A former Chairman of Carmarthenshire County Council has been granted the Honorary Freedom of Carmarthenshire on his 100^th birthday.

David Tom Davies OBE, known as DT Davies, served as a councillor for his local area of Dryslwyn, near Llandeilo, from 1970 to 2003, chairing the former Dyfed County Council from 1981-82, Carmarthenshire County Council from 1995-97, and on several education committees and boards.

He is also one of three founder members of the National Botanic Garden of Wales as well as Aberglasney Gardens, where he is a life member.

Before service to his community, Mr Davies served Queen and Country in WWII as a member of the Royal Artillery, and was captured as a prisoner of war at the Battle of Crete in 1941.

He spent three years as a prisoner in Austria, then Hungary and finally at the Zemun concentration camp, near Belgrade.

However, he managed to escape five times, eventually reaching Yugoslavia and joining the partisans before being invalided out to Italy and sent back to Britain where he was awarded a Military Medal.

He wrote an account of his wartime exploits in a book entitled “All for Freedom – A True story of escape from the Nazis” which was published in 2016.

On July 11, on his 100^th birthday, the Honorary Freedom of Carmarthenshire was conferred in a special ceremony at Carmarthen’s County Hall, where Mr Davies was joined by members of his family.

Cllr Cefin Campbell, who now serves the Llanfihangel Aberbythych ward, was among those who nominated Mr Davies for the Honorary Freedom.

He spoke of Mr Davies’s selfless commitment to his community and his respectful ability as a Chairman, as well as his remarkable determination and resilience during his wartime service.

Of the nomination, he said: “It’s the biggest honour Carmarthenshire can give to one of his daughters and sons, and I can think of no-one more deserving.”

The granting of a Freedom of Carmarthenshire is a rare honour, and Mr Davies was presented with a scroll to mark the occasion by council Chairman Cllr Mansel Charles.

Mr Davies said it was an ‘amazing honour’.

“I’m very proud because it’s people such as yourselves – who represent the people of Carmarthenshire – that honour me today, and that means more to me than any honour I’ve received,” he said.

To date, the Freedom of the County of Carmarthenshire has only ever been awarded to the Royal Welsh Regiment in 2009 and to the late William David Thomas OBE for services to Local Government in 2014.

An honorary title conferred with a scroll, it does not carry special privileges to individual recipients, however the Royal Welsh Regiment have the freedom to march through the streets of Carmarthenshire on ceremonial occasions, with ‘drums beating, bands playing, colours flying and bayonets fixed’.

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It’s been a busy week of competing for young musicians from across Carmarthenshire.

The County Youth Jazz Orchestra and Côr Merched Sir Gâr performed in the national finals of the National Festival of Music for Youth competition last week.

The choir and orchestra earned themselves a spot in the finals through their previous performances.

The event took place on Wednesday in one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious venues – Symphony Hall in Birmingham.

Performing in front of a panel of adjudicators from the music industry, the Jazz Orchestra and Côr Merched Sir Gâr received a standing ovation.

The County Wind Band also performed at the national finals in Symphony Hall last Friday with over seventy pupils taking the stage to represent Wales.

Côr Merched Sir Gâr also took to the stage at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod on Friday and Saturday.

Executive board member responsible for education and children’s services, Cllr Glynog Davies, said: “What an excellent week this has been, showcasing some of the musical talent that we have here in Carmarthenshire. I would like to congratulate our young musicians on their successes. They are a real testament to the commitment and hard work provided by our council’s Music Service.”

Press release:

A free, public event to present and launch the Llanelli Forum will take place on:

Tuesday 17 July 2018 at Parc Y Scarlets, Phil Bennett Lounge.

FFORWM LLANELLI FORUM is a new community-based group comprising about 40 founder members.

Its main objectives are to initiate, support and participate in grass-roots activities that benefit Llanelli and our community, either independently or in collaboration with other local associations.

The Forum does not have any political party affiliation.

Among our objectives, we plan to hold monthly events which will include debates on matters of current concern and presentations by invited speakers on topics of local interest.

We will put community engagement at the heart of everything we do.

The press are invited to be present throughout this event and may film and record freely.

An area will be available for representatives of the press, who may wish to interview selected participants during the press hour set aside for this purpose (see below).

The provisional programme is as follows:

2.30 p.m.                    Opening, including an address by a representative of

Llanelli Rural Council

2.30 – 5.30 p.m.      Llanelli-based community groups and relevant

associations will have promotion stalls and may

make short presentations of their work, offering an

opportunity for Forum members and visitors

to become familiar with other groups with relevant                                     specific objectives

5.30 – 6.30 p.m.      Press hour

6.30 – 8.30 p.m.      Official presentation and launch

Speakers during the afternoon and evening will include: Neil McEvoy, AM Independent; John Jenkins, Llanelli Town Councillor Independent; Sean Rees, Llanelli Town Councillor Independent. Non party aligned representatives have been invited to speak.

 llanelliforum@gmail.com  and fforwmllanelli@gmail.com

 0748 424 8090

 @FforwmLlanelli

  Fforwm Llanelli Forum

Carmarthenshire County Council’s recycling advisors are holding an action day to raise awareness and educate residents about the littering challenges we are facing in Llanelli Town Centre and the surrounding streets.

The advisors will be available on Monday, July 16, 10am – 2pm, outside Boots in Llanelli, handing out advice and freebies such as portable ash trays and gum wraps.

The aim of the action day is to engage with those who live, work and visit Llanelli, to ask them what they think about the environmental quality in the area, what they think could be done to tackle any litter related issues, and who they think the culprits are.

We will also be guiding the public on the correct use of litter and recycling bins, and how to report dog fouling and litter offences.

There will be the chance to sign up and volunteer to do community litter picks, leading to the opportunity to earn time credits which reward volunteers for every hour of time they give.

Cllr Hazel Evans, Executive Board Member for Environment, said: “An action day is a great way for us to engage with the community, and an opportunity for us to communicate crucial information and our methods to the public. Our residents will also get a chance to voice their concerns and suggestions.”

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An award-winning poet and playwright, a web entrepreneur, a leading judge, and an actress and singer are among those who will be honoured during this year’s degree ceremonies at Aberystwyth University.

Graduation Week 2018 takes place over four days, from Tuesday 17 until Friday 20 July, in the Great Hall at Aberystwyth University’s Arts Centre.

Eight Honorary Fellowships will be presented to individuals who have, or have had a connection with Aberystwyth or Wales, and who have made an outstanding contribution to their chosen field.

Two Honorary Bachelor degrees will also be presented.

These are conferred on individuals who are members of Aberystwyth University staff without an entry-level degree in recognition of long-service, contribution and dedication to the Institution; and members of the local community who have made a significant contribution to Aberystwyth and the area.

Professor Elizabeth Treasure, Aberystwyth University’s Vice-Chancellor said: “Graduation is a real highlight of the University calendar; an occasion when we celebrate the success of our graduates and welcome their families and supporters to Aberystwyth. It is also an opportunity to honour those who have made exceptional individuals in their respective fields, as Fellows of the University.

“We also celebrate the valuable contribution made by members of our local community. We look forward to recognising the enormous contributions of a philanthropist who has organised and led no fewer than fifty humanitarian missions to help the innocent victims of war, and an actress and singer whose career over five decades has included performances on stage, television, film, and radio, with the awarding of Honorary Batchelor Degrees.”

The 2018 Aberystwyth University Honorary Fellows are (in order of presentation):

Ann Sumner

Art historian, exhibition curator and museum director, Professor Ann Sumner was Head of Fine Art for Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales from 2000-07, and Director and Professor of Fine Arts and Curatorial Practice at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham from 2007-12, before being appointed Head of Cultural Engagement at the University of Leeds. Educated at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, she undertook her PhD at Newnham College, Cambridge. She began her career at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and held curatorial positions at the Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Harewood House Trust and the Holburne Museum, University of Bath.  She was recently appointed Chair of the Methodist Modern Art Collection.

Professor Ann Sumner will be presented during Ceremony 1 on Tuesday morning, 17 July by Professor Robert Meyrick, Head of the School of Art.

Menna Elfyn

Award winning poet and playwright, Professor Menna Elfyn is one of the foremost Welsh-language writers. Writing with passion of the Welsh language and identity, her work has been published for five decades. She has published fourteen volumes of poetry, many children’s books and anthologies, stage plays, adaptations and scripts for television, radio plays, libretti, and several television documentaries. She is the most translated of all modern Welsh-language poets, her work having been translated into over twenty languages. She was the Welsh-language Children’s Poet Laureate in 2002-03. Professor Menna Elfyn is Director of the Masters Programme in Creative Writing at University of Wales Trinity Saint David and a Literary Fellow at Swansea University.

Menna Elfyn will be presented during Ceremony 2 on Tuesday afternoon, 17 July by Eurig Salisbury from the Department of Welsh and Celtic Studies.

Euryn Ogwen Williams

The broadcaster and seminal figure in Welsh media, Euryn Ogwen Williams was brought up in Leeswood near Mold in Flintshire. He graduated from the University of Wales Bangor in Philosophy and Psychology. From 1964-1981 he produced and directed a wide range of programmes for BBC, ITV and independently. When Welsh language broadcaster S4C was set up in 1982 he became its first Director of Programmes, and from 1988 until 1991 was the channel’s deputy CEO. In March 2018 he led an independent review of S4C for the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.  He has published two volumes of poetry and many papers on the changing media scene. He lectures and advises on media and is a regular contributor to television and radio programmes.

Euryn Ogwen Williams will be presented during Ceremony 3 on Wednesday morning, 18 July by Dr Jamie Medhurst from the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies.

John Dawes

Former rugby union player and coach, John Dawes OBE, won his first Wales cap in 1964 aged 23.  An Aberystwyth alumnus (Chemistry, 1962), he went on to win a further 21 caps for Wales over the subsequent decade – six as captain; including of the Grand Slam winning side of 1971.  He captained the 1971 British Lions tour of New Zealand, where they became the first and only team to date to win a series in New Zealand. After retiring as a player, he was the coach of the Wales national side from 1974-1979, winning the Five Nations Triple Crown four times in five seasons, including two Grand Slams. He also coached the British Lions tour to New Zealand in 1977. He was made an OBE in the 1972 New Year’s Honours List for services to sport. He holds a proud record for any Welshman – as a player or coach he never lost to an England side.

John Dawes will be presented during Ceremony 4 on Wednesday afternoon, 18 July by Dr Rhys Thatcher from the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences.

Milwyn Jarman

His Honour Judge Milwyn Jarman QC was born into a farming family at Llanllwchaearn near Newtown, Powys.  After attending Newtown High School and Montgomery College of Further Education, he came to Aberystwyth to study law. He took a masters at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, before reading for the Bar exams at Gray’s Inn. He then became a pupil barrister in Chambers at 34 Park Place (later 9 Park Place), Cardiff, from where he would practice for the next 27 years, developing a speciality for business and property, planning and public law cases, and eventually becoming Head of the Chambers.  He became a Recorder of the Crown Court in 2000 assigned to the Wales and Chester Circuit, and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2001. He was appointed as the Specialist Chancery Judge for Wales in 2007, and sits as a judge of the High Court in the Queen’s Bench Division, Administrative Court and as an Upper Tribunal Judge.

His Honour Milwyn Jarman QC will be presented during Ceremony 5 on Thursday morning, 19 July by Gwerfyl Pierce Jones, Pro Chancellor of Aberystwyth University.

Bonamy Grimes

Web entrepreneur Bonamy Grimes MBE grew up in west Wales and attended Aberaeron Comprehensive, where he was amongst the first cohort of pupils to study computer science at both O-level and A-level in the 1980s. He went on to co-found flight price comparison website Skyscanner from his attic in London in early 2002. Since then the company has grown to be the largest travel search company in the world with over 700 employees and offices across the globe.  He received an MBE for services to technology and travel in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2016. In November 2016 Skyscanner was sold to the online travel agent Ctrip for £1.4 billion. Having stepped down from day-to-day involvement in the company, Bonamy now mentors several start-up businesses in the UK and is involved in a range of charity projects.

Bonamy Grimes will be presented during Ceremony 6 on Thursday afternoon, 19 July by Dr Bernie Tiddeman, Head of the Department of Computer Science.

John Thompson

John Thompson graduated in Computer Science from Aberystwyth in 1992, and started his career in technical research working for the UK Ministry of Defence. In 2001, he co-founded Commerce Decisions Ltd where as CEO he worked closely with his brother Ian (an Aberystwyth Business Studies graduate) to create software that supported global customers undertaking complex procurement projects. The software has been used on 12,000 projects worth a combined £265bn. John sold the company to QinetiQ plc in October 2008 in a deal worth £12m. In 2012 he created UserReplay Limited; a technology to assist website owners to understand and resolve issues causing frustration to consumers. He is now chairman and advisor to a number of early entrepreneurial technology companies.

John Thompson will be presented during Ceremony 6 on Thursday afternoon, 19 July by Professor Qiang Shen, Director of the Institute of Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science.

Ian Hopwood

Aberystwyth International Politics alumnus Ian Hopwood has worked in the field of development for over 40 years, at UNICEF headquarters in New York and on field assignments in Africa, Asia, and the Arab Gulf States.  As UNICEF Representative in Guinea, Zambia and Senegal, he was actively engaged in child rights advocacy, aid effectiveness and UN reform, poverty reduction strategies, and Millennium Development Goals action plans.  He has continuously sought to improve evaluation quality and organisational learning, and to strengthen links between research, policy formulation, programming practice and evaluation, and was UNICEF’s Evaluation Chief from 1996-2000. Since retiring from UNICEF, he has guided the Senegalese Evaluation Association (of which he is Honorary President), lectured on monitoring and evaluation and the rights of children at Sciences Po (Paris) and Cheikh Anta Diop University (Dakar), and undertaken consultancies for a number of charities, aid agencies and global development programs.

Ian Hopwood will be presented during Ceremony 7 on Friday morning, 20 July by Professor Milja Kurki from the Department of International Politics.

Honorary Bachelor Degrees

Sue Jones-Davies

Sue Jones-Davies graduated from Bristol University in 1971, before embarking on a career as an actress and singer. She has worked in TV, film, radio and theatre, in both English and Welsh. On stage she appeared in the original London production of Jesus Christ Superstar. On television she acted in How Green was My Valley, the ITV series Rock Follies, and played Megan Lloyd George in the BBC series The Life and Times of David Lloyd George.  Her most notable film appearances were in Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979) and Solomon and Gaenor (1999) which received an Oscar nomination as Best Foreign Language Film.  In the 1970s she sang with The Bowles Brothers Band, and now sings in the Welsh-language acoustic band Cusan Tân.  She teaches yoga in the Aberystwyth area, where she is part of the Yoga i Bawb group, which aims to bring yoga to all parts of the community. She is an Aberystwyth town councillor for Plaid Cymru and was Mayor of Aberystwyth from 2008-2009.

Sue Jones-Davies will be presented with an Honorary Bachelor of Arts Degree during Ceremony 3 on Wednesday morning, 18 July by Dr Anwen Jones, Head of the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies.

Eric Harries

Retired Station Manager of Aberystwyth Fire Station, Eric Harries organised and led 50 humanitarian missions from Aberystwyth to Bosnia, Croatia, Belarus and Romania over an 18 year period from 1994-2013.  Compelled to help the innocent victims of war, he started a campaign engaging with the local community and the media to raise awareness of the vital need for humanitarian assistance and supplies, and co-ordinated collections and fundraising across Ceredigion.  He then used his annual leave to drive his van on the 3,500 mile journey to take food, toiletries and medical supplies to the areas affected by war. His philanthropic efforts benefitted the lives of countless people.

Eric Harries will be presented with an Honorary Bachelor of Science Degree during Ceremony 7 on Friday morning, 20 July by Dr Elin Royles from the Department of International Politics.

Meic Stephens

The author and scholar Professor Meic Stephens was presented with an Honorary Fellowship of Aberystwyth University on Thursday 3 May 2018 at a special ceremony in Cardiff. Sadly, Professor Stephens died on Tuesday 3 July.

Photo:  Lance Batchelor, the CEO of Saga plc, was presented with an Honorary Fellowship of Aberystwyth University in 2017

Link: 

Graduation 2018

https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/graduation/

Press release:

PEOPLE V THE STATE: CELEBRATING 50 YEARS SINCE THE BATTLE FOR PEMBREY AND CEFN SIDAN

In 1969, the communities of Burry Port and Pembrey commenced a David v Goliath battle against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to prevent it from relocating the Shoeburyness gunnery range, (which had to be relocated due to the proposal to build a third London airport) from Essex to the range it owned at Pembrey.

This would turn the area lying between Cefn Sidan and Kidwelly into a huge gunnery range, shooting missiles into the sea towards Gower.

The implications of such a plan would jeopardise the lives and livelihoods of the residents of Carmarthen Bay from Gower to south Pembrokeshire.

From the 1940s – 1960s the state and its institutions had commandeered Welsh land and uprooted community after community from the mountains of Merionyddshire to the uplands of Breconshire.

This was not going to happen here.

The residents of Burry Port and Pembrey fought the project with direct action and hard campaigning, invoking the spirit of their fearsome wrecker ancestors, the Little Hatchet Men.

Committees were formed in communities stretching from Swansea to Tenby to support the cause which the powers that be at the time took as a fait accompli.

This was a fight undertaken by people of all ages and the women were crucial to its success, as so many of the menfolk were working shifts in the region’s heavy industries.

Slandered and derided by the then Welsh Secretary, George Thomas, surveilled and raided by Special Branch, these brave women and their families took on the might of the British state and won.

If this battle had been lost, Pembrey Country Park and Cefn Sidan would not exist as we know it today.

It was a significant part of modern Welsh history which has been sadly neglected and this significant anniversary is the perfect time to inform todays’ communities of the enormity of the challenge faced by their forefathers.

Some of the original campaigners have now formed a committee to highlight this brave endeavour and are looking for interested parties to join in the celebration and commemoration of this fight.

One of the original campaigners, Mr Mike Clement said:

“It was, in effect, the biggest battle for the land that this area of Carmarthenshire has seen since medieval times and united the people of the coastal communities from Tenby to Swansea. 

We are looking at ways of commemorating this vitally important piece of quite recent history, as it has been forgotten and we think it of huge importance that the younger generations learn about their heritage and the fight that their grandparents and parents undertook. Against all odds!”

There will be a buffet meal at Caffi Lolfa, Burry Port on Friday 20^thJuly at 6.30 pm.

If you can offer some creative ideas and some spare time to volunteer, please come along but book ahead due to limited numbers.

Caffi Lolfa, is at 4 Stepney Rd, Burry Port.
SA16 0BH
Call the Caffi at 01554 834148

For further information contact:
Peter Freeman (Committee Chair)
ianto47@gmail.com  Mobile # 07495 273912
Joanna Davies (Secretary/Treasurer)
jojocymru@yahoo.co.uk  Mobile 07805 095685