New chair marks poet Hedd Wyn's eisteddfod centenary

Welsh societies in Merseyside and the Flanders region of Belgium are marking the centenary of the death of World War One poet Hedd Wyn.

He was killed on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele on 31 July 1917.

Some weeks later his poem won the prestigious chair prize at the Welsh National Eisteddfod cultural festival held in Birkenhead, Wirral.

A new chair will be presented at an event in the town to mark the 100th anniversary.

Hedd Wyn, the bardic name of Ellis Humphrey Evans, born on 13 January 1887 in Gwynedd, was already a poet of some renown.

His death represented so many who marched off to war never to return, according to the Merseyside Welsh Heritage Society chairman Dr D Ben Rees.