Welsh Journals

in 1941 when he succeeded to the business and worked as a printer in the town until he retired in 1968. he then transferred the business to his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Jones, who continued with the stationery side, but the printing activity ceased completely. John H. Ellis does not appear to have been as ambitious as his father and most of the output of his press were small pamphlets, mostly of a religious nature. He was, nevertheless, an able and well trained printer. He died after a long illness at the Llanidloes Memorial Hospital on September 6, 1973, and was buried at Dolhafren Cemetery and was survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters96. ERNEST OWEN AND SONS, 1932 Ernest Owen was the founder of a printing and stationery business at Llanidloes, which became known as E. Owen and Sons97. He was born in Foundry Terrace, the son of Elijah Owen, a moulder in the town's foundry, and Esther, his wife98. Educated locally, he served his apprenticeship with John Henry Mills, in the Offices of the Montgomeryshire Echo, where John Ellis was foreman printer. When John Ellis had established his own printing office, Ernest Owen joined him as an improver and later worked at the Montgomeryshire Express Office at Newtown with W. P. Phillips. He also worked at Aberdare in Glamorgan and Liverpool where he contemplated emigrating to Canada with George Brown, a colleague of his and a native of Llanidloes. Although he had booked his passage on the ship, his mother intervened and persuaded him to return to Llanidloes. In the meantime George Brown emigrated to Canada and worked there as a printer until his retirement, which he spent at Oswestry. On his death he was buried at Llanidloes. Ernest Owen then entered into partnership with Hafren Mills, another son of J. H. Mills, and together they established the Mills and Owen printing office in Briton Ferry in Glamorgan. Although they had a thriving business there, the partnership was dissolved, owing to Mills intemperance and spendthrift nature. At the outbreak of the First World War, Ernest Owen enlisted in the army and, while stationed at Norwich, met Lucy Mower whom he later married. He remained at Norwich after the war and worked as a compositor, firstly with the Eastern Daily News and then as a foreman printer with Nash, General Printers, of St. Benedict, in Norwich. It was while he was living in this city that his two sons, Gwilym and Albert were born. In 1933 his wife died, and this bereavement together with the general depression in the printing trade were the reasons why he returned to Llanidloes. The following year, he founded a small printing office in a corrugated iron hut in Station Road. According to his printing order book99, his first job, which he completed on October 27, 1932, was the printing of 250 8vo. billheads for Mr. C. A. Brundell, of 60 Grapes Hill, Norwich, for which he charged six shillings. Ernest Owen kept a printer's file100, and among the earliest examples of his work are his own letterheads describing him as a a 'general and commercial printer of Station Road, Llanidloes 9ISEllis, J. H. Mr. J. H. Ellis, Llanidloes, in County Times and Express and Gazette, September 8, 1973. "Owen, E. Funeral of Mr. E. Owen, Llanidloes, in County Times and Express and Gazette, March 27, 1971. 98Most of the information about this family was provided in 1973 by Messrs. Albert and Gwilym Owen, the sons of the late Ernest Owen, and present owners of the St. Idloes Press and stationery business, in Great Oak Street, Llanidloes. •"Printing Order Book 1933-1944 at the St. Idloes Press. ""Printer's File Nos. 100-277, 1932-1937 at the St. Idloes Press.