Emrys Roberts

Emrys Pugh Roberts (30 November 1931 – 9 January 2025) was a Welsh nationalist political activist.

Life and career Roberts was born in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, where his father, WH Roberts, originally of Blaenau Ffestiniog, kept a greengrocers shop. The family moved to Cardiff during WWII and Roberts attended Minny Street Chapel where he absorbed Welsh culture and learned to speak Welsh.

Roberts studied at Cathays High School in Cardiff and then joined the civil service. He was a conscientious objector to National Service and was sentenced to three months in HMP Cardiff in 1952.

Roberts read Welsh and History at University of Wales College Cardiff where he was elected President of the Students Union 1954–1955. He also served as a Governor of UWCC 1976–79.

Roberts joined Plaid Cymru in his youth and stood for the party in numerous parliamentary elections, without ever being elected: the 1956 Newport by-election, Cardiff North at the 1959 general election, the 1960 Ebbw Vale by-election, then Cardiff North again in 1964. He was also active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, serving as the first secretary of its Welsh national council.

Roberts served as Organising Secretary for Plaid from 1957, with the initial brief of organising the campaign against the flooding of Capel Celyn (Tryweryn). In 1960 he became the Plaid General Secretary, serving for four years.

In 1964 Roberts accepted the offer to organise the Teesside International Eisteddfod which was held in 1966. He returned to Wales as he was offered the post of Public Relations Officer for Welsh National Opera but the funding did not materialise so he worked as a freelance journalist and editor of Caerphilly Advertiser until his appointment as the first Public Relations Officer for the Welsh Hospital Board in 1968. He quit this in 1972 when he was asked to stand as the Plaid Cymru party candidate in the Merthyr Tydfil by-election. He took a strong second place with 37% of the vote, providing hope for the party that they would gain seats in the next general election. the first authority it had ever run. They retained control until 1979.

Roberts's own account of his career, "A Bee or Two in My Bonnet" (2011), was published online by Plaid Cymru History Society. Roberts's overview of Welsh history, "Ein Stori Ni", was published by Lolfa in 2017 and later in translation entitled "Highlights from Welsh History".

Roberts died on 9 January 2025, at the age of 93.