# Roland Mathias

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{{Short description|Welsh writer}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Roland Glyn Mathias
| birth_date = 4 September 1915
| death_date = {{death date and age |2007|08|16 |1915|09|04 |df=yes}}
| occupation = [Poet](/source/Poet), [Short story](/source/Short_story) [writer](/source/writer)
}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
'''Roland Glyn Mathias''' (4 September 1915{{snd}}16 August 2007)<ref name="Guardian">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/oct/17/guardianobituaries.books|title=Roland Mathias|date=17 October 2007|author=Sam Adams|website=The Guardian|location=London|access-date=5 December 2019}}</ref> was a [Welsh](/source/Wales) writer, known for his poetry and short stories. He was also a literary critic, and responsible with [Raymond Garlick](/source/Raymond_Garlick) for the success of the literary magazine ''Dock Leaves'' (published from Pembroke Dock County School, from 1949), which later, from 1957, became ''[The Anglo-Welsh Review](/source/The_Anglo-Welsh_Review)''. He edited it from 1961 to 1976. His other writing includes books on [David Jones](/source/David_Jones_(poet)), [Vernon Watkins](/source/Vernon_Watkins) and [John Cowper Powys](/source/John_Cowper_Powys), and ''Anglo-Welsh Poetry 1480–1980'' with Raymond Garlick.

==Biography==
Mathias was born at [Talybont-on-Usk](/source/Talybont-on-Usk), south-east of [Brecon](/source/Brecon) in [Powys](/source/Powys), in 1915 and brought up mostly in England and Germany.<ref name="Guardian"/> He graduated in history from [Jesus College, Oxford](/source/Jesus_College%2C_Oxford).<ref name="Guardian"/> ''Days Enduring'' (1942) was his first poetry collection.<ref name="Guardian"/> He was a [pacifist](/source/pacifist), and was twice gaoled in [World War II](/source/World_War_II) as a [conscientious objector](/source/conscientious_objector).<ref name="Guardian"/> His career was in teaching, in Wales and elsewhere in the UK, and he was headmaster of [King Edward VI Five Ways School](/source/King_Edward_VI_Five_Ways_School), Bartley Green, [Birmingham](/source/Birmingham), from 1964 to 1969.<ref name="Guardian"/> He retired to [Brecon](/source/Brecon) in 1969 and died in 2007;<ref name="Guardian"/> he is buried at Aber Chapel on the outskirts of Talybont on Usk.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

His son, Jonathan Glyn Mathias, known as [Glyn Mathias](/source/Glyn_Mathias), is a political journalist.

== Honours and awards ==
The Roland Mathias Prize, a literary award, is administered by the [Brecknock Society and Museum Friends](/source/Brecknock_Society_and_Museum_Friends) and is named in his honour.<ref>[http://www.brecknocksociety.co.uk/mathias.htm Brecknock Society: Roland Mathias Prize]</ref>

There are collections of manuscripts and correspondence of Roland Mathias and of ''[The Anglo-Welsh Review](/source/The_Anglo-Welsh_Review)'' in the [National Library of Wales](/source/National_Library_of_Wales).<ref>Archives Wales: [https://www.archiveswales.org.uk/anw/get_collection.php?coll_id=20432 National Library of Wales Roland Mathias Papers] and [https://www.archiveswales.org.uk/anw/get_collection.php?coll_id=22 Anglo-Welsh Review Archive]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Publications==
*''Roland Mathias'' (1995) by Sam Adams 
*''The Collected Poems of Roland Mathias'' (2002) (ed. Sam Adams) 
*''The Collected Short Stories of Roland Mathias'' (2001) (ed. Sam Adams

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070819155548/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2871474.ece The Independent: Roland Mathias Obituary]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathias, Roland}}
Category:1915 births
Category:2007 deaths
Category:Welsh poets
Category:Welsh male short story writers
Category:Welsh pacifists
Category:Welsh conscientious objectors
Category:Welsh Christian pacifists
Category:Calvinist pacifists
Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford
Category:People from Powys
Category:20th-century Welsh short story writers

{{Wales-poet-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Roland Mathias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Mathias) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Mathias?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.