{{Short description|Welsh poet}} {{More citations needed|date=June 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | party = Plaid Cymru | other_party = Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru<br/>Welsh Republican Movement<br />Welsh Labour | image = Harri Webb by Julian Sheppard.jpeg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1920|9|7|df=y}} | birth_place = Swansea, Wales | death_date = {{Death date and age|1994|12|31|1920|9|7|df=y}} | death_place = Swansea, Wales | branch = Royal Navy | battles = {{Tree list}} * '''World War II''' ** Battle of the Atlantic ** Battle of the Mediterranean {{Tree list/end}} | profession = Poet, journalist, librarian, activist | alma_mater = University of Oxford | service_years = 1941-1946 | birth_name = Harry Webb }} '''Harri Webb''' (7 September 1920 – 31 December 1994) was a Welsh poet, Welsh nationalist, journalist and librarian.
==Early life== Harri Webb, baptised Harry Webb, was born on 7 September 1920 at 45 Tŷ Coch Road in Sketty, Swansea.<ref name=":4" /> Before he was two years old, his family moved to Catherine Street, closer to the city centre.<ref name="independent">{{cite web |date=23 October 2011 |title=Obituary: Harri Webb |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-harri-webb-1566453.html |access-date=9 October 2021 |website=The Independent}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Remembering Harri Webb 1920 -1994 – Hanes Plaid Cymru|url=http://www.hanesplaidcymru.org/cofio-harri-webb-1920-1994/?lang=en|access-date=2021-12-26|language=en-US}}</ref> Webb grew up in a working-class environment in the docklands of Swansea.<ref name="independent" /> He attended Oxford Street and Glanmôr Secondary Boys' School, where he was said to be an exceptional pupil.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Clifford |first=Desmond |date=18 January 2023 |title=WEBB, HARRI (1920 - 1994), librarian and poet {{!}} Dictionary of Welsh Biography |url=https://biography.wales/article/s14-WEBB-HAR-1920?&query=joseph%20parry&lang%5B%5D=en&lang%5B%5D=cy&sort=sort_name&order=asc&rows=12&page=72#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=33&manifest=https://damsssl.llgc.org.uk/iiif/2.0/4634898/manifest.json&xywh=-467,308,4830,4168 |access-date=27 September 2025 |website=biography.wales}}</ref> In 1938, he was the first from his school to win a local education authority scholarship, and went to the Magdalen College of the University of Oxford to study languages, specialising in French, Spanish and Portuguese – a period of his life to which he made virtually no reference in his writings.<ref name=":4" /> While he was at university, his studies were negatively affected by the death of his mother; he graduated with a third-class degree in 1941.<ref name=":4" />
== World War II == After the outbreak of World War II, Webb volunteered to serve in the Royal Navy and applied his language skills as an interpreter.<ref name="independent" /> This included work with the Free French in the Mediterranean, with periods in Algeria, Palestine and Libya during the Battle of the Mediterranean.<ref name="independent" /><ref name=":4" /> In 1942, Webb was on board HMS Tetcott, the final ship to escape Tobruk before the city fell to the advancing Afrika Korps.<ref name=":4" /> In later life, he recounted his terrifying experience of being dive-bombed at sea during the escape.<ref name=":4" /> In addition, he saw action in the North Atlantic during the Battle of the Atlantic.<ref name="independent" />
Following the conclusion of the war, Webb was demobilised in Scotland in 1946.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Teifidancer |date=2022-09-07 |title=Remembering the life of Revolutionary Welsh Socialist Republican Poet Harri Webb (7 September 1920 – 31 December 1994) |url=https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2022/09/remembering-life-of-revolutionary-welsh.html |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=teifidancer}}</ref> It was during his shore leave in the country that he became familiar with the work of Hugh MacDiarmid, a controversial Scottish nationalist and Marxist poet.<ref name="independent" /> Webb had displayed little interest in politics up to this stage in his life; however, MacDiarmid's work proved to be the catalyst for his own burgeoning Welsh republicanism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Webb |first=Harri |title=No Half-Way House: Harri Webb: Selected Political Journalism |last2=Stephens |first2=Meic |date=3 June 1997 |publisher=Y Lolfa |isbn=978-0-86243-407-6 |location=Talybont, Ceredigion |pages=11 |language=en}}</ref>
==Return to Wales== Following his return to Wales in 1947, his life was outwardly uneventful. For some eight years he worked in temporary jobs, including working for the journalist Keidrych Rhys in Carmarthen, and a brief period as a librarian in Cheltenham.<ref name="independent" /> As Webb became increasingly involved in poetry and politics, he adopted the Welsh spelling ''Harri'' for his name in 1950.<ref name=":4" /> [[File:Rali flynyddol Plaid Cymru yn Aberystwyth (1451154).jpg|thumb|315x315px|Harri Webb (right) marches alongside Gwynfor Evans (centre) during Plaid Cymru's annual rally in Aberystwyth, 5 October 1961]] In 1954, Webb moved to Merthyr Tydfil to work as librarian in its Dowlais area and, in his own words, to fully absorb himself into the national experience.<ref name=":3" /> Two years later he published ''Dic Penderyn and the Merthyr Rising of 1831'', a pamphlet in which he somewhat imaginatively retells the story of the rebellion.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Llywelyn |first=Malcolm |date=20 October 2021 |title=The Merthyr Rising |url=https://www.gfdesign.co.uk/culmat/index.php/arts/poetry/item/3823-the-merthyr-rising |access-date=27 September 2025 |website=www.gfdesign.co.uk |language=en-gb}}</ref> While in Merthyr Tydfil, Webb lived in the squat Garth Newydd, an old house that had been given to the town during the Great Depression, and subsequently seemingly belonged to nobody; when Webb first moved in it was occupied by a group of pacifists. He lived in the house with Meic Stephens and others, which became something of a nationalist commune, from where the ''Free Wales'' pirate radio station was broadcast.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=Llywelyn|first=Malcolm|date=2020-09-06|title=Harri Webb 100 years later {{!}} Centenary|url=https://www.walesartsreview.org/centenary-a-tribute-to-harri-webb/|access-date=2021-12-26|website=Wales Arts Review|language=en-US}}</ref> During this period, Webb, together with Stephens, promoted the concept of a “Free Wales Army” and devised the White Eagle of Snowdonia symbol, often referred to by its Welsh name ''Yr Eryr Wen'' (literally “the White Eagle”).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Wyn |title=Hands Off Wales: Nationhood and Militancy |publisher=Y Lolfa |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-80099-229-0 |pages=24–31 |language=en-GB}}</ref> Webb became a well-connected figure within Plaid Cymru and even served as a policy adviser to the militant organisation Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (MAC), at one point offering its leader, John Barnard Jenkins, the opportunity to establish formal links between the group and the Breton Liberation Front.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Humphries |first=John |title=Freedom Fighters: Wales's Forgotten 'War', 1963 - 1993 |date=2008 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-0-7083-2177-5 |location=Cardiff |pages=68}}</ref>
After working in Dowlais for ten years 'In defiance of any rational career structure' {{Citation needed|date=December 2021}}, in 1964 Webb began work at Mountain Ash Library in the Cynon Valley<ref name=":0" /> which previously had been the largest borough in Wales without a public library service. He made innovations such as lending LPs, and buying books and periodicals to appeal to a female readership who were gaining more independence in this era, to some criticism from those wary of modernisation.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tippings|first=Lisa|title=Secret Swansea|publisher=Amberley Publishing|year=2019|isbn=9781445688671|url={{Google books|6rCIDwAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes}}}}</ref> He continued to work for Mountain Ash Library until 1974.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Harri Webb papers finding aid|url=https://archives.library.wales/downloads/harri-webb-papers-2.pdf|access-date=December 26, 2021|website=National Library of Wales}}</ref> The library has a memorial plaque dedicated to Webb installed in 1997 reading 'poet and librarian, bardd a llyfrgellydd, 1920-1994' unveiled by Meic Stephens and Gwilym Prys Davies.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Unveiling of Harri Webb Memorial Plaque in|url=https://archive.rctcbc.gov.uk/view-item?i=23707|access-date=2021-12-26|website=Rhondda Cynon Taff Library Service - Digital Archive|language=en}}</ref>
==Written work== Following Gwynfor Evans' victory in the 1966 Carmarthen by-election, Webb authored the poem "Colli Iaith", which was subsequently composed as a song by Meredydd Evans and later performed and recorded by Heather Jones in 1971.<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 April 2022 |title=Harri Webb – Poet |url=https://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=6550 |access-date=21 May 2026 |website=The Melting Pot - Merthyr Tydfil's History and Culture |language=en-GB}}</ref>
Webb's first collection of poetry, ''The Green Desert'', was published in 1969. Webb carried on living in Garth Newydd and commuting to the next valley until 1972, when he moved to Cwmbach near Aberdare, before finally retiring in 1974, the year that ''A Crown For Branwen'' appeared.{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}}
This was followed by ''Rampage and Revel'' in 1977, and finally ''Poems and Points'' in 1983, soon after which Webb virtually ceased to write poetry, suffering a serious stroke in 1985.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Courtney |date=2018-04-09 |title=Thanks in Winter by Harri Webb |url=https://poemanalysis.com/harri-webb/thanks-in-winter/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=Poem Analysis |language=en-US}}</ref>
Webb's poetry is marked by his radical Welsh nationalist politics and a quasi-Christian sensibility. In form it was often simple and comic, in order that it might influence a wide audience.{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}}
==Later life== Webb remained in Cwmbach before moving into a nursing home in Swansea shortly before his death on New Year's Eve 1994. His funeral was held on 6 January 1995<ref name="independent"/> at St. Mary's Church in Pennard, Gower, where his grave is to be found.
==Memorials== In addition to the plaque at Mountain Ash Library<ref name=":2" /> Ty Harri Webb<ref>{{Cite web|title=Geograph:: Cylch Meithrin Seren Fach, Mountain Ash © Jaggery|url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3853063|access-date=2021-12-26|website=www.geograph.org.uk|language=en}}</ref> on Dyffryn Road in Mountain Ash is named after Webb on the same road as the old library.
Merthyr Tydfil Library have also held activities to celebrate Webb's life and promote young people's poetry in their programming.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Welsh Public Library Standards 2017-2020: Annual assessment report|url=https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2021-04/public-library-service-annual-reports-2019-to-2020-merthyr-tydfil.pdf|access-date=December 26, 2021|website=gov.wales}}</ref>
A ceremony was held at Webb's grave marking 100 years since his birth on 7 September 2020 by Guto Ap Gwent and Prys Morgan amongst others.<ref name=":1" />
==Bibliography== * ''Dic Penderyn and the Merthyr Rising of 1831'' (1956) {{small|{{OCLC|815680381}}}} * [with M. Stephens, P. Griffith] ''Triad'' (1963) * ''Our National Anthem'' (1964) * ''The Green Desert: collected poems 1950-1969'' (1969; repr. 1976) * ''A Crown for Branwen'' (1974) * ''Rampage and Revel'' (1977) * ''Poems and Points'' (1983) * ''Tales from Wales'' (1984) * ''Collected Poems'', ed. M. Stephens (1995) * ''No Halfway House: selected political journalism 1950-1977'', ed. M. Stephens (1997) * ''A Militant Muse'' (1998) * ''Looking up England's arsehole'', ed. M. Stephens (2000) * ''The Stone Face and other poems'', ed. M. Stephens (2005)
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Brian |authorlink1=Brian Morris, Baron Morris of Castle Morris |title=Harri Webb |date=1993 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=9780708312254}} *{{cite news |title=Obituary: Harri Webb |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-harri-webb-1566453.html |work=The Independent |date=3 January 1995 |location=London}} *[https://www.walesartsreview.org/centenary-a-tribute-to-harri-webb/ Wales Arts Review] ''Centenary | A Tribute to Harri Webb'', 6 September 2020. {{Gower Peninsula}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Webb, Harri}} Category:Writers from Swansea Category:1920 births Category:1994 deaths Category:Anglo-Welsh poets Category:20th-century Welsh poets Category:20th-century Welsh male writers Category:Welsh librarians Category:20th-century British librarians Category:Welsh nationalists Category:Welsh republicans Category:Welsh socialists