Dr Edward ‘Tedi’ Millward RIP

Edward Glynne Millward born 28 June 1930 and recently passed away on 18 April 2020 also known as Tedi Millward, was a Welsh nationalist politician.

Married to Silvia Hart, they had two children: Llio, who is an actress and singer; and Andras, an author and martial arts trainer, who died in October 2016.

Millward studied at Cathays High School in Cardiff and then the University College of South Wales, before becoming a lecturer.

He became active in Plaid Cymru. He jointly founded the Welsh Language Society (Cymdeithas yr Iaith) along with prominent Welsh historian John Davies at a Plaid Cymru summer school in the summer of 1962.

Millward stood for the party twice in Cardiganshire at the 1966 general election and Montgomeryshire in 1970, but was not elected.

In 1966, he was elected as Vice-President of Plaid.

He had just completed a two-year term as Vice-President of Plaid Cymru when he was asked to teach Welsh to Prince Charles ahead of his investiture as Prince of Wales. This took place over nine weeks at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Millward subsequently served as Plaid's spokesperson on water policy, in which role he advocated non-violent direct action against the construction of new reservoirs.

In 1976, he was libelled by Willie Hamilton, who claimed that he had been involved in terrorist activities while tutoring Charles; he received £1,000 in a settlement.

Millward subsequently focused on his career as an academic, lecturing in Welsh at Aberystwyth.

In the early 1980s, he supported Gwynfor Evans' successful campaign for a Welsh language television station.

In 2003, he launched a campaign for a centre to commemorate Dafydd ap Gwilym.

He was played by Mark Lewis Jones in the Netflix series 'The Crown' where he is shown teaching Charles, Prince of Wales Welsh.

The episode entitled “Tywysog Cymru” (Prince of Wales) was praised for using the Welsh language in much of its dialogue, and was described as "incredibly useful" in promoting Welsh around the world.

Prince Charles has paid a heartfelt tribute to his former tutor.

In a statement, Charles said: "I am deeply saddened to hear of Dr Millward’s death. I have very fond memories of my time in Aberystwyth with Dr Millward over fifty-one years ago. While I am afraid I might not have been the best student, I learned an immense amount from him about the Welsh language and about the history of Wales. After all these years, I am forever grateful to him for helping foster my deep and abiding love for Wales, her people and her culture. I send my most heartfelt sympathy to his family."