Alan Jones and the Leaving of Vancouver
VANCOUVER - The cheerful presence and the wonderfully resonant voice of Alan Jones will soon be lost to the Cambrian Hall, the Welsh Society and the Dylan Thomas Circle. With his Vancouver home already sold, Alan and Tima, his wife, will soon be heading into the B.C. interior and a new life at the end of May.
ALAN JONES is shown here in the Red Dragon at the Cambrian Hall in Vancouver.
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Over many years, Alan has been active on many fronts, often taking the leadership role. He joined the Welsh Society in the late Seventies and became its president from 1981 to 1984. It was a period of substantial reconstruction, redirection and innovation at the Cambrian Hall.
Alan, often with Tima's support, was in the forefront. For the last 20 years, he has been the rental manager, at no fee, for the Upper Cambrian Hall. Alan often skillfully played the piano in the Red Dragon. He ably supported the bar and every Christmas, Society members would throng to the “Mulled Wine Evening” to hear Alan's superb, captivating rendition of A Child's Christmas in Wales. Oh, how he will be missed!
Born and raised in Brecon in the mellow, undulating hills of Central Wales, Alan went on to enter Bristol University where, with his considerable intellect, his studies led to a proficient grasp of the literary field.
Dylan Thomas, in particular, proved a joy to him and he has savoured the works of the great Welsh poet to this day. After university, Alan taught school in Britain and then left for Germany where he also taught but soon left the profession to take up sales in a department store.
After two years, he returned to Liverpool to continue his retailing work and met his future wife, Tima, who was on a working holiday from Portugal. Emigration to Canada soon followed and after brief stints in Victoria and Winnipeg, they settled in Vancouver. Alan entered the real estate business and, with his disarming affability, he has experienced some years of considerable success.
Back to Dylan Thomas. Alan's great admiration for Dylan's works led him to direct a highly successful stage production of Under Milk Wood in 1985. In 1996 he teamed up with Ted Langley and Neville Thomas to co-found the Dylan Thomas Circle and became its first President. Alan has continued to be a resource treasure for readings, analysis and interpretation of Dylan's poetic and prose compositions.
A highlight occasion arose in 1998 when Alan gave a one hour dissertation of Dylan's poem, The force that through the green fuse, to an audience that included two of the world's leading authorities on Dylan Thomas' works, Professor Walford Davies of Aberystwyth and Oxford universities and Professor Ralph Maude. They were impressed. Alan, in his Vancouver leaving, may well have been inspired by Dylan's lines,
" I have longed to move away .
Some life, yet unspent, might explode."
Alan leaves Vancouver to the great regret of his innumerable admirers. Over recent months, plans were underway to record and video Alan reading some of his favourite literary works. The Welsh Society and the Dylan Thomas Circle sought to co-join in an evening of special thanks to him and Tima.
Sadly, the complexities of disengaging from a home and several businesses in Vancouver and establishing a new life in the B.C. Interior offered no concrete opportunity to undertake these events. But Alan has promised to return for such occasions in the not too distant future.
Every good fortune and success in your new life, Alan and Tima. We shall eagerly await your return visit to the coast. Remember, Alan, more of Dylan's words,
"No more may gulls cry at their (your) ears
or waves break loud on the seashores."
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