Trefor Richard Morgan (28 January 1914 – 3 January 1970) was aWelsh nationalist activist. He was a businessman who set up an insurance company and also supported efforts aroundWelsh language schooling.
Born inTonyrefail,Glamorgan, Morgan lost his father in theSpanish Influenza epidemic of 1918. He won a place atgrammar school, but left at age fourteen to work as acoal miner, because of his family's financial difficulties.[1] By the mid-1940s, he was instead working in farming.[2]
Morgan was aconscientious objector duringWorld War II, on the ground of his Welsh nationalist beliefs. In 1941 Morgan and another man, Ted Merriman, were imprisoned for a month on the charge ofinsulting behaviour after they turned their backs during the playing ofGod Save the King at an event held inAberystwyth.[3] Morgan married Gwyneth Evans in 1943.[1]
Morgan became active inPlaid Cymru. He stood for the party inOgmore at the1945 general election and in a1946 by-election. He was one of the founders of theWelsh Republican Movement, set up in September 1949, after a difference of opinion led to around fifty Plaid Cymru members walking out of a conference.[4] In1950, he stood as an independent nationalist candidate inMerthyr Tydfil. In1955, he again stood for Plaid, this time inAbertillery, and at the1964 and1966 general elections, he stood inBrecon and Radnorshire.[1]
Morgan's election campaigns were unsuccessful, and he decided to focus on promoting independent Welsh businesses. To this end, he set up an insurance company, Cwmni Undeb, based inAberdare. He pledged that any profits would be invested in Welsh industry or establishing Welsh-language schools. Following on from this, he created a trading estate for like-minded businesses inHirwaun, and in 1963 founded Cronfa Glyndwr yr Ysgolion Cymreig (The Glyndŵr Trust for Welsh Schools), which distributed funds to parents wishing to send their children to Welsh-language schools.[5] In 1968, he founded Ysgol Glyndwr nearBridgend as a residential Welsh-language secondary school, but this closed soon after his death, in 1970.[6]
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