Rhodri Morgan

Hywel Rhodri Morgan (29 September 1939 – 17 May 2017) was a Welsh Labour politician who was the First Minister of Wales and the Leader of Welsh Labour from 2000 to 2009. He was also the Assembly Member for Cardiff West from 1999 to 2011 and the Member of Parliament for Cardiff West from 1987 to 2001. He remains the longest-serving First Minister of Wales, having served in the position for 9 years and 304 days. He was Chancellor of Swansea University from 2011 until his death in 2017. Early life and education Hywel Rhodri Morgan was born at Mrs Gill's Nursing Home in Roath, Cardiff on 29 September 1936. He was the youngest of two children born to the Welsh writer and academic Thomas John (T.J.) Morgan and his wife Huana Morgan (née Rees), a writer and schoolteacher. Morgan was born into a Welsh-speaking academic family. His native language was Welsh, though he later became fluent in English, French and German as well. His mother was one of the first women to study at University College, Swansea (now Swansea University), where she read Welsh. She became a schoolteacher in Rhymney before settling in Radyr after her retirement. Morgan's father also read Welsh at University College, Swansea before reading Old Irish at University College Dublin. He became a Welsh language lecturer at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire (now Cardiff University) and a Welsh language professor at University College, Swansea, where he also served as the vice-principal. He met Huana at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in 1926 and they married in 1935. Their first child, Morgan's brother Prys Morgan, was born in Cardiff in 1937. He would grow up to become a history professor at Swansea University. Morgan was also related to the academic Garel Rhys, who was his second cousin. Childhood and education Morgan was raised with his brother Prys in the village of Radyr in outer Cardiff. Until the age of 21, he lived with his family at 32 Heol Isaf, in a house which sat on the main road of the village beside what is now a Methodist church. Morgan was born in the first month of World War II, and the conflict had a great presence in his life during his early childhood. He retained vivid memories of air raid sirens and prisoners of war into adulthood. He also had a lifelong love for gardening which began when he watched his father grow vegetables for the wartime dig for victory campaign. Radyr did, however, avoid the conflict's worst hardships.