Alfred George Edwards

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Alfred George Edwards (November 2, 1848 - July 22, 1937), was elected the first Archbishop of the disestablished Church in Wales. The son of a minister of the Church of England, he was born in Llanymawddwy in Gwynedd. He studied at Jesus College, Oxford before being appointed Warden of Llandovery College in 1875. In that same year he was ordained priest and in 1885 he was appointed vicar of St. Peter's, Carmarthen. In 1889 he was appointed Bishop of St. Asaph. He was a strong defender of the rights of the established Church of England in Wales in the face of mounting call for disestablishment from the nonconformist and Liberal majority. When the Church of England was disestablished to be the new Church in Wales in 1920 it was only natural that its strongest defender amongst the bishops should be elected the first Archbishop of Wales. He retired in 1934 and died in 1937 and buried at St Asaph.