Amy Parry-Williams

Amy, Lady Parry-Williams ( Thomas; 18 December 1910 – 28 January 1988) was a Welsh singer and writer with a special interest in Welsh folk traditions. An active broadcaster, she was an early director of the Welsh television company HTV.

Effective 1958, she was known as Lady Parry-Williams, as her husband T. H. Parry-Williams was knighted. She was entitled to the courtesy title of Lady.

Early life Born in Pontyberem, Carmarthenshire, the eldest child of Mary Emiah ( Jones) and Lewis Thomas, she attended Llanelli Girls' Grammar School before entering the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where she graduated in Welsh (1932). In 1942, she married one of her former teachers, Professor T. H. Parry-Williams.

Music career From an early age, together with her brother Madoc and her sister Mary, she competed successfully in the Carmarthenshire eisteddfodau, singing penillion lyrics written by her father. She also sang at university, taking the lead role in the opera Rhosyn y Coleg. Thanks to her interest in Welsh folk music, she published two articles on Welsh folk songs. The folk songs she recorded in the late 1940s for the Welsh Recorded Music Society were among the earliest reviewed by the Gramophone magazine. She sang Welsh-language songs at the Llangollen Eisteddfod and at the Albert Hall while acting as an adjudicator at the National Eisteddfod. Together with her husband, she wrote the words "Beth yw'r haf i mi?" to an 18th-century harp tune. As a broadcaster, she sang songs for children and presented television programmes on the folk tradition. She was an early director of the HTV commercial television company. A "Lady Amy Parry-Williams Scholarship" was also established at Aberystwyth.