Gwili John Jenkins

John Jenkins (8 October 1872 – 16 May 1936), known by his bardic name of Gwili, was a Welsh poet and theologian who served as Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales from 1932 to 1936.

Gwili was born at Hendy in Carmarthenshire, the fifth child of John Jenkins, a metal refiner, and Elizabeth, his wife. Both his parents were fervent Baptists, so that he received much of his primary education in the Baptist Sunday School movement. He attended Hendy Primary School, where he served as a pupil teacher in 1885–90.

In the late 19th and early 20th century in England and Wales, a promising 13-year-old could stay on at school as a probationer to help with teaching younger pupils. After two years, he or she would spend another three years, learning the profession before taking a final exam. Passing that ensured being paid for at training college to become a qualified teacher. Gwili did not go on to become a qualified teacher.

In 1891 Gwili became a pupil at the Athenaeum School in Llanelli, but stayed for only one term as it then closed. He moved on to the Gwynfryn School in Ammanford for a year, studying Greek and Latin, before moving to the Baptists Theological College in Bangor. There he studied for the external intermediate examination of the University of London, which he failed in 1896, probably because he had spent too much time on his poetic and literary pursuits rather than his studies. The failure also precluded him from being accepted into the Baptist ministry.

In October 1896 he enrolled for a course at the University of Wales, Cardiff, but withdrew in March 1897.

In 1905, aged 33, Gwili entered Jesus College, Oxford as a student of Greats, i. e. Latin, Greek, Ancient Philosophy and History, and passed the first-year examinations. However, he changed his course and instead obtained a second-class honours degree in theology in 1908. University regulations at the time would have awarded him an automatic MA degree after seven years (1915).

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