Sarah Jane Rees

Sarah Jane Rees (9 January 1839 – 27 June 1916), also known by her bardic name of "Cranogwen", was a Welsh teacher, poet, editor and temperance campaigner.[1]

Sarah Jane Rees
Rees circa 1875
Born
Sarah Jane Rees

(1839-01-09)9 January 1839
Llangrannog, Wales
Died27 June 1916(1916-06-27) (aged 77)
Cilfynydd, Wales

Early life

Sarah Jane Rees was born at Llangrannog in Cardiganshire, the daughter of a mariner John Rees, and received her early education at the village school.[2] She was a precocious child and insisted that she accompany her father to sea rather than undertake sewing and cooking chores, which she hated.[3] However, this was not particularly unusual, as many wives and daughters accompanied men in local ships trading up and down the coasts on family business.[4] She was initially educated in her local village by an old schoolmaster called Hugh Davies, who taught her both Latin and astronomy.[1][2] She later attended school in Cardigan and New Quay, and for a time studied at a navigation school in London,[2] where she gained her master's certificate, a qualification allowing her to command a ship in any part of the world.[5] In 1859 Sarah Jane set up her own navigation school in her home village of Llangrannog.[6]

Career

In 1865, competing at Aberystwyth against men such as William Thomas (Islwyn), she won her first major Eisteddfod prize, for "Y Fodrwy Briodasal (The Wedding Ring)", in the "song" category.[2] A book of poems, Caniadau Cranogwen, followed this victory, in 1870.[7] In addition to teaching navigation and other subjects, she became editor of the Welsh-language women's periodical Y Frythones (1878–1889), a "platform for Welsh bluestockings and proto-suffragettes."[8][9]

Rees had two significant same-sex relationships, previously described as a romantic friendship.[10] Her first was with Fanny Rees, a milliner's daughter from Troedyraur, near LLangrannog. Fanny contracted tuberculosis and returned to Wales around 1874 to die. She moved into Rees' home rather than that of her family, and died in her arms. So affected was Rees that for 12 years she was unable to put flowers on Fanny's grave, and she commemorated Fanny in one of her best-known poems, Fy Ffrynd (My Friend).[11] Her second relationship was with Jane Thomas, with whom she spent most of her life. Open about her unconventional domestic arrangement, Rees was nonetheless a committed Methodist, and toured giving lectures on education, temperance and other subjects. In 1869–1870, she toured the United States, addressing mainly Welsh immigrant communities as far west as California.[12] She was one of the founders of the South Wales Women's Temperance Union (UDMD), when it formed in 1901.[13]

Legacy

Rees died at Cilfynydd[14] and was buried in the churchyard at St. Crannogs, her grave marked by a large and elaborate obelisk.[15][16]

A shelter for homeless women and girls named "Lletty Cranogwen" was founded in the Rhondda valley in 1922, by the South Wales Women's Temperance Union, and named in memory of Rees' work to improve Welsh women's lives.[1][17]

In 2019 she was among the five women short-listed as the subject for an artwork to be installed in Cardiff.[18]

References
  1. "Rees, Sarah Jane". Welsh Biography Online. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  2. "Noted Welshwoman: Death of Cranogwen". The Cambrian News. 30 June 1916. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  3. John (1991), p. 80.
  4. Shopland, Norena 'Cranogwen' from Forbidden Lives: LGBT stories from Wales Seren Books (2017).
  5. Deirdre Beddoe: "Rees, Sarah Jane..." ODNB Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  6. Shopland, 2017
  7. Carradice, Phil (25 April 2013). "Sarah Jane Rees, Schoolteacher and Poet". BBC Wales. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  8. Jenkins, Geraint H. (2007). "A Concise History of Wales". Cambridge University Press. p. 220. ISBN 9780521823678.
  9. "Welsh Women Writers (1700–2000)," in John T. Koch, ed., Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO 2006): 1787.
  10. Davies, Russell (2005). Hope and Heartbreak: A Social History of Wales, 1776–1871. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 320.
  11. Shopland, Norena 2017
  12. Hughes, David (1969). Welsh People in California, 1849–1906. R & E Research Associates. p. 119.
  13. Deirdre Beddoe, Out of the Shadows: A History of Women in Twentieth-Century Wales (University of Wales Press 2000): 38.
  14. Obituary, Cymru 1914, 30 June 1916. Accessed 16 Sept 2014
  15. Barnes, David (2005). The Companion Guide to Wales. Companion Guides. p. 30. ISBN 9781900639439.
  16. "Image of the Cranogwen Memorial at Llangrannog churchyard". Ceredigion County Council. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  17. Rhondda Cynon Taf Libraries Digital Archive, "Mrs M Griffiths JP, opening 'Lletty Cranogwen', 144 Kenry Street, Tonypandy, 21st June 1922" (photograph).
  18. Hitt, Carolyn. "Hidden Heroine: Could Cranogwen win statue?". BBC. Retrieved 10 January 2019.

Bibliography
  • John, Angela V., ed. (1991). Our Mothers' Land, Chapters in Welsh Women's History 1830–1939. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1129-6.
  • Shopland, Norena (2017). Forbidden Lives: LGBT stories from Wales. Bridgend: Seren Books. ISBN 1781724105.
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