Canon D. Parry-Jones

The Carmarthenshire Historian deeply regrets to record the death of the Rev. Canon Daniel Parry-Jones which occurred at his home in Newport, Gwent in July 1981. Canon Parry-Jones who was 89 years of age, was the author of highly successful books which described life in the countryside of his native Carmarthenshire as he knew it around the turn of the century. Born a farmer's son near Llangeler, he was a graduate of St. David's College, Lampeter, which he once described as "not a Welsh College at all, merely a College in Wales" — by which he meant a College in the Oxford tradition.

His books, Welsh Country Upbringing (published in 1941), Welsh Country Characters (1952) and My Own Folk, published when he was 81, make a valuable record of rural life before the first World War. Another book was Welsh Legends and Fairy Lore. Readers of The Carmarthenshire Historian will recall his memories of Newcastle Emlyn published in Vol. IV.

In a letter accompanying his last subscription to The Carmarthenshire Historian he wrote: "I am afraid it will have to be the last as my eyesight is not now good enough to read the print. I value the collection very much. You have done a great service to the old county and I shall miss my annual copies". He died only months later, survived by a reputation that will shine with increasing brilliance for as long as people enjoy reading about old times in Shir Gâr.