Thomas John Williams

WILLIAMS, Thomas John. b. Ynysmeudwy, Pontardawe, Glamorgan, 25 April 1869; d. Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, 24 April 1944. He worked as an insurance man, and was organist of chapels in Pontardawe and Llanelli. He wrote hymn tunes and anthems. His best known hymn tune is EBENEZER, written in 1896 and named after Ebenezer Chapel, Rhos, Pontardawe. It was published in Yr Athraw (‘The Teacher’) in 1897, and used in Williams’s anthem Goleu yn y Glyn (‘Light in the valley’) in 1899. It appeared in the Baptist Book of Praise (1900, an English-language book for Welsh Baptists), and was included in EH (1906), set to ‘Who is this with garments gory’*, where it was described only as ‘Welsh Hymn Melody’...