Harri Webb

Harri Webb was born on 7 September 1920 in Swansea,[1] at 45 Tŷ Coch Road in Sketty, but before he was two the family moved to Catherine Street, nearer the city centre.

In 1938 he won a Local Education Authority scholarship, and went to the University of Oxford to study languages, specialising in French, Spanish and Portuguese – a period of his life to which he made virtually no reference in his writings.

[citation needed] At the outbreak of World War II, Webb immediately volunteered for the Royal Navy, and served as an interpreter which included work with the Free French in the Mediterranean region, with periods in Algeria and Palestine, and with action in the north Atlantic.

He made innovations such as lending LPs, and buying books and periodicals to appeal to a female readership who were gaining more independence in this era, to some criticism from those wary of modernisation.

[5] The library has a memorial plaque dedicated to Webb installed in 1997 reading 'poet and librarian, bardd a llyfrgellydd, 1920-1994' unveiled by Meic Stephens and Gwilym Prys Davies.