VAUGHAN, ARTHUR OWEN (Owen Rhos-comyl; 1863? - 1919), adventurer and author

This was an adopted name; his baptismal name was Robert Scourfield, son of Robert Mills and Jane Ann, daughter of Joseph Scourfield. Born at Southport, 6 September 1863. His father was buried less than a month later. His mother moved to Manchester and remarried. Her second husband, Luke Etchells, died in 1869. The child was brought up by his grandmother who came originally from Tremeirchion. She called him Owen. He himself adopted the name Arthur Owen Vaughan and formed his pseudonym ' Owen Rhoscomyl' from Rho[bert] Sco[urfield] Myl[ne] using the Middle English word for mill.

When a boy, he ran away to sea (from Portmadoc), and became a wanderer. In the South African War, he led a troop of horse. the 14th Northumberland Fusiliers, and acquired note; and in the 1914 war he rose to be colonel and D.S.O.

He was the author of four novels: The Jewe of Ynys Galon (1895), Battlement and Tower (1896), The White Rose of Arno (1897), and Old Fireproof (1906). He collaborated with lord Howard de Walden in a drama, The Children of Don, 1912. His historical books, Flame bearers of Welsh History , 1905, and The Matter of Wales, 1913 (a more ambitious work), have not met with the approval of professional historians.

He married Catherine Lois (Katherine Louisa) de Geere on the bank of the river Vaal c. 21 December 1900. His certificate of marriage was lost when he was admitted to hospital. She died at Penarth in 1927. He died 15 October 1919 at a London nursing-home, aged 56 as it is said. He was buried in Maeshyfryd cemetery, Diserth Road, Rhyl.

Author

• Sir William Llewelyn Davies, (1887 - 1952)

Sources

• The Times, 17 October 1919
• Western Mail, 16 and 20 October 1919
• Rhyl Journal, 25 October 1919
• H. Blackwell, NLW MSS 9251-9277A: A Dictionary of Welsh Biography
• NLW Archives: NLW MSS 2504-2505D: Sir Edward Anwyl MSS: Letters 1885x1914
• Information from his daughter

Further reading

• Hywel Teifi Edwards, I godi'r hen wlad yn ei hôl, 1850-1914 (Llandysul 1989), 246-50
• Hel Achau, 34 (1991)
• John S. Ellis, Owen Rhoscomyl (University of Wales Press 2016)
• John S. Ellis, Making Owen Rhoscomyl (1863-1919): biography, Welsh identity and the British world, Welsh History Review, Vol. 26, no. 3 (Autumn 2013), pp. 482-511
• The late Owen Rhoscomyl: Interment at Rhyl, North Wales Chronicle, 24 October 1919, p.5
• BBC cymrufyw: Owen Rhoscomyl: Cowboi, milwr, hanesydd, Cymro
• Wikipedia Article: Arthur Owen Vaughan

Additional Links

• NLW Archives: Arthur Owen Vaughan (Owen Rhoscomyl) Papers
• VIAF: 38296620
• Wikidata: Q4799891

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/