{{short description|Welsh poet}} {{for|the New Zealand cricketer|Edgar Phillips (cricketer)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}} '''Edgar Phillips''' (8 October 1889 – 30 August 1962), known by the bardic name "Trefin",<ref>{{Cite web|title = Papurau Trefin, Archdderwydd Cymru|url = http://www.archiveswales.org.uk/anw/get_collection.php?inst_id=1&coll_id=78009&expand=|website = archiveswales.org.uk|access-date = 2016-02-11|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120523101047/http://www.archiveswales.org.uk/anw/get_collection.php?inst_id=1&coll_id=78009&expand=|archive-date = 23 May 2012|url-status = dead}}</ref> was a Welsh poet and served as Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales from 1960 until his death.

Phillips took his bardic name from his birthplace, the village of Trefin in Pembrokeshire. He did not learn Welsh until his family moved to Cardiff when he was aged eleven. Whilst working as an apprentice tailor back in his native county, he mastered the art of ''cynghanedd''. After running his own tailoring business in Cardiff, he joined the Royal Garrison Artillery during World War I, and was seriously wounded. In 1921, he took a teaching course at Caerleon, and taught at Pengam and Pontllanfraith. In 1933, he won the chair at the National Eisteddfod held in Wrexham.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Made in China: the 1933 Eisteddfod chair|url = http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/articles/2010-07-25/Made-in-China-the-1933-Eisteddfod-chair/|website = National Museum Wales|access-date = 2016-02-11}}</ref>

His third wife, whom he married in 1951, was the travel writer Maxwell Fraser (real name Dorothy Phillips).

A memorial was erected within the chapel grounds of Rehoboth chapel.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Geograph:: Memorial to Edgar Phillips at Rehoboth (C) Anonymous|url = https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/948914|website = geograph.org.uk|access-date = 2016-02-11}}</ref>

==Works== *''Trysor o gân'', in four volumes (1930–36) *''Caniadau Trefîn'' (1950)<ref>{{Cite web|title = The Discovery Service|url = http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F71014|website = discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk|access-date = 2016-02-11|language = en-GB|first = The National|last = Archives}}</ref> *''Edmund Jones, the Old Prophet'' (1959)

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Sources== *[http://wbo.llgc.org.uk/en/s2-PHIL-EDG-1889.html Welsh Biography Online]

{{S-start}} {{Succession box | title = Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales | years = 1960-1962 | before = William Morris | after = Albert Evans-Jones }} {{S-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Edgar}} Category:1889 births Category:1962 deaths Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Chaired bards Category:Royal Garrison Artillery soldiers Category:Welsh-language poets Category:Welsh Eisteddfod archdruids Category:Welsh Eisteddfod winners Category:20th-century Welsh poets Category:20th-century Welsh male writers Category:Military personnel from Pembrokeshire