Thomas Tegryd Price
Teacher, Laboratory Chemist
(ABGS 1918–1924)

Thomas Tegryd Price was born 5th February 1906, the son of Watkin William Price1 and his wife Margaret, née Williams. Tegryd had an elder brother, two younger brothers and a sister2. His father was an elementary school teacher, later to become a headmaster.

The family lived initially in Hill Street, Aberaman, but later moved to 62, Broniestyn Terrace, which enabled Tegryd to attend Park Elementary School, where in 1900 his father began his Aberdare teaching career, having previously taught in Cardiff. The family moved to 3 Gadlys Terrace3 at some point in the 1920s, and this was the final family abode. The home was completely Welsh speaking and the use of English there was frowned upon. The children’s mother Margaret died in 1951, and their father, W.W. Price, in 1967.

During his time at school, Tegryd clearly became very good at rugby football. In his final year he was awarded a rugby cap, now one hundred years old, shown here. The tag inside shows in his name and year of award.

Tegryd’s Rugby Cap	Tegryd’s Rugby Cap Name Tag, dated 1924

The cap itself was sent to us by a lady from Essex, who whilst clearing the storeroom of a rugby club in that county, came accidentally across the cap. Somehow, she found out that the cap was associated with the Aberdare school, contacted the ABGS website, and then kindly sent it to us.

Tegryd also showed considerable ability in athletics. We see his name engraved on the W.M. Llewellyn Challenge Cup4 for 1924. This cup was presented to pupils for outstanding performance in the School Sports Day, a performance that resulted in the accolade for a pupil of Victor Ludorum for that year.

Tegryd took his CWB School Certificate in 1923 and 1924, subsequently qualifying for entry to University College, Bangor. However, in 1926 the local paper reports him to be a student at Caerleon Teacher Training College. Whilst there he published a book of verse, and some years later brought out a novel entitled, The Diamond & The Candle. He also contributed poems and a story to his local newspaper, The Aberdare Leader. Following his teacher training he taught for some years, but after a period, he and his elder brother, Ivor, decided to move from south Wales. They both found employment in the laboratories of oil refineries: Tegryd at the Coryton Refinery and Ivor at the Shell refinery, both situated on the north bank of the Thames estuary.

On 26 August 1933, when he was 27, he married a local Essex girl, Daisy Frances Emily Eaton, at St Margaret’s Church in Stanford-le-Hope. In 1940 a daughter was born, Barbara Clare Price, who sadly died in her teenage years in 1954. Barbara had contracted polio around the age of five, and for the next nine years Tegryd and Daisy provided dedicated care for their incapacitated daughter.

Tegryd’s marriage to Daisy with brother Ivor as Best Man and sister Doris as Bridesmaid next to Tegryd

Tegryd with invalid daughter Barbara, and Mr & Mrs W.W. Price

During the following years Tegryd’s father, W.W. Price, was a fairly frequent visitor to Tegryd and his wife, taking advantage of the proximity of the Essex home to central London. Following his passionate interest in genealogy, local history and wider Welsh history, W.W. needed to visit Somerset House, (at that time the home of the General Register Office), the British Library and other research libraries in the capital city, just a 45-minute rail journey from Stanford-le-Hope to Fenchurch Street station in London.

Tegryd died on the first day of 1967, at the relatively young age of 60. He was buried in Stanford-le-Hope, but he had brought some of Wales into Essex having named his house ‘Derlwyn’. His wife survived him by almost thirty years, and died in May 1996.

 

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Footnotes

1. Watkin William Price, (1873–1967), teacher at Park School, headmaster at Llwydcoed (1912), Cap Coch (1921) and Blaen-gwawr (1924) schools. He retired in 1933 . However, there was much more to W.W. than just his teaching career.
    
   He was educated at Blaengwawr Elementary School starting on the first day the school opened. He became a pupil teacher there until 1886, when he left to work at the offices of the Welsh language newspaper Tarian-y-Gweithiwr, staying there until 1889. From 1895–97 he was at University College Cardiff, enrolled as a ‘Normal’ student (training to be a certificated teacher). His teaching career started in a Cardiff school before he returned to Aberdare in 1890 to Park School. He was appointed to his old school in Blaengwawr as headmaster in 1924, and retired from there in 1933.
   During his 34 years of retirement, he pursued his existing interests in local and Welsh history, writing many biographical notes of its inhabitants, and contributing numerous articles to various journals and periodicals. This involved many visits to the National Library of Wales, Cardiff Central Library, and The Public Record Office and British Museum both in London. One notable achievement in this period was his compilation of a 40,000-card index of people and events in Aberdare and Wales. This was converted into multi volume-bound version, one is housed at the N.L.W. and the other at Aberdare Central Library.
   In addition to the above interests, he was heavily involved in establishment of the Labour Party in Wales, and in the establishment of the Aberaman Public Hall, Institute and Free Library, and became the secretary of the ‘Hall’ until 1923.
   In 1952, his achievements were recognised by the award of an honorary M.A. degree from the University of Wales.
   W.W.’s papers are deposited in Aberdare Central Library, The National Library of Wales, and Glamorgan Archives.
   For a more comprehensive biography and bibliography see Old Aberdare, Volume 4, (CVHS 1985), pp 39-50, by former ABGS pupil D.L. Davies, (ABGS 1965–67).
   A shorter biography of W.W., also written by D.L. Davies, can be seen online in The Dictionary of Welsh Biography at,
   https://biography.wales/article/s2-PRIC-WIL-1873
   
2. The children of the family comprised the following:
   William Ivor Price, (1904–1981), ABCS 1916–1919;
   Thomas Tegryd Price, (1906–1967), ABCS 1918–1924;
   Dewi Emlyn Price, (1909–1990), ABCS 1921–26; and
   Arthur Hughes Price, (1912–31), ABCS 1928–31. Arthur died in the same year as he left school, and just after he had started at Treforest School of Mines. He had contracted polio.
   The sister was Sarah Mary Doris Price, (1907–1999), who was the middle child of the five siblings. She attended Cheltenham Ladies College for her secondary education, and went on to qualify as a children’s nurse, which gave the opportunity for extensive travel in her work. However, Doris returned to Gadlys Terrace, Aberdare, to care for her father until he died. She then moved to Lampeter.
3. W.W. used the alternative name Brynhyfryd in place of the name Gadlys Terrace.
4. A better view of the W.M. Llewellyn Challenge Cup can be seen on this webpage,
   https://www.abgs.org.uk/SportingActivities/llewellyn/wmllcup.htm
   

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Acknowledgements

1. Mary Parfitt, (Tegryd’s niece), for providing valuable information about her uncle Teg for this biographical account, and for the photographs.
   
2. Peter N. Price, (ABGS 1954–1960 and Tegryd’s nephew), for putting me in contact with Mary Parfitt.
    

CR April 2024