Alfred Edwards

Who was Alfred Edwards?

Alfred George Edwards was elected the first Archbishop of the disestablished Church in Wales.

The son of a priest of the Church of England, Edwards was born in Llanymawddwy in Gwynedd. He studied at Jesus College, Oxford before being appointed Warden of Llandovery College in 1875. In the same year he was ordained as a priest and in 1885 he was appointed as the vicar of St Peter's.

In 1889 Edwards was appointed the Bishop of St Asaph. He was a strong defender of the rights of the established Church of England in Wales in the face of mounting call for disestablishment from the nonconformist and Liberal majority.

When the Church of England was disestablished to be the new Church in Wales in 1920, he was elected the first Archbishop of Wales. He retired in 1934, died in 1937 and was buried at St Asaph.