EDWARDS, ALFRED GEORGE (1848-1937), first archbishop of Wales;
son of William Edwards and Louisa his wife, and brother of H. T. Edwards (q.v.), was b. at Llan-ym-Mawddwy rectory, Mer., 2 Nov. 1848. After a year at the Welsh Educational Institution, Llandovery, and private tuition, he matriculated at Jesus College, Oxford, in Jan. 1870, and graduated with honours in classics in 1874, M.A. 1876. He became successively assistant master and (in 1875) warden of Llandovery College, was ordained deacon in 1874 and priest in 1875; in 1885 he was preferred to the vicarage of S. Peter, Carmarthen, becoming at the same time private secretary to bishop William Basil Jones (q.v.) of S. Davids. In Feb. 1889 he was nominated bishop of S. Asaph, and was consecrated in Westminster Abbey on 25 March. On 1 June 1920 he was enthroned first archbishop of Wales at S. Asaph cathedral, and resigned in June 1934. Throughout his life he was an outspoken champion of the rights of the Established Church; he was a bitter opponent of the Welsh Church Bill which became law in 1914, but his astute diplomacy did much to ensure the mitigations which are found in the Amending Act of 1919. He was the author of Landmarks in the History of the Welsh Church, 1912, and Memories, 1927, which give an interesting picture of Welsh rural life in the 19th cent., and received the honorary degrees of LL.D. (Wales), D.C.L. (Oxon.), and LL.D. (Cantab.), besides being made an honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, in 1920. He m., first, in 1875, Caroline (d. 1884), daughter of Edward Edwards, Llangollen, by whom he had two sons and three daughters; second, in 1886, Mary Laidley (d. 1912), daughter of W. J. Garland of Lisbon, by whom he had one son and one daughter; and third, in 1917, Margaret, daughter of canon John Richard Armistead, vicar of Sandbach, who survived him. He d. 22 July 1937, and was buried at S. Asaph.
Bibliography:
- A. G. Edwards, Memories, 1927;
- G. G. Lerry, A. G. Edwards, 1940;
- Foster, Alumni Oxon..
Author:
Thomas Iorwerth Ellis, M.A., (1899-1970), Aberystwyth
