Who Was Who in the Cynon Valley

INTRODUCTION

Details of the lives of the great and the good in Aberdare history can be found in the pages of the Dictionary of National Biography and the Dictionary of Welsh Biography. However, the majority of the figures from the past have no reference book apart from the monumental W. W. Price Biographical Index which he spent a lifetime assembling on index cards now housed at the National Library of Wales. Even this is an incomplete record. Fortunately his cards have been photocopied and bound into thirty large volumes which can be accessed at the Aberdare Central Library. The huge task of copying the cards and binding the books was carried out by the NLW. The project was funded by the former Cynon Valley Borough Council and the Cynon Valley History Society.

From time to time various members of the Society come across the name of a local worthy in connection with a particular place or event when it is realised that little or nothing is known of the subject’s life. This starts a ‘paper chase’ in order to uncover biographical details; fortunately information is often easily uncovered thanks to the vast archive of newspapers and other sources now available on line. The information gathered will be presented below using the name of the person to link to their biographical details. This list will be expanded over the next few years.

Where DWB is seen, it means that a more detailed biography is available in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography Online.
 

Click below to select an individual

Leonard Acomb

Richard Bedlington

William Southern Clark

Morgan R. David

Lord Edmund-Davies

J. Victor Evans

Griffith George

Owen Harris

John Jones (Ceffyl Gwyn, Commercial Place)

The Kenshole family

Hugh Pritchard

Rees Hopkin Rhys

William Sarvis

The Williams family of Compton House, Aberdare

John Zachariah