Rachel Thomas

Rachel Thomas OBE (10 February 1905 – 8 February 1995), was a Welsh character actress.

Early life Rachel Thomas was born in the Welsh village of Alltwen, near Pontardawe, Glamorgan, the daughter of Emily Thomas. She was raised by her aunt and uncle, Mary Thomas Roberts and David Roberts; her uncle was a tinworker and coal miner.

Career Thomas taught school as a young woman, competed in eisteddfodau, and was a reader at her church in Cardiff. She came to wider attention when her voice was heard on a BBC radio broadcast in 1933, reading from the Bible. She was cast in the first Welsh-language radio comedy, Y Practis, the following year. She appeared on television, in a lost 1960 production of How Green Was My Valley, in another production of the same work in 1975, and in a soap opera, Pobol y Cwm (People of the Valley), playing Miss Bella Davies. and appeared in both Welsh and English-language productions. In 1968 she was awarded the OBE for her services to Wales. She received a special BAFTA Cymru award for her body of work in 1991, and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Music and Drama in Cardiff in 1993.