Dr. Carl Clowes, chairman and founder of Canolfan Nant Gwrtheyrn has died

It has been announced that Dr Carl Clowes, founder of the Nant Gwrtheyrn Trust, has died following a short illness.

The trust was founded in 1978 while Dr Clowes was physician in Bro’r Eifl and he was initially appointed Chairman of the centre, later becoming President.

He became the inaugural chairman of the UK’s first community co-operative, Antur Aelhaearn, which was established in 1974 to save the local school, and in 1985 became the inaugural chairman and President of Dolen Cymru, establishing a relationship between Wales and Lesotho.

As chairman of the National Language Forum, he steered the first comprehensive language strategy for the Welsh language which led to the 1993 Language Act.

Born in Manchester, his parents returned to north Wales and set about learning Welsh. After qualifying as a doctor in 1967, he spent eight years as a doctor in Llanaelhaearn in Llŷn before gaining a Masters in Social Medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

In the medical world, he became a Medical Director and a non-executive board member with Public Health Wales, a Public Health Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners for his contributions to medicine.

Tributes

He was particularly interested in the less developed countries and in an article in The Flag, called for more links with less developed countries to improve understanding of the ‘third world’.

That article lead to the forging of links between Wales and Lesotho and the formation of an official partnership in 1985. Dr Clowes subsequently chaired Dolen Cymru, before being appointed Honorary Consul for Lesotho in Wales.

He became a member of the Gorsedd in recognition of his local, national and international service.

Tributes are being paid to Dr Carl Clowes on social media following the news of his death.

According to Elwyn Vaughan, a county councillor in Powys, he was “one who did a lot, not only to stimulate social enterprises but who was also very politically active here in Montgomery and who I know was proud of recent successes here.”

Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid Cymru’s Member of Parliament, said he was a “visionary” who was “ahead of his time”.

Alun Davies, a Labor Member of Parliament for the Blaenau Gwent constituency, said “his vision for the Nant is inspirational and only part of his contribution”.

He is survived by his wife, Dorothi, and his children Dafydd, Rhiannon, Angharad and Cian.