'Alfred George Edwards' (
November 2,
1848 -
July 22,
1937), was elected the first
Archbishop of the disestablished
Church in Wales. The son of a priest of the Church of England, he was born in
Llanymawddwy in
Gwynedd. He studied at
Jesus College, Oxford before being appointed Warden of
Llandovery College in 1875. In that same year he was ordained priest and in 1885 he was appointed vicar of St. Peter's,
Carmarthen.
In 1889 he was appointed
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, it was only natural that its strongest defender amongst the bishops should be elected the first
Archbishop of Wales. He retired in 1934 and died in 1937 and buried at
St Asaph.