Memorial to poet Hedd Wyn vandalised for second time

Grey paint was thrown over the plaque beneath the statue

Villagers have said they are shocked and outraged after a statue of the poet Hedd Wyn was vandalised.

Grey paint was thrown over the bottom of the statue and the plaque in Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd on Saturday night.

It is the second time in ten months the statue has been defaced with paint.

"It's disgusting, it's disgraceful I can't express how I feel. People are very upset," Helen Wyn Jones, a member of Trawsfynydd Community Council said.

Helen Wyn Jones said it was upsetting that the memorial to Hedd Wyn had been vandalised for the second time in less than a year

She said a plastic bag had also been put around the statue's neck.

Local Councillor Elfed Roberts, who represents Trawsfynydd on Gwynedd Council said it was "sheer vandalism for no reason whatsoever".

The Hedd Wyn statue and a photo of Hedd Wyn, who was born in Trawsfynydd in 1887

Who was Hedd Wyn?

• Poet Hedd Wyn, born Ellis Humphrey Evans, was a Gwynedd farmer who fought in the First World War.

• He was conscripted at Blaenau Ffestiniog and sent to the Litherland Camp near Liverpool for training.

• He joined his battalion at Nord-Pas-de-Calais at the beginning of July 1917.

• While in the trenches, he completed his poetic masterpiece, Yr Arwr (The Hero), which was entered in the Eisteddfod's chair competition.

• He died aged 30 on 31 July, 1917, the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres better known as Passchendaele in Belgium.

• Six weeks later, at the National Eisteddfod in Birkenhead, Hedd Wyn was revealed as the winner of the chair competition.

• His empty chair was draped in a black sheet and taken to his parents' farm. The festival is now referred to as "Eisteddfod y Gadair Ddu" ("The Eisteddfod of the Black Chair").

"Hedd Wyn was forced to go to war. He wasn't a bad person. I know people are defacing statues of people who supported war and things like that but Hedd Wyn was a peaceful man and had no intention of hurting anybody," he said.

Elfed Roberts said the poet had been "a peaceful man"

Mr Roberts said he hoped CCTV footage would help to identify the perpetrator.

North Wales Police said enquiries into the incident were ongoing and asked witnesses to contact the force.