Mathias, Roland

(1915- )

   Welsh poet, born at Talybont-on-Usk, Breconshire, the son of an army chaplain. He gained a first class honors in history from Jesus College, Oxford. His teaching career started in 1948 at Cowley Boys' Grammar School in Lancaster and ended in 1969 at King Edward VI Five Ways School in Birmingham, where he had been headmaster since 1964. On retiring to Brecon, he devoted his life to writing about Welsh culture and heritage. He contributed to The Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales (1986). In 1985 Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., awarded him an honorary doctoral degree. The Roland Mathias Prize, a new literary prize for Welsh writing in English, was awarded for the first time in Brecon on 23 March 2005. Some of his poetry publications: Days Enduring, 1942. Break in Harvest, 1946. The Roses of Tretower, 1952. Absalom in the Tree, 1971. Snipe's Castle, 1979. Burning Brambles: Selected Poems 1944-1979, 1983. A Field at Vallorcines, 1996. Some of his poems: "Brechfa Chapel," "Cae Iago: May Day," "Craswall," "Departure in Middle Age," "Grasshoppers," "Sanderlings," "TideReach."

   Sources: Anglo-Welsh Poetry, 1480-1980. Raymond Garlick and Roland Mathias, ed. Poetry Wales Press, 1984. Anglo-Welsh Poetry, 1480-1990. Raymond Garlick and Roland Mathias, ed. Poetry Wales Press, 1993. Biography of Ronald Mathias (http://www.transcript-review.org/section.cfm?id=198&lan=en). The Collected Poems of Roland Mathias. University of Wales Press, 2002 (http://www.uwp.co.uk/book_desc/1760.html). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English. Gwyn Jones, ed. Oxford University Press, 1977. The Roland Mathias Prize (http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/brecon_life/pages/roland_mathias_prize.shtml). Twentieth Century Anglo-Welsh Poetry. Dannie Abse, ed. Seren Books / Dufour Editions, 1997.