Sir Kyffin Williams

An Old Anglesey Farmer

Kyffin was born at Llangefni on Anglesey. His bank manager father and his mother were both the children of Church of England rectors on the island. Anglesey's country parishes, its farmland and the stone walls that defined his early world would define his drawings. Family tradition dictated that John - for that was how he was known until the need arose for a more painterly name - and his elder brother, Richard, should be sent away, first to prep school and then to Shrewsbury School. At 18, work with a firm of Pwllheli land agents gave him an even greater familiarity with the area and when a clear day dawned a vista of Cardigan Bay sweeping down to St David's Head opened up before him. Joining the 6th Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers as a Lieutenant in 1937 offered new prospects, but the onset of epilepsy destroyed his budding army career and it was a slightly disillusioned young man who enrolled at the Slade School, evacuated for the war years to Oxford. According to Kyffin, his tutors mainly despaired of him, but the encouragement he received from Allan Gwynne Jones would establish the tenor of his teaching at Highgate School, where Kyffin was senior art master from 1944 until 1973. Royal Academicians Anthony Green and the late Patrick Procktor were to pay tribute to his influence, and composers John Tavener and John Rutter were pupils too. Yet, throughout his London teaching years, Kyffin's heart remained in Wales, and he returned to paint at every opportunity