Editing Hedd Wyn (section)

==First World War==
Hedd Wyn was a [[Christian pacifism|Christian pacifist]] and did not enlist for the war initially, feeling he could never kill anyone.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dVP7Imhnm5kC&q=hedd+wyn+pacifist&pg=PA156 |title=Improving Learning in College: Rethinking Literacies Across the Curriculum |date= 4 March 2009|isbn=9781134031474 |access-date=2017-10-15|last1=Ivanic |first1=Roz |last2=Edwards |first2=Richard |last3=Barton |first3=David |last4=Martin-Jones |first4=Marilyn |last5=Fowler |first5=Zoe |last6=Hughes |first6=Buddug |last7=Mannion |first7=Greg |last8=Miller |first8=Kate |last9=Satchwell |first9=Candice |last10=Smith |first10=June |publisher=Routledge }}</ref> The war left [[Nonconformity in Wales|Welsh non-conformists]] deeply divided. Traditionally, the Nonconformists had not been comfortable at all with the idea of warfare. The war saw a major clash within Welsh Nonconformism between those who backed military action and those who adopted a pacifist stance on religious grounds.<ref>{{cite web|author=Martin Shipton |url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/first-world-war-pacifism-cracks-8362287 |title=The First World War, pacifism, and the cracks in Wales' Nonconformism movement |publisher=Wales Online |date=2014-12-30 |access-date=2017-10-15}}</ref>

The war inspired Hedd Wyn's work and produced some of his most noted poetry, including ''Plant Trawsfynydd'' ("Children of Trawsfynydd"), ''Y Blotyn Du'' ("The Black Dot"), and ''Nid â’n Ango'' ("[It] Will Not Be Forgotten"). His poem, ''Rhyfel'' ("War"), remains one of his most frequently quoted works.
{{Verse translation|lang=cy|
Gwae fi fy myw mewn oes mor ddreng,
A Duw ar drai ar orwel pell;
O'i ôl mae dyn, yn deyrn a gwreng,
Yn codi ei awdurdod hell.

Pan deimlodd fyned ymaith Dduw
Cyfododd gledd i ladd ei frawd;
Mae sŵn yr ymladd ar ein clyw,
A'i gysgod ar fythynnod tlawd.

Mae'r hen delynau genid gynt,
Ynghrog ar gangau'r helyg draw,
A gwaedd y bechgyn lond y gwynt,
A'u gwaed yn gymysg efo'r glaw
|
Why must I live in this grim age,
When, to a far horizon, God
Has ebbed away, and man, with rage,
Now wields the sceptre and the rod?

Man raised his sword, once God had gone,
To slay his brother, and the roar
Of battlefields now casts upon
Our homes the shadow of the war.

The harps to which we sang are hung,
On willow boughs, and their refrain
Drowned by the anguish of the young
Whose blood is mingled with the rain.<ref name=llwyd>{{cite book|first=Alan|last=Llwyd|authorlink=Alan Llwyd|title=Out of the Fire of Hell: Welsh Experience of the Great War 1914–1918 in Prose and Verse|publisher= Gomer Press|year= 2008}}</ref>{{rp|p233}}}}

===Conscription===
[[File:30a Sammlung Eybl Großbritannien. Alfred Leete (1882–1933) Britons (Kitchener) wants you (Briten Kitchener braucht Euch). 1914 (Nachdruck), 74 x 50&nbsp;cm. (Slg.Nr. 552).jpg|thumb|190px|The "[[Lord Kitchener Wants You]]" recruitment poster from 1914.]]

Although farm work was classed as a [[reserved occupation]] due its national importance, in 1916, the Evans family were required to send one of their sons to join the [[British Army]]. The 29-year-old Ellis enlisted rather than his younger brother Robert. In February 1917, he received his training at Litherland Camp, [[Liverpool]], but in March 1917 the government called for farm workers to help with ploughing and many soldiers were temporarily released. Hedd Wyn was given seven weeks' leave. He spent most of this leave working on the [[awdl]] ''[[Yr Arwr]]'' ("The Hero"),<ref>[http://freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alwyn/Cerddibugail/yr_arwr.shtml Full text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090427130357/http://freepages.books.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alwyn/Cerddibugail/yr_arwr.shtml |date=27 April 2009 }} {{in lang|cy}}.</ref> his submission for the National Eisteddfod. According to his nephew, Gerald Williams, <blockquote>"It was a wet year in 1917. He came back for fourteen days leave and wrote the poem, ''Yr Arwr'', on the table by the fire. As it was such a wet year, he stayed for another seven days. This extra seven days made him a [[deserter]]. So the [[Royal Military Police|military police]] came to fetch him from the hayfield and took him to the jail at [[Blaenau Ffestiniog|Blaenau]]. From there he travelled to... the war in [[Belgium]]. Because he left in such a hurry he forgot the poem on the table, so he wrote it again on the journey. So there are two copies: one in [[Aberystwyth]] and one in [[Bangor, Gwynedd|Bangor]]."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/2056/ |title=National Library of Wales interviews Gerald Williams |publisher=Museumwales.ac.uk |access-date=2014-05-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320072246/http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/2056/ |archive-date=20 March 2012 }}</ref></blockquote>

In June 1917, Hedd Wyn joined the [[15th (Service) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers (1st London Welsh)]] (part of the [[38th (Welsh) Infantry Division|38th (Welsh) Division]]) at [[Fléchin]], [[France]]. His arrival depressed him, as exemplified in his quote, "Heavy weather, heavy soul, heavy heart. That is an uncomfortable trinity, isn’t it?" Nevertheless, at Fléchin he finished his National Eisteddfod entry and signed it “[[Fleur de Lys|Fleur de Lis]]”. It is believed it was sent via the [[Royal Mail]] around the end of June. On 31 July 15 Battalion marched towards the major offensive which would become known as the [[Battle of Passchendaele]].

===Third Battle of Ypres and death===
[[File:Hedd Wyn Grave at Artillery Wood Cemetery 7.jpg|thumb|upright|The grave of Hedd Wyn at [[Artillery Wood Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery|Artillery Wood Cemetery]], [[Boezinge|Boezinge, Belgium]].]]
Hedd Wyn was fatally wounded within the first few hours of the start of the [[Third Battle of Ypres]] on 31 July, 1917. He fell during the [[Battle of Pilckem Ridge]] which had begun at 3:50 a.m. with a heavy bombardment of the German lines (this was the opening attack in what became known as [[Battle of Passchendaele]]). However, the troops' [[Trench warfare|advance]] was hampered by incoming artillery and machine gun fire, and by heavy rain turning the battlefield to swamp.

Private Evans, as part of the 15th (Service) Battalion (1st London Welsh), was advancing towards a German strongpoint –created within the ruins of the Belgian hamlet of Hagebos ("Iron Cross")– when he was hit.<ref name="Hagebos">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-21439931|title=Flanders community remembers Welsh dead in 'dark days' of World War I|work=BBC News|date= 13 February 2013}}</ref> In an interview conducted in 1975 by [[St Fagans National Museum of History|St Fagans National History Museum]], Simon Jones, a veteran of the [[Royal Welsh Fusiliers]], recalled, <blockquote>"We started over Canal Bank at [[Ypres]], and he was killed half way across Pilckem. I've heard many say that they were with Hedd Wyn and this and that, well I was with him... I saw him fall and I can say that it was a nosecap shell in his stomach that killed him. You could tell that... He was going in front of me, and I saw him fall on his knees and grab two fistfuls of dirt... He was dying, of course... There were stretcher bearers coming up behind us, you see. There was nothing – well, you'd be breaking the rules if you went to help someone who was injured when you were in an attack."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/1920/ |title=Welsh bard falls in the battle fields of Flanders |publisher=Museumwales.ac.uk |date=2007-04-25 |access-date=2014-05-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130621234348/http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/1920 |archive-date=21 June 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>

Soon after being wounded, Hedd Wyn was carried to a first-aid post. Still conscious, he asked the doctor "Do you think I will live?" though it was clear that he had little chance of surviving; he died at about 11:00 a.m. Among the fatalities that day was the [[Irish people|Irish]] [[war poet]], [[Francis Ledwidge]], who was "blown to bits" while drinking tea in a shell hole.

Ellis H. Evans was buried in Section II, Row F, Grave 11 at [[Artillery Wood]] Cemetery, near [[Boezinge]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/100906|title= Casualty details—Evans, Ellis Humphrey|publisher= [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission]]|access-date= 1 March 2010}}</ref> After a petition was submitted to the [[Imperial War Graves Commission]] after the war, his headstone was given the additional words ''Y [[Prifardd]] Hedd Wyn'' (English: "The Chief Bard, Hedd Wyn").