Who was Sir Henry Jones?

Like most other children in the late 19th Century, Henry Jones left school at 12 and went to work. But unlike others, Henry was encouraged to study. Working with his father, the village shoemaker, during the day and, ‘working at my books … throughout the small hours and till morning came,’ he won a scholarship to train as a teacher. Continuing his studies, he eventually became Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University.

Henry was a brilliant philosopher and teacher, whose work was greatly influenced by the shoemaker’s workshop and life in his home village. He never forgot his humble origins and worked hard to improve the system of education in Wales.

In 1912 he was knighted and in 1922 made a Companion of Honour. He also received the medal of the Cymmrodorion Society for his services to Wales.

Following Henry’s death in 1922 a memorial fund was established. Its president was Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald and David Lloyd George was the vice president.

The fund subsequently bought his childhood home, Y Cwm, and David Lloyd George opened it as a museum in 1934.

Today the museum is run by the Sir Henry Jones Memorial Trust and tells Henry’s story and that of his home village in the second half of the 19th Century.