Gwilym Tilsley
Rev. Gwilym Richard Tilsley, commonly known by his bardic name of "Tilsli", was a Welsh poet who served as Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales between 1969 and 1972.
He was born at Tŷ Llwyd near Llanidloes and educated at Manledd primary school, Llanidloes County School, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and Wesley House, Cambridge, before entering the Methodist ministry.
As a Methodist minister, he served in Commins Coch near Machynlleth, Pontrhydygroes in Cardiganshire, Aberdare, Colwyn Bay, Llanrwst, Caernarfon, Rhyl and Wrexham before retiring to Prestatyn. This experience of the itinerant life of a Methodist minister in both north and south Wales inspired the two heroic poems to the industrial worker which brought him to prominence:
He won the chair at the National Eisteddfod of Wales at Caerphilly in 1950 for a poem Moliant i'r Glöwr in praise of the coal miner,
and again at Llangefni in 1957 with the poem Cwm Carnedd about the life of the slate quarryman.
Tilsley wrote the words of several Welsh hymns, including Am ffydd, nefol dad, y deisyfwn
He married Anne Eluned Jones in 1945. A son, Gareth Maldwyn Tilsley, was born in 1946.Works
