|
|
|||||||||
| May 26th | George Pawley White (Birth) |
|
Penzance – born George Pawley White (1907 – 2006) was a bank manager who was instrumental in the establishment of the Gorsedh Kernow and was its fourth Grand Bard taking the Bardic name ‘Gunwyn’ (‘White Moor’). Pawley White was also a central figure in Cornish Methodism and began preaching at the age of eighteen. Educated at Humphry Davy Grammar School, he became the organist of Richmond Methodist Chapel at the age of twelve. Leaving school, he began work at the Penzance branch of the Bolitho Bank, which is now part of Barclays Bank, and in the Second World War he served in India with the RAF, acting as an unofficial nonconformist padre and welfare officer. After the war he also became active in the Liberal Party before becoming one of the founding members of Mebyon Kernow At the age of eighty, after the death of his wife, he began worldwide preaching whilst also promoting awareness of the Cornish language and culture and he continued visiting Delhi, Soweto and Australia until he was 89. Pawley White edited a book of hymns and psalms in the Cornish language ‘Cornish Hymns and Psalms’ and wrote ‘A Handbook of Cornish Surnames’ as well as a memoir ‘A Half Century of Cornish Methodism, 1925-1975’. |
