The Black Chair Eisteddfod
On September 6th 1917 the Eisteddfod pavilion in Birkenhead was packed to hear the adjudication of the judges. In their opinion the poet with the nom-de-plume of 'Fleur-de-lis' fully deserved to win. The Archdruid then rose to tell the audience that the winner was a Private E.H. Evans - Hedd Wyn - but explained that he would be unable to take part in the ceremony as he had been killed in battle a month earlier in the War at Passchendaele. (Ellis never knew of his success). The Chair was draped with a black cloth and the assembled audience was grief-stricken, the empty chair seemed to symbolise all the men who would never return from the War. The Chair can be seen in the parlour of Hedd Wyn's home in Trawsfynydd.
