Sarah Jane Rees

Sarah Jane Rees (9 January 1839 – 27 June 1916), also known by a bardic name as "Cranogwen", was a Welsh teacher, poet, editor, master mariner and temperance campaigner. She had two romantic friendships with women, first with Fanny Rees, until her death from tuberculosis, then with Jane Thomas, for most of the rest of Rees's life.

Early life

Sarah Jane Rees was born at Llangrannog in Cardiganshire, the daughter of mariner John Rees. She received early education at the village school. A precocious child, she insisted she must accompany her father to sea rather than do sewing and cooking chores at home, which she hated. However, this was not so unusual: many wives and daughters accompanied men in local ships, trading up and down the coasts on family business.

Rees was initially educated locally by an old schoolmaster called Hugh Davies, who taught her Latin and astronomy. She later attended school in Cardigan and New Quay, and for a time studied at a navigation school in London, where she gained her master's certificate, a qualification allowing her to command a ship in any part of the world.

In 1859 Sarah Jane set up her own navigation school in her home village of Llangrannog.

Career

In 1865, competing at Aberystwyth against men such as William Thomas (Islwyn), she won her first major Eisteddfod prize, for "Y Fodrwy Briodasol (The Wedding Ring)", in the Song category. A book of poems, ''Caniadau Cranogwen,'' followed this in 1870.

She gave a lecture entitled ''Yr Ieuengetyd a Diwyllint eu Meddyliau'' ''(''transl.''The young, and the culture of the mind)'' at the Independent Chapel, Brynmenyn on 2 January 1867, and an admission ticket from the event is preserved in the collections of Amgueddfa Cymru, National Museum Wales.

While teaching navigation and other subjects, she also became editor of the Welsh-language women's periodical ''Y Frythones'' (1878–1889), a "platform for Welsh bluestockings and proto-suffragettes". In 1869–1870, she toured the United States, addressing mainly Welsh emigrant communities as far west as California. She was one of the founders of the South Wales Women's Temperance Union (UDMD) in 1901.Deirdre Beddoe, ''Out of the Shadows: A History of Women in Twentieth-Century Wales''
University of Wales Press, 2000, p. 38.

Personal life

Rees had two significant same-sex relationships, previously described as romantic friendship. Her first was with Fanny Rees, a milliner's daughter from Troedyraur, near Llangrannog. Fanny contracted tuberculosis and returned to Wales around 1874 to die. She moved into Rees' home rather than that of her family, and died in her arms. So affected was Rees that for 12 years she was unable to put flowers on Fanny's grave. She commemorated Fanny in one of her best-known poems, ''Fy Ffrynd'' (My Friend).

Her second relationship, with Jane Thomas, took up most of her life. Open about this unconventional arrangement, Rees still remained a committed Methodist and toured giving lectures on education, temperance and other subjects.

Rees died at Cilfynydd and was buried in St Crannogs churchyard, where her grave was marked by a large elaborate obelisk.

Legacy

A shelter for homeless women and girls, Lletty Cranogwen, was founded in the Rhondda valley in 1922 by the South Wales Women's Temperance Union and named to mark Rees's work to improve Welsh women's lives.

In 2019 Rees was among five women shortlisted as the subject for an artwork to be installed in Cardiff. In December 2021 Sebastien Boyesen was commissioned to create a figurative sculpture of Cranogwen in Llangrannog, the third commissioned by the Monumental Welsh Women statue campaign.

References

Bibliography

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, Sarah Jane (Cranogwen)
1839 births
1916 deaths
19th-century Welsh poets
19th-century Welsh women writers
20th-century Welsh women
20th-century Welsh people
Welsh women poets
Welsh activists
Welsh women activists
British temperance activists
Welsh-language poets
Welsh women editors
Welsh magazine editors
People from Ceredigion