George Emlyn Williams, CBE (26 November 1905 â€" 25 September 1987),
known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh writer, dramatist and
actor.Williams was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family at
1 Jones Terrace, Pen-y-ffordd, Ffynnongroyw, Flintshire. He was the
eldest of the three surviving sons of Mary (née Williams) a former
maid-servant and Richard Williams, a greengrocer. He spoke only Welsh
until the age of eight. Later he said he would probably have begun
working in the mines at age 12 if he had not caught the attention of
Sarah Grace Cooke, the model for Miss Moffat in The Corn Is Green. She
was a teacher of French at the grammar school in Holywell, Flintshire
in 1915, where Williams had gone on a scholarship. Over the next seven
years she encouraged him in his studies and helped pay for him to stay
with a French friend of hers in Haute-Savoie in France, where he spent
three months perfecting his French. When he was 17 she helped him win
a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied French and
Italian.In 1926, during his studies at university, Williams had a
nervous breakdown, which was blamed largely on a failed emotional
friendship with another undergraduate. As a means of recovery Miss
Cooke encouraged him to write. However, Williams intended to enter the
theatrical world too and joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society
(OUDS).
known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh writer, dramatist and
actor.Williams was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family at
1 Jones Terrace, Pen-y-ffordd, Ffynnongroyw, Flintshire. He was the
eldest of the three surviving sons of Mary (née Williams) a former
maid-servant and Richard Williams, a greengrocer. He spoke only Welsh
until the age of eight. Later he said he would probably have begun
working in the mines at age 12 if he had not caught the attention of
Sarah Grace Cooke, the model for Miss Moffat in The Corn Is Green. She
was a teacher of French at the grammar school in Holywell, Flintshire
in 1915, where Williams had gone on a scholarship. Over the next seven
years she encouraged him in his studies and helped pay for him to stay
with a French friend of hers in Haute-Savoie in France, where he spent
three months perfecting his French. When he was 17 she helped him win
a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied French and
Italian.In 1926, during his studies at university, Williams had a
nervous breakdown, which was blamed largely on a failed emotional
friendship with another undergraduate. As a means of recovery Miss
Cooke encouraged him to write. However, Williams intended to enter the
theatrical world too and joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society
(OUDS).
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