WALTERS, DAVID EUROF (1874-1942), minister (Congl.) and writer;

Born 27 May 1874 the eldest of the five children of John and Ann (née Dyer) Walters of Ty'n-y-coed, Betws, Ammanford, Carmarthenshire. The father was a blacksmith and the family moved when David was five years old to Glais, near Clydach, Swansea Valley. He had his early education at the local board school where he became a pupil-teacher. The family were members at Seion, Glais, and his mother ensured that she took him to all the meetings held at that church. Another strong influence on him was his uncle

Job Richards, ' Eilab ',

who had been a schoolmaster at the Llanelli copper works school and at Pontfathew (Bryn-crug today) near Tywyn, Meironnydd, before embarking on a course at Bodiwan College, Bala, under the tuition of Michael Daniel Jones and John Peter, and becoming the first minister of Moriah (Congl.), Tŷ-croes.

Eurof Walters had for a time been a clerk with the Merthyr-Brecon Railway Company, before being apprenticed at Tracy's shop in Morriston as a jeweller and goldsmith (the explanation of his bardic name). He went to Gwynfryn School, Ammanford (see Watkin Hezekiah Williams), for half a year. He walked there from the home of his cousin John Dyer Richards, the eldest son of Job and Mary (née Dyer) Richards of Waun-lwyd, Saron, Llandybïe. The two cousins went to the Memorial College, Brecon, and Eurof pursued a degree course at the University College, Cardiff, where he obtained a first class in Hebrew and Greek. For three years successively he was awarded a scholarship. With the Dan Isaac Davies scholarship for three years he took an honours course in Welsh. He received a number of calls but decided to complete the B.D. course; he was amongst the first Welshmen to obtain that degree. He was ordained at Salem, Llandovery, where he stayed for five years, and was then minister of Market Square English church, Merthyr Tydfil, 1905-10. Afterwards he was a representative of the Bible Society, 1910-15, and travelled extensively in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. At the beginning of World War I he accepted a call to the church in Henrietta Street, Swansea, where he laboured for eleven years (1915-26) during which time the membership doubled there. His next pastorate was at Christ Church, Oswestry. In 1931 he moved to Tabernacl Welsh church, Belmont Road, Liverpool, where he threw himself into the Welsh religious and cultural life on Merseyside. He was awarded the M.A. degree of the University of Liverpool in 1933 for a thesis on Vavasor Powell. He took an interest in bibliographical matters, was a member of the Welsh Bibliographical Society and a contributor to its journal. He was also a member of the Gorsedd of Bards. He was one of the founders of the Welsh Summer Schools under the Union of Welsh Societies, and was a tutor in Welsh literature for years. He won six eisteddfod chairs and many prizes in the national eisteddfod, e.g. an essay on Stephen Hughes (Birkenhead, 1917), an historical novel Pwerau'r Deufyd (Port Talbot, 1932). He wrote on the Sunday school syllabuses in Y Tyst and Y Dysgedydd and a number of Biblical commentaries. He was chairman of the Union of Welsh Independents in 1940-41.

He married Catherine Eleanor (Kate), daughter of William Thomas, minister (Congl.) of Gwynfe, and Mary his wife; they had three children. In his latter years his health was impaired by the effects of the air-raids on Liverpool and also on Swansea where a great deal of the fruit of his scholarship and literary work was lost when Morgan and Higgs' bookshop was destroyed by enemy action. He died at his home 12 Hampstead Road, Elm Park, Liverpool, on 24 September 1942; his body was cremated at Liverpool crematorium.

Author

• Evan David Jones, (1903 - 1987)

Sources

• Who's who in Wales (1937)
• Y Tyst, 8 and 15 October 1942

Published date: 2001

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