Cylchgronau Cymru

Only one publication printed by Lewis Rowlands at Llanidloes is known to have survived. This is an account of the Welsh Wesleyan Assembly held there in June 1901. His son, James William Rowlands, born at Llanidloes in 1896, also became a printer and served his apprenticeship with T. Owen and Sons, at the Library Printing Works at Oswestry, later purchasing the business of the late R. A. Bryan, Printer of Llanfyllin83. Lewis Rowlands died at Oswestry on April 22, 1933 and was survived by his widow, two daughters and a son84. JOHN ELLIS, 1871-1941 Born in 1871, John Ellis was the son of Evan Ellis, a native of Dolgellau in Merioneth, who had come to work in the lead mines at Fan near Llanidloes and who later married the daughter of John Humphreys, a local bridge builder85. After leaving school, John Ellis worked for a short time with the Ordnance Survey, before being apprenticed to James Hamer the printer in Cambrian Place, Llanidloes. He later worked at the Offices of the Salopian and Montgomeryshire Post at Oswestry, before returning to Llanidloes as foreman printer with John Henry Mills, on the now defunct Montgomeryshire Echo86. In addition to his duties as foreman printer, he was also responsible for training J. H. Mills' sons who were serving their apprenticeships at the 'Echo' office at that time. His wages there were twenty-one shillings a week, and when his daughter Eunice was born in 1896, he started his own business rather than ask J. H. Mills for an increase in his remuneration. His first printing office was at Maes-y-Llan, while the family lived at Brook Cottage nearby. When Eunice was six years of age, John Ellis moved his printing office to Long Bridge Street, where he also started a retail stationery business. When the business expanded, he was able to employ staff, the first of whom was Ernest Owen, who joined him as an improver from the 'Echo' Office. He was later joined by John Roberts from Staylittle, an apprentice printer, and by George Turner, a compositor, who, together with his wife, had walked all the way from Wolverhampton in search of work. John Ellis took pity on the journeyman printer from the Midlands and offered him work. Apart from his few spells of intemperance, he turned out to be a very good printer. George Turner died during the Second World War. Another of John Ellis' employees was Cedric Rees, a local boy, who first joined him as a newsboy and then as a printer but who left the printing trade to earn more money87. John Ellis took a keen pride in the craft of printing and was a member and at one time President of the North Wales Alliance of Master Printers and its representative for many years on the Costing Committee of the Federation of Master Printers88. He had wide interests which included Welsh culture, music, amateur photography and bowls at which he excelled as a player. ORowlands, J. W. Obituary of Mr. J. W. Rowlands, Oswestry, in Border Counties Advertizer and Montgomeryshire Mercury, March 13, 1957. MRowlands, L. The death of Lewis Rowlands, in Montgomeryshire Express and Radnor Times. April 29, 1930. ^All the biographical information, with the exception of those sources cited in the text, was supplied in 1973 by Miss Eunice Ellis of Rosedene, Llanidloes, daughter of John Ellis. ^EUis, J. Obituary of Mr. John Ellis, Llanidloes, in The Courier. June 1941. pp.5-6. 87Mytton-Davies, C. Printer's death ends a chapter at Llanidloes, in County Times and Express and Gazette. October 13, 1973. 89EM, J. op.cit. pp.5-6.