisteddfodau. His political views were heavily influenced by Robert Owen

Robert Owen

Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...

, and he wrote the first articles on Socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 in the Welsh language

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

, campaigning for causes such as a university for Wales. In 1865 he bought a bookshop in Manchester, with a printing press, and afterwards produced "Derfel's School Series" on Welsh-interest topics. In his later years he wrote more in the English language, particularly on the subject of Socialism.

Works

• Brad y Llyfrau Gleision (The Treachery of the Blue Books) (1854)
• Traethodau ac Areithiau (Essays and Discourses) (1864)

Sources

• Welsh Biography Online