T. E. Nicholas

[2] Before he was one year old, the family moved to 'Y Llety', Pentre Galar, a 57-acre smallholding on the slopes of Foel Dyrch in the Preseli Hills, Pembrokeshire, where Nicholas was brought up.

Niclas was introduced to what was happening in Parliament by the newspaper Baner ac Amserau Cymru published by Thomas Gee.

Between 1904 and 1914 he was minister of Seion Chapel in the village of Glais in the Swansea Valley, where Nicholas Road bears his name.

[8] His religious convictions, influenced by Watcyn Wyn and Gwili, were focused on the radical message of the Gospels.

He supported the socialism of R. J. Derfel with its emphasis on brotherhood, peace and justice, equality, land nationalisation, and a Parliament for Wales, and opposition to the royal family, the brewers and militarism.

He was a prolific poet: his early poetry had religious themes but by 1908 his poems carried a socialist and radical message.

In January 1914 Nicholas left Glais to become Minister to two chapels in rural Ceredigion: Ebenezer, Llangybi, and Bethlehem, Llanddewi Brefi.

[12] In the General Election of 1918, Nicholas was invited by the Labour Party to stand in the Aberdare division of Hardie's old Merthyr Tydfil seat, against Charles Butt Stanton (1873–1946).

However, he was heartened by the fact that the Labour Party greatly increased its vote share nationally (from 7% to 21%) and for the first time it won the most seats in Wales, breaking the long Liberal dominance.

He and his wife and son, Islwyn ap Nicholas, set up a dental practice – first in Pontardawe and then, in 1921, in Aberystwyth.

[13] They were imprisoned first in Swansea prison and then in Brixton, where Nicholas wrote 150 sonnets expressing his Christian and Communist convictions.

Protests against their imprisonment came from Ministers of religion, trade union leaders, especially the miners, and Members of Parliament.

Nicholas's prison sonnets (many written on toilet paper[12]) were published in Llygad y Drws: Sonedau’r Carchar (Aberystwyth, 1940) and Canu’r Carchar (Llandysul, 1942): they were translated into English by Daniel Hughes, Dewi Emrys and Wil Ifan as The Prison Sonnets of T. E. Nicholas (London, 1948).