Hedd Wyn (born Ellis Humphrey Evans, 13 January 1887 – 31 July 1917) was a Welsh-language poet who was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I.

Evans, who had been awarded several chairs for his poetry, was inspired to take the bardic name Hedd Wyn ([heːð wɨ̞n], "blessed peace") from the way sunlight penetrated the mist in the Meirionnydd valleys.

[4] Despite his brief attendance in formal schooling (6–14) he had a talent for poetry and had already composed his first poem by the age of eleven, "Y Das Fawn" (the peat stack).

His talent for poetry was well known in the village of Trawsfynydd, and he took part in numerous competitions and local eisteddfodau, winning his first chair (Cadair y Bardd) at Bala in 1907, aged 20.

[9] In 1913, 26-year-old Hedd Wyn began to find fame for his poetry when he won chairs at the local eisteddfodau at Pwllheli and Llanuwchllyn.

The following year he took second place at the National Eisteddfod in Aberystwyth with Ystrad Fflur, an awdl written in honour of Strata Florida, the medieval Cistercian abbey ruins in Ceredigion.

The war saw a major clash within Welsh Nonconformism between those who backed military action and those who adopted a pacifist stance on religious grounds.

Mae'r hen delynau genid gynt, Ynghrog ar gangau'r helyg draw, A gwaedd y bechgyn lond y gwynt, A'u gwaed yn gymysg efo'r glaw Why must I live in this grim age, When, to a far horizon, God Has ebbed away, and man, with rage, Now wields the sceptre and the rod?

Although farm work was classed as a reserved occupation due its national importance, in 1916, the Evans family were required to send one of their sons to join the British Army.

In February 1917, he received his training at Litherland Camp, Liverpool, but in March 1917 the government called for farm workers to help with ploughing and many soldiers were temporarily released.

However, the troops' advance was hampered by incoming artillery and machine gun fire, and by heavy rain turning the battlefield to swamp.

Private Evans, as part of the 15th (Service) Battalion (1st London Welsh), was advancing towards a German strongpoint –created within the ruins of the Belgian hamlet of Hagebos ("Iron Cross")– when he was hit.

[16] In an interview conducted in 1975 by St Fagans National History Museum, Simon Jones, a veteran of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, recalled, "We started over Canal Bank at Ypres, and he was killed half way across Pilckem.

Among the fatalities that day was the Irish war poet, Francis Ledwidge, who was "blown to bits" while drinking tea in a shell hole.

On 6 September 1917, the ceremony of Chairing of the Bard took place at the National Eisteddfod in Birkenhead Park, England; in attendance was the Welsh-speaking British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George.

After the adjudicators announced that the entry submitted under the pseudonym Fleur de Lys was the winner, the trumpets were sounded for the author to identify themselves.

The chair was hand-crafted by Flemish craftsman, Eugeen Vanfleteren (1880–1950), a carpenter born in Mechelen, Belgium, who had fled to England on the outbreak of war and had settled in Birkenhead.

[20] Hedd Wyn, Ei Farddoniaeth, a complete Welsh language anthology of his works, was published by Trawsfynydd's Merilang Press in 2012.

In 2012, fourteen years after Ellis's death, Gerald decided it was time to pass on the custodianship of Yr Ysgwrn to the Snowdonia National Park Authority.

The Authority's objectives are to protect and preserve the site while enhancing the visitor experience in order to share the story of Hedd Wyn.

The war memorial stands close to the spot where Hedd Wyn was mortally wounded in July 1917 during the Battle of Passchendaele.

[29] The work was the culmination of a project involving more than 800 schoolchildren and adults at primary and secondary schools across Wales which looked at the life and legacy of the poet.

It depicts Hedd Wyn as a tragic hero who has an intense dislike of the wartime ultranationalism which surrounds him and his doomed struggle to avoid conscription.

[33] In July 2017, Y Lolfa published An Empty Chair, a novel for young people telling the story of Hedd Wyn as seen from the point of view of his teenage sister, Anni (mother of Gerald Williams).