The family moved again after the First World War to Gwyddelwern where John's father became station master.
John attended Tandomen County School, Bala before studying at University College of North Wales in Bangor.
In the latter role, he met such figures as Bertrand Russell, Lord Beveridge, Lady Nancy Astor and, on a delegation abroad to Italy in 1928, Pope Pius XI, from whom he received his blessing.
Meredith graduated Bangor University with a BA in philosophy in 1928[1] and went on to study theology at Jesus College, Oxford that year.
In Aberystwyth, Meredith was a loyal member of the local Free Church Council and served as the Mayor's Chaplain six times.
Meredith also delivered the 1970 Davies Lecture on ‘Gwenallt, religious poet’ which was later published in 1974, having been extended into a book.
In 1962 he wrote a brief biography of Thomas Levi, his predecessor as Tabernacl Chapel, and contributed to a memorial volume on Gwilym Davies in 1972.
At the National Eisteddfod of Wales in Cardiff in 1938, Meredith was adjudicator for Chief Recitation Competition, a role which he performed in numerous other Eisteddfodau.
He also strongly opposed the suggestion of introducing a bar in Aberystwyth's Students' Union and campaigned to keep pubs closed on Sundays, frequently preaching on the need for temperance.
In 1977 he had a seizure which resulted in him spending the rest of his life in hospital, where he died suddenly on 16 April 1981 from heart failure.